GET LAND AND HOLD TO IT LIKE GRIM DEATH.
That Is the Advice That Should He Given Every White Tenant
Fanner In the South—Danger of Great Estates, Absentee Land
fordism, and a Dangerous Excess of Negro Tenants_Will
South Awake?
By E. C. Branson, President State Normal School. Athens, Ga.
m f AY I VENTURE an answer to
VI the editorial inquiry in your
-i-TJL issue of the 23rd inst.: "The
Land of Opportunity—Who Shall
Possess It?”
The Increased averago Biro rf
farms in the United States between
1880 and 1900; the rapid increase
of large estateB, in many instants
more than a million acreg In extent;
the bare facts of farm tenancy, and
what Is more appalling, the alarm
ing increase of farm tenancy
throughout the United States and
especially in the South; the begin
nings of competitive rents among
tenants for farm holdings, which
will grow greater year by year to
the destruction of the tenant classes,
Just as In Helglum, Ireland, and
Knglnnd; the pressure of population
In the United States (we will have
nearly two hundred million people
in the United States by the middle
»»» mi* |i• "in IIi rrniurj ; , mo inev
Itablo rise of land values (farm
land* alone Increased six billion, one
hundred million dollars between
1900 and 1905), the commercializing
of farm operations for dividends
alone; the decay of farm life and
farm operations under the tenant
system; the decay of rural schools
and churches; the high prices for
fnrm products, nlong with the Im
possibility of diversification. Intensi
fication nnd rotation under the Iron
law of tennncy; the movement of
country populations cityward, due to
our rising Industrial city civilization.
All these things mean In the South
that wo are rapidly abandoning our
rural regions to a tenant farm class,
and what Is worse, to a negro tenant
farm class, nnd that our agricultural
regions once so abandoned are Irre
vocably abandoned; that wo are cre
ating In the South, and In America
for that matter, a population of lack
lands nnd lack-alls who must be
more transitory nnd migratory, with
an Interest In community lire less
and less abiding nnd loyal; that we
are departing more and more from
our only hopo of economic safety
nnd freedom: namely, small land
holdings by Independent owners.
I love these plain people on the
farms I am of their sort. But I
fear for them exceedingly, for their
children and their children’s chil
dren as the years go on. Our Intelli
gent farmers need to be Just as much
concerned with the economic side of
farm life as they aro with the agri
cultural side. Our educators and
statesmen will be obliged to consld
fir nil innuo mauviB quiciuj nuu
wisely. Neither America nor the
South Is Immune from the play of
forces that have worked the destruc
tion of the farm classes of Ireland
and Belgium. But on the other hand,
these same forces Intelligently un
derstood nnd directed may make of
the farm regions of our Southland
the agricultural paradise that we
find In Holland nnd Denmark. It Is
time we were getting ready to an
swer the prophetic Inquiry: Choose
this dny which economic system ye
will serve. We cannot delny an an
swer to this question very much
longer. If so. It will ho too late.
Cur birthright will he forever gone.
Now a direct answer to your ques
tion. When in one county of my
State six men own one-third of the
tnrm lands of the entire county; In
another, one man one-third of the
total farm acreage; In another,
three men practically the entire
county, and ho on all over the State;
when an Indiana company of farm
ers buys 21,000 acres of farm lands
In the southwestern corner of the
State, and another company 33,000
acres in the southeastern corner, and
when another company buys 100,000
acres in the northern end; when two
English aristocrats own 1,700,000
acres of farm land in Florida; when
two more aristocrats own 2,000,000
acres in Mississippi, and a little
bunch of aristocrats, 3,000,000
acres in Texas, it seems to me that
the people who are going to own our
farm land In another generation or
two will be people of sense, not
necessarily people of heart. The
man of sense will own all our South
ern farm lands, or nearly so, and
we shall have a vast multitude of
people scrambling for a footing
upon land just as in other countries
of the world; and then we shall
)lAVA nil t ha nrnhloma that
tlon. religion, and statesmanship can
deal with to the end of time. It
ought to be unceasingly thundered
Into the ears of the farm class:
“With all thy getting, get land.”
And It Is safe to say they will never
do It as a great class until they get
the necessary understanding of the
profound drift of things to-day in
American life.
As long as the farm owners in
the South And more difficulty in get
ting good tenants than tenants And
in renting land, Just so long are we
reasonably free, here and there,
from the devilish destructiveness of
competitive tenant rents; Just so
long will the land owner be willing
to sell and move out of his difficul
ties, and to sell at a reasonable price
to the people who have little money
but a great ambition to own little
farms of their own.
But when in the general increase
of population the scrambling for
land runs up land values and rents
as in other countries, then the eco
nomlc end of the world will have
come for the great masses of the
people who ought to own land and
live on It, but who have let their
opportunities slip away from them.
The high price of farm products,
tho sparseness of Southern popula
tion, the difficulties here and there
of securing good tenants, and the
cheapness of our land—all mean lit
erally that now Is the day of salva
tion. If the poor man down South
does not now own land or does not
buy land, he may never have a
chance again.
Booker T. Washington sees this
problem and he sees it with an un
canny kind of insight and foresight.
nr I'lrai miif; iu nir iirgrurs every
where with all the power of his
soul: "Get land and get it quick, and
hold to it with the desperation of
death." And the negro is getting
land in Georgia. He has nearly
$70,000,000 worth of it, and has
gotten it within the last 40 years.
I do not believe that I am unduly
alarmed when I say that the
thoughtful people of the South ef
every sort and kind need to wake
up to fateful economic issues and
their significance for the generations
to come, because out of these are
the very Issues of our social life.
The Progressive Farmer and Ga
rotte is the best farm paper I ever
saw.—Dr. W. E. Morris, Georgians,
Ala.
DAIRYING CONSERVES SOIL FER
TILITY.
A Ton of Corn Contains $6.50 Worth
of Plant Food, a Ton of Rutter
Only 36 Cents Worth.
In the densely populated countries
of Europe dairying is the chief
branch of agriculture because it has
been found by actual experience
that this branch of farming will
furnish the greatest amount of nu
trients to supply humanity for the
least amount of loss. Lands that
were abandoned in European coun
tries centuries ago have been made
fertile again by dairy farming. We
have illustrations in America where
farms in the Atlantic States, which
have been abandoned because of un
productiveness, have been taken up
again recently, and with good dairy
farming made as productive as they
were In their original state.
It has been ascertained that ap
proximately *8.3 B worth nf fortllltv
is removed from the soil with the
sale of every ton of wheat, while
with every of corn that is sold, ap
proximately $6.60 worth of fertility
is lost to the soil; but in the case
of dairying, where butter is made
and where all of the by-products are
fed to the pigs and calves, it is
found that only 36 cents worth of
fertility is removed with each ton
of butter sold. The commercial
value of a ton of wheat at 76 cents
a bushel is approximately $24.76.
The commercial value of a ton of
butter at 25 cents a pound is $500.
For each $100 worth of wheat that
is sold from the soil $34.50 worth
of fertility is taken off the
farm, but for every $100 worth of
butter that is sold only 7 cents’
worth of fertility is removed from
the soil.
This vast difference between
wheat farming and dairy is explain
ed in this way: Suppose a cow is
fed a ration of cowpea hay and corn,
both of which have been raised on
the farm. The cow assimilates ap
proximately 10 per cent of the fer
tilising elements, the remaining 90
per cent going back to the farm in
f k a «■$« «***«* a# MAM....A m a.%_« a
” — utwuuto. V/ X tuu XV pci
cent of fertilizing elements that are
removed by the cow, about three
fourths go to make milk and one
fourth goes to the maintenance of
the body. In the case where butter
is made on the farm and the milk is
separated, its analysis shows that
90 per cent of the fertilizing ele
ments of the whole milk is found in
the skim milk; hence, cream and
butter remove about 10 per cent of
the whole amount. The skim milk
is returned to the farmer and fed
to the pigs and calves. These util
ize part of the material for building
up the body and the unassimilated
part passes on to fertilize the soil.
JAS. E. DOWNING,
rr a _i_i _ m . _.
V/. iyv|ini lUivUb U1 ngl luuuurc.
The Kind of Dairymen the South
Needs.
We are not anxious that more i
bankers, merchants, professional j
men and city farmers establish -l
dairies on farms of which they are \
non-residents; but we would like to 1
see a much larger number of our 1
young farmers, who are living and
working on their farms, go Into the ,
dairy business as a branch of their
regular family operations. These
are the men who will succeed and
stay In the business, and finally
build up profitable herds of dairy
cattle. The dairy cow is the cheap
est animal producer of human food
and the greatest soil improver, and
we should have more of her.
Profit in farming depends primari
ly upon soil fertility.
DE LAVAL
CREAM
SEPARATORS
ARE NOT ONLY THE
BEST
I but the cheapest in pro
I portion to actual capa
I city and actual life of
■ the machines.
■ They are in a class
■ by themselves.
■ The separator that y8°|0
I of the creamerymen use
■ SOLD THROUGH LOCAL AGLNTS
I The De Laval Separator Co.
H ISS-IS7 BROADWAV 17S-177 WILLIAM ST.
1 NEW YORK MONTREAL
M ML MADISON ST* IS A IS PRINCESS ST.
M CHICASO WINN1PES
I ORUMM A SACRAMENTO STS ICtS WESTERN AVI.
J SAN FRANCISCO SEATTLE
WANTED
Pedigreed Saddle Stud Colt one or two years old
DR. T. A. HEATH, Shiloh, Mb*:
DISPERSAL SALE
Of PROSPECT STOCK FARM
I have decided to retire from dairying and offer
for sale my herd of Jerseys, located at Gulfport,
Miss. 100 Milk Cows. 80 now milking, remainder
will be fraah in next 30 days.
GO Heifers, one year old; 30 Heifer Calves; 6 Bulla
from 6 years to 1 year old; 3 Milk Wagons in good
repair; 6 Horses; 3 Mules; 1 Separator; 1 Churn; 1
Butter Worker and all other dairy utensils cheap,
for cash or negotiable paper.
I. J. HARRY, • • Gulfport, Miss.
Poultry Judges Selected
Judges, Theo. Hewes, Indianapolis. Ind.; A. F.
Summer, Butler, Pa.: F.J. Marshall, College Park,
3a.. have been selected by the Tri-State Poultry
Association to judge at the big Poultry show to be
ield at the Great Tri-State Fair, Memphis, Tenn.,
lept 27th to Oct. 4th. These judges all have a
lational reputation, and the management should
>e congratulated on their selection. Exhibitors
:an depend that they will get a square deal if they
how at Memphis. C. L. Baker, Sec’y., 292 Madi
lon Ave., Memphis, Tenn., will give you any in*
ormation regarding show, write him.
THE
XNIMALS’
FRIEND
KILLS EVERY FLY
It strikes when our gravity
sprayer is used. Keep* In
sect pests off animals
In pasture longer than any
Imitation. Used since 1885.
Thousands of dairymen dupli
cate 10 to 50 gallons annually
after testing imitations. Abso
___^ llltely harmless -.cures all sores.
30 cents worth saves $10
worth of milk and flesh on each cow during fly season.
No Lice In Poultry House or any place it is sprayed.
If dealer offers substitute, send us his name and $1 for
3-tube gravity Sprayer and enough SHOO-FLY to protect 200
cows Name express office. $1 returned If animals
not protected. Free booklet. Special terms to agents.
Shoo-FIy Mfg. Co., 1343 N. 1 Oth St.^Phlla.. Pa.