Cleveland County herald., 1920-11-25
SOMETHING BESIDES COTTON

l IeelluS pISIIy well.
 In all food and feed stuffs w have raised bumper crops and ths farmers ought to be able to fact the making of the coming crop witt full bins and granaries.
 We have gathered in Arkansas this year 60,208,000 bushels of corn This does not constitute the entire crop, however, as large amount was hogged off and smaller amour too small in fact, was cut for si lage.
 We have large crop of Irish DO tatoes, which are of excellent quail ty.
 We have raised 4,793,o0O bushels of sweet potatoes. The quality is four points above the ten-year aver. age.
 The yield of apples, which is not so great as that of last year, has reached the enormous total of g.. 961, ,000 bushels.
 ASz CIOp u So" pSeS NetS llIuCA larger than was expected, consider ing the high price of seed at plant ing time, and the crop is of excellent quality.
 The crop of sorghum for syrup has been especially good and the average yield has been 90 gallons of sorghum to the acre, which is 20 gallons more per acre than the average last year,
 Taking it all in all, we are still in pretty good shape, notwithstanding the setback in cotton.
 This splendid record in the matter of feed crops ought to convince the farmers that it would be a good thing to reduce their cotton acreage and plant food and feed crops.
 But tIsere are sections in Arkansas where it is worse than useless to preach reduction of cotton acre. age. No farther away from here than Jefferson county, where they claim to have as fine black, land as there is anywhere. there are farmers who will tell you that they cannot raise corn at all and they cannot afford to reduce their cotton acre age. But in this same Jefferson county this year they raised immense crops of sorghum cane. There is, a syrup factory in Pine Bluff which buys this crop and makes it into syrup. Judging from the yield we imagine that this. would prove a paying crop.
 But if there should be sF general reelection of tie cotton acreage, where is the market for otIFer crops that would have to be planted to take the place of cottan.
 Supposing Ouachita: or Dallas or Cleveland counties should raise 25,- 900 bushels of corn more than their own needs, where is tie market and ;torage facilities for the surplus?
 If some farmer should plant 25 acres to sorghum, whaS would he do with the carsg
 There is room in this section for raising thousands of hogs where we now raise hundreds. But the men who make the big money in hogs do not turn them out in the bottoms to run wild and die with dissase. But he keeps them where he can look after them and fsed them scien- tifically an1 makes money
 There are divers and sunary ways of making money in the farming business other than by raising cot ton, if a man knows just what he wants to do and does it inteiligentfy.
 But, as to a general reduction of acreage that will be sufficient to affect the price, we doubs seriously if it will amount to much by mere pledges. Too many farmers in the past attempts at this plan have readily signed the pledges and then forgotten them at planting time, or conditions have arisen at planting time which did not exist when they made the pledges and they did not feel that they could keep the pledg- es. At any rate this plan has al ready failed and pretty thorough campaign for cotton acreage reduc' ton was pat on throughout the South in 1912. In that year a grea' number of pledges were signed, but after the crop was planted it wa: found that the actual reduction wa: so small as to be negligible.
 Down in Copiah county, Miss. where they grow and ship more to matoes and other garden truck thar any place else in the world, it tool the devastation of the boil weevi to convince them that there was sucl thing as too much cotton.
 One more year like the presen one may convince the farmers tha