Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-02-22
Meeting at Johnston in Inter
est of c. Cooperative Mar
keting, Addresses by
MIR. Long and DR..
Poe.

The members of the Chamber OF
Commerce of Johnston deserve the
highest commendation for the efforts
they are putting forth to improve
business and agricultural conditions.
In pursuance of their invitation to
Mr.. W. W. Long, director of extern
sion work of Clemson college, and
DR.. Clarence Poe, editor of the Pro-
gressive Farmer, a large number OF
farmers, merchants, bankers and
other business men assembled in the
Crouch hall Tuesday of last week to
hear these distinguished gentlemen
speak. The meeting was called TO or
der by Mr.. G. H. Ballentine, secre-
tary of the Chamber of Commerce,
who in stating the object Of the
meeting said, among other things,
GIVE have come together to discuss
the question of how we can put farm
ing back on a paying basis"
Mr.. w. w. Long.
Mr.. Ballentine introduced Mr..
Long as the first speaker. He said
cooperative marketing is no lew idea
in many parts of the country, but it
is new in the South, where we have
suffered from individualism. The
progress of the cooperative market
ing movement has been more or less
tedious and slow here. Therefore, but
little Roadway thus far has been
made. Farmers are not interested so
much in production at this time, as
that question has been largely solved.
But they are becoming more and
more interested in how they can get
more of the consumers dollar. Up to
this time the farmer has been getting
only 81 cents of the consumers dol
lar when the cost was 63 cents. In
Denmark the farmer receives rs cents
of the consumers dollar, and this
was brought about through co-opera-
tive marketing. Mr. Long said ne
realizes that the people are greatly
depressed and d~emoralized, but ! n
looking to the future we must Judge
the future by the past. He referred
at some length to conditions which
obtained in the early eighties and
nineties, At that time the average
Weld of corn in South Carolina was
only II bushels to the acre, while now
the average yield is 10 bushels. The
average yield of cotton then was
100 pounds of lint to the acre, while
now it is 247 pounds, and other yields
of parm products are proportionate-
ly as large. In the, early nineties cot
ton sold for five and six cents, while
today it is selling for 16 and II cents.
Thirty five years ago there were only
10 banks in South Carolina n FAR
mers became easy prey of supply
merchants and commission men, pay
.ing enormous time prices. Now there
are over 400 banks in South Caro-
lima that are lending money at s per
cent. Here Nh. Long commended the
banks for their efforts to aid farmers
and that while the banks, like every
individual and all other interests,
have suffered tremendously, yet they
have successfully w%eathered the
Fstorm.
Mr.. Long said that as he travels
over South Carolina he is asked from
the mountains to the seaboard wheth-
.er we can grow cotton under boil
weevil conditions. and his invariable
reply has been that through intelli-
gence u people are going to grow
cotton in spite of the weevils. He said
it will clearly be a case of the survi-
val of the httest. > The day of the
shiftless farmer is past, and we are
coming out of this very trying ex-
p~erience a stronger and better peo-
pie because we will be forced to make
sacrifices.
He stated that down in Texas about
25 years ago when cotton growers OF
Texas were wrestling with the boil
weevil for the first time and were
about as greatly depressed and de-
moralized as our people are now he
knew Mr.. Wilson, the former secre-
tary of agriculture who was a sturdy
Scotchman. One day a farmer met
Mr.. Wilson on the street and asked
him what was to be the salvation Of
farmers in their fight against the
weevils, and the Scotchman replied,
laconically, Economic and work
1l-A -.