The Monroe journal., 1922-11-07
By BI0N ii. BUTLER

t1s Nte1NA aNsSh1AOii W Ills CtODs
more poison on his cotton and make
his game an intensive offensive one.
Cotton from now on goes on "A pari-
ty with peaches. tobacco, and those
kindred crops which give returns
only in proportion as they are intel
ligently cared for. The crop that
gets skilled attention will make real
money. Tha. one which gets indif-
ferent or no attention will be a fail
ure..
There is one thing that our farm
ers will have to realize-that farm
ing from now on is going to de-
mand individual attention, and real
work. In this county we used to
raise little Seeding peaches that
nothing bothered, and we boasted of
the fruit. But today peach men
make peaches speciality. and
peaches are grown under scientific
management, and the result is
peaches that command the respect
, and the money of the market. But
II is work and attention every day
OF the year. That work and that at
tention pay. Peach men who care
for their orchards right are making
money. Peach men who neglect
their orchards are not keeping even
with the game.
"No doubt we will continue to
make cotton in this section, for cot
ton is an essential crop. Men must
have cotton for clothing, and also
for varied uses in the industrial arts.
But with the weevil here it is going
to take sharper warfare to make
cotton, hence cotton must bring a
better price for the Inefficient farm
er is destined to fall downon his
job. As the old methods of farming
are not going to defeat the weevil,
so the old kind of farmer is not go
ing to defeat the weevil. We have
passed the day when the crop can be
put in the ground with three hundred
pounds of 1922 fertilizer and be neg
lected until it makes sickly, mig
gardly crop. The old style farmer is
facing gloomy future. We may as
well confess to ourselves that the
shiftless, unambitious days of South
ern farming are gone. In the north
a more rigorous climate makes farm
ers hustle or they would starve with
their short growing season. So they
dig in. Now the weevil is about to
make hustlers of the southern farmer,
and possibly it is good thing for all
of US.
"0ne thing our farmers must pay
more attention to-" continued Mr..
Buchanan, ''is livestock farming. That
is an old cry that has been heard
for years and given little heed, but
every farmer should have two or
three cows and all the hogs he can
take care of. Then he should get
few more and work like thunder to
take care of them. The more neces-
sity drives us the better we serve,
and that is the basis of all success. |
have been told that this section is
not suitable for stock, but do not be-
lieve it. Out at Lemon Springs is
farmer, R. B. Watson. Every
Saturday of his life since | have
known him he has come to this bank
with small deposit, the proceeds
of buttcr ard eggs. No matter how
cold or hot or wet or dry Watson
comes to town with his butter and
eggs and cream. He has never borrow
ed a cent that | know of in the years
that have been with this bank. His
balance in the fall is not as big for
time as the man who raises cotton
and tobacco, but he has no fertilizer
bills to pay, no store bills, and none
of those things to demand his money,
for he pays his bills as he goes and
he has money all the year round for
all his needs.
"Mr. Watson has a good home and
everything around it to make it /
comfortable. And here is the big
idea. He has not grown stalk of
cotton and tobacco. As lon gas
can remember the farmer has been
asking the time merchant, the fer
tilizer factory and the banks to help
him. 1t would be surprising if the
average man knew the amount of .
money that our bank is lending to
the farmer and the effect it has .
made at times when money was hard .
to get for farmers. But the |
only farmer any bank can help is
the farmer who helps himself. The
ufdSNN laws VI tIle SldIe Te1ulTe n
that we place our loans where they
ere certain to be paid when due, and
If we do not exercise such care as
satisfies the bank examiner he will n
instruct US to call such 4
loans. But there is no state law nor
no state bank examiner to instruct
US to call loan against a man like
K. B. Watson, for he never makes
one. What he does other farmers
can do. And when they do that
any bank is eager to loan money to
them, for the bank is sure of its col
lection when due. There is where
the help to the farmer must begin,
and when he has commenced to help
himself it must be with cattle and
hogs and such other factors on his
farm as will bring him some money,
with less likelihood of damage BY
Seevil or other crop pest, and which
will not take all he has made to buy
fertilizer, mule feed and pay a fall
lime store bill.
"You know Lee county so well
hat il is waste of time for me to
ell you that We can Craze cattle here,
4 not as well as in Iowa or New
York, at least well enough that we
AN supply our own state with much
more milk and butter and cream than
We are providing now. As good but
er as is made any place on earth
AN ha made here in Iea cot,.a - hi1f