Evening star., 1924-08-31
FAR TOO MANY FARMS
Expert You'd abandon Million of Then, as Cure for
Farmers Woes.

perhaps the worst example Of what I
mean is to be found in the semi-arid
districts of the West and the hilIy.,
stony lands of the old South and
East. AS far as much Of the old
South is concerned, think it Is
through as an agricultural country"
DO you mean the Southern cotton
farmerr'
Il mean the one-man and one-mule
Southern farm that raises only cot
ton," replied Mr.. Huston, with en-
phasis. THE farmer of the old South
is engaged against desperate odds in
trying to raise cotton with the ter
ribie threefold handicap of thin and
sandy soil, severe rainfall and tho
boil weevil. He did succeed up to re-
cent years in making some kind of a,
living through the lavish use of fer
tilizers. But fertilizers are too ex-
pensive today and the boil weevil too
certain in regions of heavy rainfall
Where. then, is our cotton going
to come FROM"
Mainly from Texas. In the cotton
growing sections of Texas the rain
fall only averages about % inches
against so inches in most parts OF the
old South. Last year almost half of
the entire American crop of cotton
was produced in Texas and western
Oklahoma. and that proportion Is
bound to steadily increase. AS far as
my judgment goes, at least the old
South Is through as an agricultural
section. There are many spots, OF
course, which will remain good, such
as in the Piedmont district of the
Carolinas. but they are not big enough
to materially affect the general sit
uation."
What about the innumerabIe reme-
dies by law which are proposed for
the relief of the farmer"
Little Faith in Laws
Il have little faith in any of them.
If / was personally asked to suggest
some legislation to aid the farmer I
could not do SO. Certainly no laws
fixing prices will ever benefit him.
You cannot change economic facts by
law. 1t is true that the farmer has
repeatedly voted for a high tariff,
especially in the West. But he did so
because he was convinced il would
help to build up the cities and industries
Of his State. He was quite right in that,
but it was against his own immediate
personal interest,"
What could the farmer do 70 help
himself
"One very important thing he could
do IS to invest his savings in outside
securities and give up his favorite habit
OF putting all his spare cash in land
and more land. AS soon as the average
farmer accumulates a few thousand
dollars his first impulse is to add TO
his land holdings. He does not realize
that this practice simply means run
ming up the price of land on himself
! am also a strong believer in the value
of cooperate enterprises when they are
on sound basis. Many of these have
failed because they were not properly
organized and administered. But the
idea is good one. and farmers are
gradually learning how to turn it to
the best advantage. Farmers are pretty
much like everybody else, after all.
There are good ones, bad ones and in
different ones. The ones who are farm
ing the rich black lands of the middle
West are making money as rule and
have not got any serious complaint.
The success of farming depends after
all, very largely on the soil In Illinois
and Iowa We have millions of acres
which are so rich in potash that they
will grow crops for the next 5000 years
without needing any fertilizer. About
% per cent of the farm wealth of the
country is produced in this favored
belt, and there is enough land of this
character in the United States to raise
all the food We need and then some
if all the poor farm land was abandoned.
That would be one very effective Solu-
tion of the farm problem"
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