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The Press and Banner ABBKVILLE, S. C. Published Every Wednesday by THE PRESS AND BANNER CO 1VM. P. ?RE EXE. Editor WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15, 1915. FARMS AND MARKETS. In his address delivered before the Pendleton Farmers Society, Secretary Houston calls attention to the fact that the farms of the state are growing smaller each year, the aver nAnfoiniri cr qKah f ttge JL<XL ill 1IU ?> V,VllVWilliu& seventy-six acres of land, while fifty years ago the farms contained an average of some five hundred acres. The Secretary believes that the unit farm is too mall for the economical employment of labor, and that the country will not prosper as it should on that account. All of which shows that the Secretary is not informed as to real conditions in this section, or that he does not knew what is real prosperity and progress. Fifty years ago when the farms had five hundred acres each they were in the hands of a few lordly land-owners, and the lands were tilled for him by negroes and the "tenant class." It is possible that on such large farms labor was emnloved more davs in the vear than now, and that machinery and farming implements were used more days in the year, but we doubt it. But that is not the real question. A few men then owned the lands which sold for little because only these few were able to purchase lands. Consequently the people who did the real work were not farmers but laborers, and the lands were tended as laborers are wont to tend them. But in these later years, every man has become, or desires to be, his own landlord. Consequently instead of the tenant class and the day laborers of the years gone by, we have a constantly increasing number of land-owners, who are willing to own small farms, to live on them, raise and educate families?real men who are a part and parcel of the country, all of which should enter into consideration when we weigh the results accruing from the employment and performance of labor. It is not correct to say that the division of the lands into these small farms is impeding progress. Other causes, such as, marketing condi tions may not be so good with the small farmer, and he may not be able to dispose of the products of the farm so well as could be done with fewer and larger farms, which might be organized, but the real progress in land development, in the prosperity and progress of the people on the farms will be found on the seventy-six acre farms; and the people who are looking for good government, for good schools, good communities and clean politics, are the men who are struggling to own the small farms. The economical employment of labor should not be measured alone by the number of days of work but by results, and these people are showing the real substantial results. If there is any doubt in the mind of anyone on this subject, a real investigation in the counties of the Piedmont section will dispel this doubt. Those counties are thriving most which are settled by the white people of the country, who are willing to divide and subdivide the lands, so that every man may have a place he calls his own. The blighting effect of large farms has affected the Western part of Abbeville county for years. With vast areas of the most fertile lands in this part of the state, the owners have been content to farm them by negro labor, and thriftless tenants. The lands remained undesirable, and almost valueless, for years. But within the last fifteen years, these lands have passed into the hands of men who were willing to divide them and sell small farms. Many men who now own thirty acres of land in this section are today worth more in the dollars and cents their lands will bring than men were who owned three hundred ac;es of the same lands twenty years ago. The country is being rapidly populated with people who want to own small farms, and in a few years we shall see many of them, with comfortable homes, good out-buildings, with school-houses and churches, a happy colony of free people, where only yesterday there was the tworoom weatherboarded house, unceiled. covered with rude boards and with a mud chimney, and this should be the final measure of the economical employment of labor?either ne's own or that of others. The Secretary says truly that marketing conditions should be improved in the South. There arc acres and acres of lands which may be more profitably planted in food crops than in cotton. Sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, wheat, oats, corn, and all kinds of fruits may be c grown here, but there is no market; y and this may be caused, as he says, P by the fact that the individual farm e is too small a unit. The producers F on the farms need real cooperation 1 in finding markets for all these pro- c ducts. It is not that the people do f not want to diversify on money v crops, but the trouble is that they * cannot diversify on these crops, y because it takes money to educate r children, build homes, build school n houses, pay the preacher and have 0 the modern conveniences of homelife, and this is why cotton is king s in the south and the farmers the p subjects. ^ If the Secretary shall be able to v devise some means by which the far- n mers of the South may learn to cooperate and find markets for other * money cr.ops, and shall teach them f to help themselves, and not look 111 to the government and the politi- * cians for succor, he will have done something substantial for the peo- 3' pie. But when the market is open- " ed for potatoes, ?the trouble is, that S:I we shall have a potato candidate 5,1 for every office in the county, and M the same will be true with tomatoes, and peaches, and black-berries. The people of the farms want most to ^ learn that farming is a business, and that it should be carried on in a ?' business way. If one man can come into a community and collect the * products of a single kind there and 0 show the people how to find a mar- * r ket for it, the lesson will have been learned. It is not that the people will not learn, but that they need a teacher. It is here that every community needs a leader. | Profited by 1 * H Mow Mississippi Mastered and g (By T. Larr: *JEZ'2 Editor Constitution: Since the j, publication of my article on the cot- ^ ton boll weevil in the Constitution, (. I have received a number of letters ^ and nostal cards from different sec- n tions of Georgia, many- asking fur- n ther information about the pest, i Among the number was one from tl my old friend Jim Price. Jim says f that Georgia never has been downed, s, and they intend to whip Mr. Weevil, n even if it becomes necessary to t< screen their cotton fields. c In my first letter I gave your peo- s' pie the dark side of the picture, and c 1 will now write about the brighter 2 side. I believe that the boll weevil s; will prove a blessing in disguise to n the South, and do for our farmers r; what Abraham Lincoln did for the p negro: Emancipate them from the c domination of the western grain g grower and meat raiser. But for a the appearance of the little critter c in our fields, I believe that the South would today be raising something like 25,000,000 bales of cotton, the V staple selling from three or four i? cents. And, furthermore, I do not 0 think the pest will play much havoc ^ in the upper counties of Georgia, f. for it is a tropical insect and does tl not flourish among; rocks and red b clay. But from, say, Hancock coun- Cl ty southward farmers had as well a make up their minds to abandon cot- y ton as the chief money crop and tl plant their fields in something else, vj and if they do plant cotton, to re- sj duce the acreage at least 90 per 01 cent, for every stalk must be care- 0 fully picked each ten days for weev- a ils; and this is a work that the darky n will not do. If cotton is grown un- n der boll weevil conditions it must be w with white labor. In this county I c< do not believe that ten bales are w raised by negroes. They will plant ti plow and hoe cotton, but will not do tl the painstaking work required to ai keep down the insect pest. So my tl advice to farmers in the infested ter- jr ritory is to only plant what cotton I they can look after with white la- d bor. In this county you can't hire ; J, the darky for love or money to m make cotton What Mississippi Has Done. 1 01 But I want to show your people f< what the farmers of this (Jones di county, Mississippi) have achieved tl in the way of independence and pros- f< perity, after their country has been ol invaded for some six years by the si cotton boll weevil. In order to do ir this, it will be necessary for me to di give a brief sketch of this county, ir Whc-n the war (our civil war) was rn started, there were only some 250 ir people in Jones county, and we now Y have over 40,000 inhabitants, fully sj .SO per cent whites. Every ten c< years the county has doubled in te population, and the county eontin- s( ucs to grow by leaps and bound?, ti Our county is checkered with rail- bi i-oi'.ds, and a trolley line will split tl it wide open which is now in opera- ir lion for seven miles. Good dirt roads are also being built every- e< where. And this is being achieved w with white labor, the few negroes <li in our midst being in the employ of G corporations, and it is rare to see V one at work in the fields. Jones rn '. ountv is about forty miles square, ji its topography being about the cl inme as Jackson, Banks and Madi- ir son. There are neither swamps nor tl m-ilai ia, and splendid pure freestone ! water can be had anywhere. At j ;.he close of the civil war the whole 1 w country was covered with an unbro-j f< ken forest of yellow pine. Enter- j n m ising northerners bought up this t( timbered land at one or two dollars per acre and made large fortunes p ron the lumber. The land was f. considered valueless, and cut-over t,j 'rinds can now be bought as low as i n'"> :'cre; but it is only a ques-j _ ! :i of time when it will bring ten i limes that price. If the farmers I THE FERTILI2:ER SITUATION. It appears certain that commerial fertilizers will be so high next ear that farmer;; will be unable to ilant the usual amount of cotton, ven if they desire to do so. The irices this year should have taught hem the lesson that a small crop of otton is the salvation of the South rom a financial standpoint. But whether they desire to further curail cr not, they must' do so next ear. Especially is this true with egard to farmers whose lands demand a large amount of potash in rder to produce cotton. Such being the case the farmers hould begin to prepare lands for lanting corn. And while it is a ittle late to do so, they Hhould plant rtieat and oats very largely, else lany acres of land will He idle. But the farmers will not lose any hing from the planting of corn and mall grains. When the difference a labor and fertilizers is accounted or, the yield of corn per acre hould pay almost as much as the ield of cotton. And there should e a ready market for corn and mall grains in view of the fact that ome twenty-five millions of dollars rorth of these products are annually hipped into South Carolina. In the meantime farmers may ecure a certain amount of potash or themselves by raking up pine braw and oak leaves and making ompost. Both the straw and iaves furnish a considerable amount f potash. A dollar saved in this ray is a dollar made. A wasted opportunity comes home o roost. Air castles are built on a foundaion of impossibilities. Music isn't necessarily broken beauso it comes in pieces. Boll Weevil | f Profited By Boll Weevil m 7 Gantt.) H I ere worked as long and as hard as hey do among "the old red hills of Jeorgia," they would all be making ig money. But it is so easy to ve here that they do not put in lore than four months' steady work. 'he average farm is from fifteen to hirty acres, anc. from these patches amilies make a splendid living and ome money. You can grow any lanner of crop here, and it is easy o make from 30 to 100 bushels of orn or oats per acre. For the two ucceeding years, young boys in this ounty made respectively 221 and 10 bushels of corn per acre, and I aw a patch from which a negro lade 30 bushel;? per acre and only an around his crop one time after lanting. They also grow ribbon ane syrup, making from 300 to 500 allons per acre, sweet potatoes and nything else in the way of fruit or ereal. Did Not Depend on Cotton. But to return to my subject: Phcn the European war broke out ist year it had no effect whatever n the people of Jones county, but 'as really to th'?ir profb. . Not one armer in ten owed a dollar, and ley were able to hold their few ales of cotton, which they did. You an todav start out in the conntrv nd buy at almost any farm home ou pass corn, oats, meat, beef cate, or aught else in the way of proisions. Our merchant!; every week lip off carloads of home-raised corn ats, syrup, potatoes, pinders, and ther produce. Every farmeh has large herd of cattle, and they do ot have to feed them more than inety days during the year. The hole county is covered with a thick Dating of nutritious CE.rpet grass, hich is now as green as in springme. Each corn field i? planted in le velvet bean, which matures here, nd cattle are turned thereon when le crop is gathered and remain j i fine condition without other feed, do not suppose there are a hun-. red pounds of fodder pulled in : ones county, a:; there are so many | lore easily gathered forage crops. I Our farmers do not buy anything n credit, paying cash -for even their , utilizers. And all of this indepen-j snt prosperity has come about since le advent of the boll weevil. Be-! )re that pest appeared the farmers F this county raised cotton to buy - j lpplies on time and they were kept i i the lowgrounds of sorrow and bur- j sned with debt. They are now as J [dependent as woodsawyers. In I iy trips out in the country I notice j nprovements going on everywhere, j ou can now buy in our market I ilendid fat beef at from 8 to 12 j ;nts per pound and during the win- j tr wagon loads of dressed hogs are ;en daily on the streets. A short j me since a certain beat issued | amis to build a schoolhouse, and j ic bonds were bought by farmers . i that community. And what the farmers of Jones I >unty have accomplished under boll eevil conditions certainly the in- i ustrious and enterprising people of eorgia can likewise accomplish, r*hi 1 e the farmers do not handle so i iuch money, they will in time adlst themselves to the new and langed situation, and become more ulependent and well-established on le bedrock of endurincr nrnsneritv. Plant Early Cotton. Our farmers have stopped the ork of burning old cotton stalks, 5r it is an endless task, and does ot check the insect. The only way ) jrrow cotton in infested sections ; to start early in the season, and ick off and destroy the weevils as \st as they appear. But this means lev can be kept down, and even as mch as a bale or more of cotton (Continued on page 5.) iiflfitfiffiifiifiatfiifitfitfiirdJiirdnirit nJI I A Man's= I CHRISTM ffi S tfi 0=5^ II J 1 J SchlossBroSCa. JjL-Ji i \ 1*JTKre "ew^17 PARKE] Finr?wpnnnnpinnrinnww JIJ Dlduy muummiJUMIJMD ^j^j^gfgjgjglgfgjijjgjgjgjgjgjgfgj'tgjgjgfgjgjgjgfgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjQ 1MID-WINT sSts H At 20 Per SI In face of the fa gj| rapidly advanci jjjl to convert a la ip stock into Cash Si gains will be foi IS COUNTER, ALI Ill FIGURES. SS| DON'T FORGE' |k| these Silk Bar jjjp through one of 1 Stocks of Mercl | We Call Special M of Dress Goods, M ble Napkins, ( ijfjS QuiSts, Blankets iS Sweaters, Cloal M Gloves, Neck we, Ijjl Abbeville, ^cifci/circlMiifciJElffiriSJ clIST^JSliSMelMp1 ciJ cil SEI0 li'sJIWSfiil AS PRESENT! j ] [; yjz What Mnct Mpn I? T *Ji^ ^ JLT JLT1VA1 - Mb Want For Christmas j! is Something They |j Can Wear. , j i | jj p i { | A Suit, Overcoat, Raincoat, Bath- I j AT~~1 rM~ TJ J1 ! 1 1VJUC, mCl^Ji.WCcti, VX1UVCS, JLlctLUJUkCl - UJ chiefs, Mufflers, Suit Case, or any of - IJ the other numerous articles that you [ S can select from our splendid stock j 1 f 1 hf would make an admirable Christmas I v j ] present. You'll find it easy to select 11 V I a Christmas present here for a boy or [ 3 * 11K a man. Jl^rl ??|il R & REESE Ijl !| : aaraiammiUiiiBia^ 5 i 4 / ??3lD'f3?5J5?5U5fnJMi?fSI3J3J3J3J3J5r5JoIM53J3M3M3?3M3JSJ3MSISI3/53J3n3| U2JgJ2J3J3MSMS?S?3ISJ5fSISJSISISJ21SJSJJS?SfSMSMSfSfSM3JS/2M3JSJSJ3JwlCg|c W SILK SAIll Cent Discount j j !M515M5M5J5]M5M5MBf5J5M5J5J5f5J5M5M5J5JBJ5J5M5JBM5M5J5!M&51 pjj| IS ct that all Silk Goods are I1 ng, we have determined llg rge part of our present 11 . These Great Silk Bar= 1 i undon BACK CENTER ?1 i ji/i a ni/nrv ivt ni a iivt SMS U iUrtKNCU ll> rL,f\li>l r when you come to see |S| I gains, to take a look i|||9 the Largest and Cleanest ||j| I landise in this market. |?j| 9 I Attention to our Stock pig fl Table Linen, Towels, Ta- jjjjjj I Curtain Materials, Bed |M| I Bath Robes, Kimonas, . gfif I <s, Shoes, Hosiery, Kid jjjjjjl 9 ar, Etc. jjgjl I TIT nAIT flAMTY'vllfl fiLouiN iiumr 11| - South Carolina Fgj| H iISISMSMS?SJ2MSf2ISMcLr2i3MSJSfSMSJ2JS?i'SJiL!3EiWL;ii;T!.D:ji'ci'ii2IS|L" I