Evening star., 1939-02-26
By G.. Belmont FAIRIES.


Nations tractors in 1890. In 1887 they
had 1875 per cent.
The use of tractors has more than
doubled in Texas, the largest cotton pro-
ducing State. According to a Farm Sc
curity Administration report tractors in
Texas jumped from $1,000 in 1880 to an
estimated 100000 in 1888.
During the five-year period from 1890
to 1885 the number of sharecroppers in
Texas dropped % per cent. The number
of farms of 500 acres or more increased
by 4442 and land in farms for the group
by more than 100000 acres.
A single farm family. working 40 or
so acre tract, can rarely afford modern
equipment. Not only in Texas, but in
other areas where mechanical farming
is more efftient, the tenant farmer has
been steadily giving way.
Cotton Pickers Imported.
AS tractors and mechanical equipment
have taken the place of the worker in
farms Of the Southwest, growers have
tried to insure an ample supply of labor
for the harvest season, which lasts from
6 to 10 weeks. Whole gangs of cotton
pickers are imported from distant points
by labor contractors. Migratory workers
constitute from 60 to 80 per cent of
all harvest labor
The increase in large farms and the
displacement of the cropper and tenant
ic To arti
of the South. Studies in California,
however, showed that Al per cent of the
migrants to the State where huge farms
give temporary employment to thou
sands of workers, have come from Texas,
Oklahoma and Arkansas, where mechan-
ization is proceeding most rapidly.
Migratory families arriving today no
longer explain, as did their predecessors
in the years before 1887, that they went
broke or were burned out, bloWed out,
eat out" The new arrivals have been
"tractored out"
In past years workers following the
crops have been estimated at 100000 to
350000. There probably are more than
half million today, Farm Security Ad-
ministration officials say.
The outlook for the future is even less
promising Not only is the trend to
tractors almost certain to continue, but
the mechanical cotton picker is nearing
perfection. Already the Rust picker has
proved it can handle cotton at about IL
cents hundred pounds, compared to ST.
a hundred pounds for hand labor. Its
use on large scale will do away with
the need for hand labor at harvest time,
leaving many more farm workers
stranded.
The broad goal of the Government s
agricultural program, according to Sec
retary Wallace, is to prevent surpluses
from beating down prices and to main
tain a satisfactory balance between pro-
duction on the farms and production in
the factories.
Must Teach Small Farmer.
The Farm Security Administration
to teach the small farmer how to COM
pete effectively with the big landowner
who is able to use the most modern farm
machinery.
In an attempt to learn what percentage
of run f-the-mill farm families in the
lower income groups could be made self
supporting, given an opportunity, 149
different cooperative projects have been
set up in all parts of the country. They
are pilot plants" following no fixed
pattern, each designed to fit the needs
of its own people.
One of the most successful of these
cooperative communities is at La Forge,
Mo. There 100 sharecropper families, 81
white and 40 colored, harvested their
first crops last fall.
Every family will repay all obligations
to the Farm Security Administration this
year, and with possibly one exception,
all will have enough cash left to take
care of farm operations until new crop
is ready, Hans Baasch, manager of the
project, reports.
At the end of their first season the
community had produced a cotton crop
estimated to be worth $65,00O. Only one
variety is grown and the seed is certified.
For their first winter each family had
on hand an average of 100 quarts of
canned food per person, two to four hogs
to butcher, more pigs to be sold later, a
cow, some with calves, mules and
chickens.
Between 200 and $50 bushels Of corn