The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., July 09, 1910, Page 488, Image 12

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
HOW THE BOLL WEEVIL HAS HELPED.
In Texas It Knocked Out the C redit System and Started a Pay
ing Diversification of Oijops an d It Will End by Doing the
Same Thing in Other States.
AR, PESTILENCE and fam
ine combined could not hare
raised so much commotion as
did this little bug. Tens of thou
sands of acres, the richest lands in
the world, were absolutely abandon
ed. Planters went broke; men whe
had been prosperous for years had
no meat to put on the family table.
They couldn’t gfet it, for there was
no such thing as credit. The word
“credit” was expurgated from the
mercantile and agricultural dietion
ary. Then the people arose in tbeir
wrath and went a-huuting.
They started out with a popgun,
but threw it away and got a battery
of cannon, for they were really hunt
ing bigger game than a bug. The
real thing to be destroyed was the
credit system and the one->crop idol
atry.
Here was the condition that con
fronted them: Planting operations in
the cotton section were conducted on
credit. Few planters had the money
to finance a crop until it could be
marketed—that is, they could not
furnish meat and meal and molasses
to their negroes—sould not supply
shoes, boots, plow-gear, farming im
plements. AH these had to come
from the merchant, and the mer
cnani naa 10 get nis money irom the
bank, and the country banker had tQ
get his money from New York. The
whole financial system rested on cot
ton—cotton alone. If the farmers
could ge* bo cotton they could get
no crari’i from the merchant; the
merchant could get no credit from
the bank; and the country banker
could get no money from New York.
It ran like the old nursery rhyme:
"Water would not quench fire, fire
would not hum stick, stick woald not
beat dog,” and so on.
The United States Department of
Agriculture took up the fight, and
never in the history of the world has
there been such a campaign of In
vestigation, experimentation, educa
tion, and diversification.
Nobody talked anything but boll
weevil and how to combat him. Gov
ernment bugologlsts camped on his
trail and studied his habits until
they got so they could read his mind.
Then they called the farmers togeth
er and told them about it in every
city, town, village, crossroads and
cotton patch in the South.
»iie uuruen or it all was this:
“You can’* get rid of the weevil; but
you dan raise cotton in spite of him
by improving your seed and your
methods. You must cut down your
cotton acreage, and cultivate it more
closely. Plant other lands in some
thing else. You can’t buy corn, for
you have neither money nor credit;
raise It—not the money nor the cred
it, but the corn. With bacqn at 30
cents a pound you’ll have *o raise
hogs or go hungry. Eggs are 50
cents a dozen and butter 45 cents.
Encourage your hens and stimulate
your cows.” This was not only the
gospel of sense but the creed of ne
cessity.
The weevil made it impossible to
raise cotton at a profit, so the people
must raise something else—some
thing to eat. After many years of
neglect these people apparently for
got that anything would grow except
cotton. But when the boll weevil
drove them to it- they found that
everything would grow; that they
could raise green things on their
land for twelve months in the year.
Go back to-day to those districts
iu Texas that were desolated in 1902
-3-4. The farmers could not get salt
meat for their -families. Now they
are shipping carloads of cattle and
hogs. They raised so much poultry
and so many turkeys that they had
to build a packing-house to take care
of them.
This Texas performance will prob
ably be duplicated in Mississippi, Al
abama and Georgia. With the one
crop fetish and credit handcuffs, the
average farm laborer ia Mississippi
produces annually about $150 in
wealth, while the Iowa laborer pro
duces $900. Does this mean that a
man in Iowa is worth six in Missis
sippi? Does it represent the com
parative fertility of the land? The
soil of Mississippi is richer than that
of Iowa and the climate more favor
able. The difference is in the Iowa
method, where the average farm la
borer produces $500 worth of live
stock annually as against $4 for Mis
sissippi.
Ancient Egypt was first the gran
ary and then the treasure house of
the world; yet there is a stretch of
delta land between Vicksburg and
Memphis that is richer far than the
storied Valley of the Nile, and with
seven times its arable area. Never a
day comes when it is too hot or too
cold to work. Sunstroke and freez
ing are alike unknown. Much of
this land is wild, the home of the
deer, bear and panther.
What a chance for Iowa men in
\I i'RRiflflinni ' 4nH what an Annnrt nn.
ity for Mississlpplans! Maybe they
would be like the pig In a pen that
gets so fat it won’t eat any more.
But Just let the boss put In a hungry
pig—then the fat one gets up and
hustles.
Hogs and corn will settle the meat
and-bread question, rendering the
farmer Just that much less depend
ent upon the merchant. And Irish
potatoes—while the Texan was tight
ening bis belt and praying for invita
tions to dinner, be discovered that
ks could raise a few hundred bushels
of Irish potatoes and get them off
the land in full time to plant cotton.
He could get two erops Instead of
one, pick up his dinner as he went
along, and never stop going. Dinners
counted double with the Texan in
those days.
Then, in 1905, he made his bump
er crop of cotton in spite of the boll
weevil, and in addition to his food
and forage. The weevil had taught
him to be a 60 per cent better
farmer.
The boll weevil bit Louisiana
straight from the shoulder. Some
sections lay still and took the count.
Others struggled te their feet.
fa De Soto Parish, for instance,
the cotton production dropped from
16.000 to 9,000 bales. Hundreds of
farmB were abandoned. The men
went to cutting timber and getting
out crosBties. The United States De
partment of Agriculture established
demonstration farms to prove that a
crop of cotton could be rained along
side a crop of boll weevil. The na
tive believed only half of thiB propo
sition; the best he would dp wsh to
stand in the edge of the woods and
watch. Then he took heart, hitched
up his “galluBes” and pulled the bell
cord over his mule again. Within a
year or two he was raising 15,000 to
18.000 bales; but hiB foodstuffs—and
this tells the story—increased from
300 to 500 per cent.
In some of the upper river parish
es, opposite Vicksburg, they took up
rice on a large scale and found they
could grow better rice than the
planters on the coast. The acres
were level, ideal for irrigation, and
there was water in plenty; but the
planter would never had thought of
it If the weevil hadn’t said “Boo!”—
Harris Dickson in Satsrday Evening
Post.
The Truth About the German Potash
Law.
(Advtrtlsenient)
Among Germany’s most important
natural resources there are about
seventy mines that furnish the
world’s supply of potash. At present
these mines can supply more potash
than the world is using, but not more
than the world can use profitably, and
not more than the world would bo
using if farmers could buy potash
as readily as they can buy other
things. Under these conditions there
is a tendency for some of the mines
to try to get more than their share
of the trade.
In the past the mines have entered
Into short term arrangements to sell
their products through a single com
pany, organized and owned by the
mines. Each mine has agreed to fur
nish a certain fraction of the world's
demand to the selling company. This
fraction was known as the quota of
the mine. As new mines were de
veloped there were usually assigned
a fair quota, but occasionally a new
mine declined to sell In this way and
sought to secure more than Its fair
share of the potash trade by selling
Independently and usually at slightly
lower prices.
When the last soiling agreement
expired three or four mines under
took to get contracts to supply the
entire American potash trade, which
Is a little over one-fourth of ’ e
potash trade of the world. Had t.,ey
succeeded In filling their contract*
they would, of course, have had
much more than their fair share of
business.
Most of the mines are owned by
private companies, but a few of them
are owned by the Prussian and other
German States, not by the Royal
Family, as has been erroneously stat
ed In some American newspapers.
Owing to the action of a few mine*
In trying to get more than their fair
share of the business, the German
Government passed a law regulat
ing the fraction or quota of the
world’s supply that each mine might
sell, and providing that ench mine
should have a share in both the ex
port and the home trade.
The law provides for n commission
to enforce the law and lays a trifling
tax on all the products of the mines
whether exported or used at home, to
pay for the expenses of the commls
slon. This tax is not grenfer thnr
the usual State fertiliser taxes It
America, which range from ten tr.
fifty cents per ton. without regard to
the value of the fertiliser The
German tax Is fairer, however, in
that it takes Into account the amount
of plant food In the different grades
of potash compounds. The tax ranges
from sixteen cents per ton on kalnlt
containing twelve and one-half per
cent potash, to slxtv-flve cents on
muriate of potash. As one-half of
this goes back for advertising ex
penses previously met by the mines,
the only additional expense Imposed
by the law Is the trifling sum of from
eight to thirty-three cents per ton
The tax Is In no sense nn export tax,
but Is paid on every pouad of potash
whether used In Oermnny or sent to
other countries. There’s In It no dis
crimination against America or any
other country.
When we recall that the ocean
freight rate on potnsh may vary as
much as one dollar per ton In n
Blngle month without any Increase In
the cost of potash to the consumer,
It Is at once evident that this trifling
tax for administration purposes will
have no more to do with potaRh
prices than the State tax on fertil
izers In the United States has to
do with the selling price of our com
mon fertilizers.
The law, contrary to the genernl
belief, does not require the formation
of a selling company or syndicate.
Each mine is free to sell its shar®
of export and domestic as it 8efia
fit, but it must not sell for export at
a less price than is charged to Ger
man buyers. There Is certainly noth
ing in this, to give the American
farmer who buys potash any cause
for alarm. Why then, has our State
Department been urged to protest so
vigorously against the passage of this
law? Why have we been told that
the lnw means we must pay twenty
dollars more per ton for all our pot’.
ash salts? The law provides that If
any mine shall sell more than it®
assigned fair share it must pay on
the excess over Its lawful share ®
much higher tax, ranging from about
two dollnrs and seventy-five cents to
nineteen dollars and a half per t0n
This will, of course, serve to restrict ‘
the mines to the legal quota of each
Hut there is no intention of restrict
Ing the total production of potasl
On the other hand the publicity pro.
visions are Intended to Increase th«
rnnon m nf ! An
The American fertiliser companls*
sought to get control of all the potash
coming to America. They failed to
do It. They never Intended that ths
farmer should get potash salts dlrset
from them and they Insisted that tha
Germans should sell only to these
companies and that the German Kali
Works, which la the Amerlcnn Com
pany representlnR the potash mines,
should cease to sell mixers, dealers
and farmers.
The German Kail Works was or
Ranlsed for the purpose of Retting
potnsh to the farmers, local dealers
aid mixers, at fair prices It Is s
matter of Indifference to them wheth
er they sell It direct to these three
classes or whether their offer* cauaa
the fertiliser manufacturers to sell
It to them at fair prices The fertll
Ixer manufacturers do not want the
farmers to secure potnsh except In
the form of mixed goods containing
about potmds of phosphate and
filler to 2 pounds of potash salts
Home mixing gives the fertiliser
manufacturer nervous chills. It
means the farmer may buy raw ma
terial. compound his filler free fertil
iser at a marked saving, and. worst
of all, he will begin to figure on ths
money he has been paying out for
filler and freight on It. not a penny
of whli h was of any value In Increas
ing his crop.
The American fertiliser manufact
urers have claimed for years that
they sought uniform prices fur potnsh
rather than low prices. The new law
gives every buyer the same price. Hut
their strenuous objections prove what
many already knew, that the large
manufacturer does not want the mix
er. local dealer or farmer to buy
potash at all except in the form of
filler-loaded mixtures which place the
cost of plant food much higher than
It can be sold for In raw materials.
ENGINES and BOILERS
. ,Z/*r,lon Engine. 1H tiurae compound. •&»; H
hoc*, cornpourut. IN*); 16 ho«* plate tract**; 15
‘jiSif 10 h.trap traction; 10 and 11
.-TTlR??f** ,run ,rur‘‘»- *> borer portable.
n .kkl.; Ji. bon*. portable. on Iron truck.: geeo
line anginee. a'l ilM; new »*w mlU boilere.
rtiginoa, pump*, heater*.
*'**7 Holler Works, Springfield, Oklo
Steel Wheelsr
That's Sol HI red liutiil* are
K'Tiiujr Hcarivr evorv dtt v;
^but LOW MOWN STKllL
i \\ llLLI.S will help to take
\ thoir place. Then, too, the
sun don’t affect it sli'cl wliool
like it ill m■* tin. |m*st of hired
help. Mart bruin Jind /r*s
muncle nowadays. Culu
lojfne /ir« to you.
HAVANA METAL WHEEL CO.
Itov tIA, Hi.vumt, III.
TERRACING FARM. llUUES 1TH VALUE.
KAF£ L®VKL *i"° best for
Inching, (.ruling Irrigating. Mil,ling.
Munt*y in runrnnir llnvi for othrra
WrlU* now. for ftiwlikl Aguncy ofTrr
frank Wrtghl. Mfg. Cava Springe, tie.