How to Prosper in Boll Weevil Territory Part 2

Rotation of Crops

A Safe and Sane System of Crop Rotation in Boll Weevil Territory Absolutely Necessary

When the boll weevil first appears in a territory, the first efforts at breaking away from all cotton usually consist in going largely into another single crop system of farming rather than the production of a variety of crops. The evils of the new system are usually as great as those of the all cotton system. Many farmers rush into the truck business.

Of course, truck crops should be grown on every farm in the weevil territory, and, in some particular localities, they may const.i.tute the main reliance for cash, but it seems that the truck business is a gamble for the average cotton farmer. Trucking has lured many a farmer to financial ruin.

The crop rotation for the average cotton farmer should include oats, corn, some cotton, and at least one leguminous crop. Along with this should go the growing of hogs, mules, horses and cattle instead of having to buy them from other sections of the country.

It is not possible for the farmer in the boll weevil territory to entirely supplant cotton as a money crop, but this crop should be supplemented with the growing of home supplies, as well as other crops which will produce cash returns.

Cotton is one of the greatest cash crops, and while it should be the main money crop in the boll weevil territory north of lat.i.tude 32, it should not be the only cash crop grown. The safest plan either within or without the boll weevil territory is to follow a system of diversified farming.

The cotton farmers, especially those in the boll weevil territory, cannot afford to depend entirely on cotton as a cash crop. A system of rotation suitable for cotton belt farmers should include some of the following staple crops:

_Oats are probably_ the surest and best paying small grain crop that can be grown over practically the entire cotton belt. The same soil that will produce one bale of cotton per acre will grow 60 bushels of oats. At the average price that has prevailed for oats during the past five years, the 60 bushels will sell for $36 to $40, and the straw, when baled, will often pay the larger part of the expense of growing the grain.

_The bale of cotton per acre land_ will produce about $30 worth of oats, at least one and a half tons of lespedeza hay, and five bushels of lespedeza seed. The lespedeza hay will sell for about $12 per ton and the lespedeza seed for about $3 per bushel. The total is $63 per acre. We are personally acquainted with a farmer who has averaged $65 per acre for eight years.

_Thirty dollars worth of oats_ and twenty bushels of soy beans at $1.50 per bushel, and one and a half tons of soy bean hay at $8 per ton, means $72 per acre. These are very conservative figures. At the Mississippi Delta Experiment Station in 1912 the land produced ninety bushels of oats to the acre, twenty-two and a half bushels of soy beans, "after losing a good percentage of the beans by shattering," and 5,200 pounds of soy bean hay. The average yield of cotton on the same land was about 500 pounds of lint per acre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Oats in a three-year rotation with cotton and corn]

_Oats and vetch_ sown together furnish more and better grazing and better hay than either when sown separately. There is no better hay than oats and vetch cut in the dough stage. Few hays will sell for a better price on the market. The oat and vetch hay provides a much more satisfactory ration for horses and mules than corn or leguminous hay.

_Oats may be followed by cowpeas._ When the cowpeas are planted in rows on good land, well fertilized and cultivated, the yield is usually from ten to twenty bushels of peas and one and a half tons of hay. The peas usually sell for about $2 per bushel and the hay for about $12 per ton.

_Ninety bushels of oats_ and sixty-seven bushels of peanuts were produced on the same land at the Mississippi Delta Experiment Station in one year.

At the present prices for peanuts and peanut hay, it is a very profitable crop to grow after oats when properly handled.

_When corn is planted_ on fertile soil thoroughly prepared, _properly fertilized_ and cultivated, the yield is usually about fifty bushels per acre. The average price per bushel is about 80 cents. Peas planted in corn at the last working will usually average about eight bushels of peas and a ton or more of valuable hay. The peavine hay can be harvested by live stock.

_The growing of live stock_ will help to create extensive home markets for roughage and leguminous crops, keep the money at home that is usually sent to the north and west for pork products, mules, horses, hay, beef, and so on, and at the same time add greatly to the fertility of the soil. Pork can be produced in the cotton belt more easily than any other live stock.

It would not be wise for the average cotton farmer to devote his farm exclusively to hog raising, yet it will certainly pay him to produce enough pork for home use and some to sell to supplement the money formerly obtained for cotton.

Chickens, turkeys, ducks and other poultry sell for good prices and every cotton farmer in the weevil territory should raise some poultry for sale.

The Labor Problem

Plenty of good labor is an absolute necessity in growing cotton under boll weevil conditions. The tendency of newly infested districts is to neglect the laborer at the time when he needs support and encouragement. Thousands of families have moved out of a single county in one season to other cotton sections, while if they had been given a little encouragement to grow corn, grain, cowpeas, hogs, vegetables in his own garden, etc., he would have remained in the community where he is much needed.

The farmers, planters, merchants and bankers must unite and see to it that the laborers have the actual necessities of life. He should be encouraged to grow his home supplies, a little cotton, a few chickens and his own pork. This method would put farming on a basis which will eliminate and do away with the necessity of sending to the north and west for bacon, lard, mules, corn, hay and other supplies. By working together and keeping our laborers satisfied we will keep them in the community where they are needed to till the soil and help build up our farms.

The Debt Problem

When traveling in weevil territory, we meet farmers almost daily who are anxious to sell their farms at from one-third to one-fifth of their real value. The farmers tell us that they are in debt and will never be able to pay out. They say that the boll weevil has come to destroy their cotton--their sole cash crop.

Now these farmers are mistaken on two counts. First, cotton is not the only surplus money crop; second, the boll weevil does not prevent the growing of profitable crops of cotton in normal seasons. The cotton money is now used to pay for corn, bacon, lard, mules and hay. When the tenants and farmers all live at home and practice the most rigid economy, the cotton money will soon pay all debts.

Life on the farm is robbed of practically all of its pleasures as long as we pay fifty per cent credit profits and the creditor constantly knocks at the door. The only people who really suffer in periods of hard times are the men who are in debt; men who owe money and are often compelled to sacrifice their property to meet the imperative demands of their creditors. The farmer who is out of debt when the boll weevil comes and has an abundance of high cla.s.s food supplies on his farm is not materially affected. Many of the cotton farmers who are in debt when the boll weevil comes lose their homes.

Labor Saving Implements

The following is an extract from an address delivered at Greenville, Miss., in the boll weevil territory, by Dr. S. A. Knapp, a man who did more for real genuine progress in the South than any other one man has ever done. "The farmer who uses modern machinery in planting and cultivating his crop will succeed, and the one who does not will make a failure. The old way of making a crop by hand by the use of the hoe and plow must soon be a thing of the past. We must come to use the modern implements and the sooner we let the negro understand that he must work his crop in this way, the better off we shall be."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Boll weevils attacking growing cotton boll]

The Personal Element in the Boll Weevil Fight

By B. L. Moss

Editor Progressive Farmer, Birmingham, Alabama.

A man's personal att.i.tude and convictions play a large part in his successes and failures in all walks of life, and nowhere is the truth more apparent than in a farmer's att.i.tude toward the boll weevil problem.

Before the coming of the weevil, it is looked upon by nine farmers out of ten as a remote danger, doubtful in time of arrival and greatly exaggerated in its possibilities for damage. No preparations for it are made, the farm mortgage is left hanging like a cloud over the family homestead, and the old methods so long in vogue are left unchanged.

Then the crash comes! The obsolete methods of the past are worthless against the weevil; the cotton crop is swept away, interest on the mortgage is unpaid, and its foreclosure is certain. This picture is the rule and not the exception.

Such a situation calls forth the real qualities of the man. Many a farmer, for the first few years of the weevil invasion, has proven a quitter. He has failed because he did not think he could succeed. Usually he has been the identical man who failed to believe in and prepare for the coming of the weevil.

The exceptional man has believed in and prepared for the weevil's coming, and he has succeeded. Incidentally, his success has shown out as a beacon light to his doubting neighbors and has ultimately pointed the way for them.

Five years' experience tells me that you can raise cotton profitably in the presence of the boll weevil. The HOW of the matter is given by others in this booklet, but you, YOU, must take it up with the spirit of FIGHT.

Believe that you can, swear that you will, and success is yours.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lespedeza a great hay crop for the lower South]

The Boll Weevil's Influence in the Regeneration of the South

By H. Guy Hathorn, Planter, Woodville, Miss.

For many years the one crop system has been the bane of the cotton belt.

When land was virgin, cheap and plentiful, the evil was not so apparent, and the necessity for a saner system was not so pressing. A depleted soil, unreliable labor and various other factors caused certain individuals to see the error of their way, and induced them to adopt a diversified system and the use of labor-saving implements. It was necessary for the great majority to receive a paralyzing shock before they would make any material change; that shock came in the shape of the boll weevil. As certain alternative medicines create great debility and languor of the body before the curative power can become operative, so has all business in any way connected with the growing of cotton suffered depression as a preliminary to the greater financial vigor and strength that comes after a few years'

experience with stock raising and diversification as the rule, and with cotton occupying a secondary place in the farm operation.

Letter from the Late Dr. S. A. Knapp to G. H. Alford