The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1938-05-26

ference, Omaha, Nebraska.
By Governor Hugh White
come to you from . state which
perhaps has more to gain from the
the farm chemurgic movement
than any in the nation. For it is
. state which has presented the
basic farm chemurgic problem Of
dominant agrarian agriculture Writ
ually untouched by either science
or industry. II il . state So per
cent rural; . state whose major
resources are its soils, IT. climate
and its manpower.
think therefore that through
ths case history Of Mississippi I
may bring to you, ~ in no other
way, . practical demonstration Of
TIE things which happen when
agriculture begins to feel the sf-
1eets Of science, industry, and CO.
opsrstivs governmental policy.
Ons-Way Rsad
Al ! looked about me IN Nissis.
sippi but . few brisf years ago I
saw Z state hslplsssly bound to In
hsritsd agricultural routine. / saw
. state whose one crop was cotton,
. stats 20 predominantly rural that
her lawyers, doctors, clerks, msrch-
ants and mill workers f1ourished
or suffered with the weather that
controlled the cotton crop and the
market that controlled its price.
And I saw that one-crop scheme
carrying the agriculture Of my state
down . one-way road that led to-
ward agricultural destruction.
I saw the soils Of my state,
IT. greatest resource, begin to dis.
integrate a. desperate farmers
plowed deeper and worked longer
to meet the demands Of mounting
debts which bound them ever more
hslplessly to the vicious circle Of
an economy which would accept
only cotton acreage as security.
saw the creeping paralysis Of
erosion ~ It reached IT. tentacled
gullies across millions Of unpro-
tectsd acres, and I saw the fertile
top-soil Of once prosperous farms
being borne by creeks and rivers
70 the -.
And. then I looked at ny people,
70 find that manpower Vas going
the way Of the soil. I found $4,000
Of my native-born Mississippians
living In other states, seeking OPP
portunities they could not find At
home. l saw ghost towns left in
the wake Of sawmills, empty homes
left in the wake Of over-cropping
and erosion, empty public treas
uries left In the wake 81 receding
resources and manpower.
Yet the basic wealth Of my state
was ~ tremendous - IT. use Of
that basic wealth was wretched.
Basic Weelth
Here was Z climate amt4hle yet
energetic. Here was . frost-free
season up to 275 days = year.
Here were twenty-eight million
acres Of land with eight million in
crops, with six and one.haM million
acres in pastures so favoned by ma
ture that they could Be kept green
ten months in the ysar.
Here was q picture q Arricul-
ture, endowed with climate and
soils unsurpassed IN the nation,
adequately provided with manpow.
Or, yet lacking the transforming
alchemy Of science and industry.
It was into such a picture that tho
chemnrgic principles Of . balanced
economy were injected.
And Mississippi has found, -
other sstates will find, that her peo-
pie recognize and are ready to re-
spond to N intelligent and snseif-
ish progra4n designed to promote
their permanent welfare. In five
years the farmers Of my state have
made more asrogress toward m
agricultural economy governed ~
markets and use, rather than pre-
cedent, than they had made pre-
yiorsiy in any quarter century ct
the states history.
Recent Progress
They bad already decreased their
cotton acreage SO per cent before
the federal allotment program be-
came effective. They have increas-
ed their food and feed crop acre
age 63 per cent, their pasture acre
age 22, their cattle So and their
swine 90.
They have planted more tung oil
acreage than al other farmers of
7 w UnUrTT