Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-21
By John Lear.
Associated Press Stan Writer.
A Die10 OF Pine Mountain Valley.

A Dfe10 OF Pine Mountain Valley.
like the red earth around him. moves
slowly into grin at your query
Pick the first person you see" he says
ASK him. and III stand ON what he
tells you"
A man comes around bend in the road
He is tall and lanky and his floppy straw
hat Is not much protection from the rain
He is welding q small switch against
the hide Of q reluctant yearling he is
leading to neighbours farm.
Well" he says, Il was q sharecropper
all around this countryside. didn't have
. cent when came here
Getting Along All Right
But I'm getting along all right now
I'm happy here"
You ask why he is SO happy, for you
thing he can't be making much money on
such a small farm.
mot 50 much as some of the others.
he replies. But I'm doing pretty we'll.
have 225 hens that will sell at $3.50
apiece. My cotton-it runs a bale to the
acre. and Mr.. Bennett will tell you that's
pretty goodwill bring $3.50. I have 200
bushels of corn, at so cents a bushel I'll
have three or four tons Of extra hay I
won't need; that's sl2 ton. Then I'll
have my hogs. and my eggs. How much
does that add up to-"
1t adds up to more than $500, not
including the hogs and the eggs
There you are" says Tap" as you
drive away. You picked him"
On the road back to the center Of
this venture, Tap translates the farmer
figures into terms of the farmers pro-
gress for the year.
The income is enough to pay the
first OF 80 annual installments on the
house, farm buildings and land. They
are worth from $1,000 to 81 500, depend
ing on the acreage and whether the house
has 4, or roomers. The yearly pay
ment ranges from $85 to SIPS.
It is also enough to cover the first Of
annual installments on the cost Of the
farmers one mule, his cows. hogs and
fencing; his wagon and implements They
are worth $3.50
1t Is also enough, too, to pay off his
current account for poultry. This is due
In full each year. and varies with the
number of chicks the farmer purchases.
sistence quota for seed, feed and fertilizer.
For the average pine mountain settler this
was $23 last year. This year it is $12
because the farmer now grows his own
seed and feed
Expects TO Clear $1,000.
The farmer with the straw hat and the
yearling, Tap tells you as you ride, is
an average settler. You ask for something
exceptional, and are told about Pierce
Thomson, whose last job was as steel
worker in the shipyards Thomson cleared
$500 in 1887 and expects to make $1,000
this year. His profit for the month of
March alone was $3.50.
Allen Meeks made $40 from his poultry
in one month and paid more than $500 on
his Indebtedness last year. E. J. Snod-
grass, salesman who never harnessed
q mule before he came to Pine Mountain,
cleared $500 in the same period.
OF all his 200 farmers. Tap says he
CdIl COuAt VII OAC AAoAA VAAooC VIII AIdy
fail and he thinks even those will pull
through
How do they do it?
"Co-operation," says TAP" "Co-opera-
ton and scientific farming"
The Pine Mountain Valley experiment
is cooperation. It is scientific farming.
But it is more. It Is Tap" Bennett.
Tap" was q county farm agent in
Georgia for years. He was also a land
owner, with dozen sharecroppers in his
employ. He saw at first hand the damage
done by soil erosion due to neglect on the
part Of absentee landlords and disinter-
estedness or ignorance on the part of tenant
farmers He knows it was the boil weevil's
northeastward advance from Mexico that
wrecked the Souths agricultural economy
two decades ago, and that the weevil could
not have wrecked it had the South had
more than one cash crop-cotton.
All day and every day, Tap" rides the
valley preaching rotation OF crops to save
the soil; diyersification of crops, to protect
against failure Of one of them; cooperative
purchase and use Of costly implements like