The Nevada County picayune., 1921-09-29
MORE ACRES PER MAN AND
 BETTER YIELDS PER ACRE

l three or four times more acres than l the Southern farmer and makes larg- CT yields per care of those crops which both cultivate.
 Of course, the row crops, like. cot ton and tobacco, require more cuiti- yation than Northern crops. More over. the hand harvesting required by the Southern crops also reduces the acreage which can be handled per worker. But after making ful allow ances for thse conditions it is apparent that the Southern farmer cultivates too few acres. The reasons are also apparent. The southern farmer has not yet been able to get away from the hand labor methods employed dur ing slavery, when labor was abundant and cheap. The habit has been harder to break since the abolition of slavery because cheap labor has remained plentiful and our row crops encourage the use of the hoe and other small implements and hand methods.
 Of course. it is true that the value per acre of Southern crops is greater | than that of Northern crOps notwith- standing our smaller yields per acre but the fact is that the Southern farmer must produce and earn more per worker if he is ever to develop the country and maintain d decent stand ard of living. Until he produces and earns more per worker, he can snever build the roads. maintain the schools, and equip the homes necessary to satisfied rural life. Unless he can earn more we can see nothing in store for the Southern farm worker much barren life of some of the older and thickly settled countries.
 Ther are two ways by either of which, or rather by combination of which, the Southern farm worker may produce more. Of course, he can earn more by producing more per acre and by better business and marketing methods. But he must produce more per man to complete with other sec tons of the world.
 It is the nonsense of the "a stand batter to say that we have a monopo- ly of cotton production or that of any other crop. We have only been able to maintain limited and incomplete monopoly on cotton production be- cause we produced it so cheaply. We produced it cheaply because of low doing without those modern necessi- ties-good roads, good schools, and decent home and living conditions. If we were willing to cintinue to make cotton at starvation wages and were satisfied to live under the conditions which have existed in the past, we might be abl to maintain our unprofit able monopoly of cotton production.
 But are we satisfied to continue to make cotton under the slavery condi, tions which have existed in the South? For the cotton growers of the South those who have actually produced the cotton-while not under physical slavery have been under financial bondage or the slavery of poverty. Unless we are willing to continue these conditions, which God forbit, we must produce more per worker.
 As stated, there are two ways by which this can he done. It can be done by each farm worker cultivating more land This is the method by which the Northern farmers of this country have been able to earn more than any other farmer in the world. By the use of more power and machin- cry and by the growing of more live stock, they have been able to produce more per man than the farmers of any other section. They have in con sequence been able to maintain higher standard of living.
 The European farmer on the other hand. has increased his yields per acre and thereby maintained his eXistance but even his increased yields per acre could not enable him to maintain a standard of living which will be satis- factory to the Southern farmer of the future.
 It is, therefore, aparent that the Southern farmer muSt use bOth meth