The Wilmington morning star., 1940-08-05
Balanced Agriculture
In Dixie Asked By Poe

achieved. Already from university
presidents to the smallest daily
papers the Balanced g1N.ulture''
this Association has always stood
for is being everywhere discussed
and promoted as the most essential
part of a balanced Prosperity
program for the whole South.
Three Basic Facts
In considering THE Next Step
in a Balanced Agriculture for the
South" and the four first detectives
of the Balanced Prosperity cam
paign. the basic facts that it seems
to me cannot be denied or escaped
r these:
1. The South as a whole used
to have-had in 1880, for example
a fairly good balance b e e e n
money crops" on one hand and
feed and food crops and livestock
on the other hand.
Q. The enormous increase in ex-
port demand for both cotton and
tobacco, u two great money crops
(and at good prices) caused our
people to turn from that balanced
farming and we became in
creasingly a money crops" Sec
ton, these money crops being near
ly half export crops.
3. Increasing nationalism, in
~creasing tariff wars Tin which the
United States has played a leading
and ruinous part), war expendi-
lures and war and war prepare
tons by all leading nations-al of
these have disastrously decreased
the foreign demand for both cot
ton and tobacco and threatens fur
Their decreases in cotton exports
plus drastic decreases in tobacco
exports.
The amazing gyrations Of cotton
may be told in one sentence: that
on Jul Southern production sky
rocketed from Is million acres of
11-cent cotton in 1880 to As mil
lion acres of 22-cent cotton in 1925
and has now dropped calamitous-
ly to Is million acres of 11-cent cot
ton.
About tobacco n short and sim
pie sentence may also tell t h e
story-that in the 40 years from
1890 to 1880 the quantity of South
ern tobacco used in cigarettes
jumped 1920 per cent and in IA
years from 1914 to 1929 the annual
production of American cigarettes
jumped from 80 billion to 100 bill
lion-but that in II short years,
1926-37, the foreign production Of
tobacco jumped 400 per-
cent-from 8 per cent Of American
production to AZ per cent.
A Return to Livestock
How did the South adjust itself
to all this enormously increased
national and world demand for cot
ton and tobacco? That it did so by
decreasing attention to livestock
and changing from balanced farm
ing to unbalanced farming-t h i S
seems to me obvious from a study
of official statistics. I have just
DR.. Morgan as calling for
"the return of livestock to e
agriculture of the South" and it
seems to me that a return is pre-
what is indicated. Over in
Tenn, two weeks ago l
said to, a group of gentlemen from
Wisconsin,: when we of the South
talk about increasing our livestock,
dairying, and poultry you of e
West are sometimes disposedto say
that we are going into a brand
new field of agricultural effort and
one that morally and ethically be-
longs to you. The truth is the exact
reverse of that. The truth is that
the South when I was born-in the
early 1880's-the South already had
pretty good balance between
crops and livestock; that when the
demand for cotton and tobac-
co jumped by leaps and bounds,
we were willing to supply that de-
mand and temporarily let the North
and West almost monopolize live
stock and dairying. But now that
demand for cotton and to-
bacco is dropping disastrously it is
a matter of self-preservation that
we return to the better balanced
farming we formerly followed. In
other words, instead Of blaming us
for returning to our share of live
stock production, the right thing is
for you to be thankful that for SO
years you have profited by a situa-
lion that enabled us to concentrate
On money crops" 8
Boulder Dam houses the worlds
most powerful hydro-electric
plant
10 81 M :