The Neshoba Democrat., 1921-02-17
MORE CORN SHOULD Be
GROWN IN SOUTH THIS YEAR.
RECENT EXPERIMENTS SHOW now THIS NAV
Be DONE PR0FITlDLY.

The safe farming program which
has been advocated in the South for
years by the Government and college
agencies calls for the production OF
all corn needed for food and feed Or
the home farm. In the face OF this,
however, the suggestion and plea has
not been needed as it should. Conss-
quently, this last fall and winter the
farmer most distressed by the low
price of cotton, and who probably
had to sell when cotton was at such
a price that he sold below the cost OF
production, or, in other words the
farmer hardest hit, was the man with
no corn in his crib, and who had to
depend on bought corn to feed his
workstock, his hogs and to provide
cornmeal for his family. Many far.
mers believe that it does not pay
them to raise corn when they can get
good price for cotton, selling that
profit and buying low-priced corn.
Keen observers have always noticed
however, that the farmer who Is
4 prosperous, who can always pay his
j just obligations in the fall and who
can hold his cotton for an intermi.
|, nate length of time is the man who
lives at home and boards at the same
place. This is a time worn argument
in favor of diversification, but it is
one that cannot be overlooked, for 1t
is true. Cotton is a good money crop
for the South, and its growth should
by all means be continued. Especial
ly should those farmers not now in
boll-weevil territory continue to
plant all the cotton that they can
/ economically cultivate, but the cot
ton should be only one of several
other crops. The other crops should
have place, as in a football team
the star should be cottun~, but he
&shou1d have interference and the
proper combination of players TO make
him push the ball over for goal after
!. goal. He will be more successful II
he has other members to open up the
opposing team and aid him so that
his full ability may be brought into
play.
Corn is one of the most valuable
assisting crops to cotton that we have
in the South. Usually, the land plant
ed to corn is left more fertile by the
crop than when it was planted, large.
ly because such legume as soy beans.
/ velvet beans and cowpeas can be
\ planted with it. This is especially
true when the corn crop has been fer
tilized. Growers of South Carolina
say that they are willing to invest
dollar in fertilizers for every dollar
/, received as increase from the corn.
Even then they can raise the corn
more cheaply than they can buy 1t
from the supply store. Major Gra-
ham, for many years the remarkable
b executive of the North Carolina De-
Partment of Agriculture, says that he
: never saw a man sold out for debt
who had a crib full of corn. He is
! eminently correct. His is the expert
1 ence of others.
3 Mr.. Jesse Brake, the 77-ysar-old
patriarch of the Brake family in Edge
y combe county, North Carolina. and
leader in his section, says: ''I adopt
ed plan 40 years ago of seeing that
my corn barn and smokehouse were
all right, regardless Of other crops,
and il every farmer in the South
would do the same tbin6, he would
n need no further reduction in cotton.
b 1t would not cost them cent, as the
cotton they would then produce
would sell for more than the present
large crops"
BY F. III. letter, in Manufacturers
] Record.