The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1921-09-08
THE PASSING OF COTTON.
C"lleton Merchant Says it Will Go
Same Way as Rice and Indigo.

Colleton county is passing through
It's third year under boil weevil con-
dftions. Mr.. f. T. H. Shaffer, large
Colleton merchant and farmer, tells
the following story in Mondays issue
of The News and Courier which will
be of interest to Dillon county farm
ers:
The present season has convinced
even the most skeptical that profit
able cotton growing in lower South
Carolina is now thing of the past.
First indigo, then rice now cotton.
each has flourished for time and
then passed away However, none
OF these as crop systems ever placed
the average farmer of this section on
sound economic basis, ready and
able to face changing conditions. Nor
did they ever place the average far
mer of this section on the same
scale OF living as is the farmer of the
border State or Of the Middle West.
Each had the same fatal defect - a
one-money-crop' system of agriculture
A system unsound and unbusinesslike
from every standpoint.
A one-money-crop system will Of
ten build UP the few but at the same
time keep back the many, thus Great
Such a system plants the seeds of
class which is contrary to the mod
ern spirit of agricultural America.
Now. as last report, the farmers
of lower South Carolina must Of ne
cessity turn to diversified farming.
And in so doing they are at last upon
the true road although it may prove
long and hard road to better living
and to economic freedom.
Something to Sell for Cash.
His prosperity will no longer de-
pend upon one crop but upon many,
grain. potatoes. peanuts, soya beans,
cattle. hogs, poultry, vegetables, all
will have proper place in the new
farming. The year round every time
he comes into town he must have
to buy on credit.
In the planting of grains and
legumes rundown lands will gradually
be built up and made more produc-
tive. Such program in connection
with the raising OF more livestock
means more humus added to soils
each season. In the end it means
the constant use of high pric-
ed commercial fertilizers. Besides the
addition of necessary humus all am
moniates will be home produced and
the only cash outlay will be for cheap
acid and an occasional application of
cheap lime Nothing but abnormally
high priced cotton could ever have
stood the fertilizer bill of forty to
fifty million dollars annually paid
by the farmers of South Carolina by
far the largest sum paid by any State
in the Union. Eliminate cotton and
the fertilizer bill will be cut to a mere
fraction. Nevertheless as has been
shown lands will constantly improve
as they have not been doing.
Produced On the Farm.
Now in addition to the land and
fertilizer phase of the question the
new program means that practically
needed and consumed on
the farm will be produced on the
farm. When this is done and all sur
plus of every description Is sold for
cash and there Is no need for the far
to pass the day when the farmer can
L VI.
One outstanding feature of diversi-
fled Southern farming is always a
constantly increasing surplus Of corn.
Al first being used only to farming
with large use of commercial fertiliz-
er the farmer contends that it can
not possibly pay him to raise corn.
But as the lands are built W and the
fertilizer bill reduced, the big guam
tity of surplus corn begins TO look
mighty good to him. This surplus
corn can only become a cash surplus
with the cooperation of the business
men of the towns of cities nearby.
The problem of preparation, mar
heting and distribution of surplus
grain and other items unier d;vcrsi-
fled farming cannot be han lied by
the farmer alone. The entire business
community which in the last analy-
sis depends on the farmer must as
sist.
Corn and Not Cotton.
In future the vast truck FARMS acar
Charleston and on the adjacent is
lands will plant as a seconJ crop corn
and not cotton.
Right now Charleston merchants
and dealers say that they have Gus
toners who could have shipped them
thousands of bushels of corn aat paid
up accounts. but that the city pos
sessed no means at all 10 place this
corn in commercial condition and so
today the corn remains IN the grow
ers' hands worthless. and the accounts
remain on the merchants books un-
paid. Charleston men who had farms
Just outside the city limits and grew