Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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8OUTH CAROLINA TOBACCO CROP r.:John C. Sellers Makes Some Practical Suggestions. To the Editor of The News and Cou I am very much interested in the scussion of thee tobacco situa tion as shown in , recent letters by Messre. Sprott and Cothran and the comments of the ceditor of The News nd Courier on the editorial page. Yhese gentlemen are no theorists or book farmers and discuss "what they .'cnow and testify what they have ex perienco," and their opinions are en titled to great weight. I think after all the misunderstandings and cob kwebs are wiped away we can all a gree on this one thing, "our tobacco markets open too early and close too soon.", . To bring about a longer marketing season some of us advocated in 1915 a compulsory grading an:I bundling of all tobacco before it coulk be of fered for salee on the warehouse floor Xt there was such a difference of Sinion hmon; farmers an:i ware housemen and tobacco buyers that the scheme fcll through and the grading law failed to pass the Legislature.1 AMany of the farmers insisted that they , didn't know how to properly grade to bacco, that it was expensive and that they were anxious to get rid of their tobacco so us to have the money to gather their cotton which began to open about the close of the tobacco 4eason, all of which was true and could not be gainsaid or denied. Some of the warehousemen ani buyers in sisted that they had interests in the North Carolina or Virgina or Ken tuckey markets which they coubl not afford to neglect and therefore could! only stay here a short limited thne and then "hie themselves away to pas tures new." Twenty-five to thirty years ago hen there were a few warehouse in t, e State all tobacca was graded anIl tied up (not that grading and ticing up really adds anything to the value of tobacco, but the time required to put tobacco in condition to grade does add to its value), wwaon-es were not open for the sale of tobacco till sometime in August, and they re mained open longer than now, be cause the crop could not be gotten ready for market and the warehouses of those days usually kept a large force of graders on hand to help out the farmers who could not grade at 4home. It was soon found that a large pjart of our tobacco was for the ex port trade and cx)orters prefered the loose leaf (for evcn if they buy the bundled up tobacco Vie first thing that is done when it reaches the stem meries is to unit the bund.les pre paratory to cxtracting the :;terms, and this ticing up is simply a matter of time and money), the buyers let it be known that they would pay just as much for the loose leaf as they would for tied up tobacco of the same -qual ity *and farmers soon found out this was true by grading and ticing up ione-half of a curing and carrying the other half and selling both at the same time andi recieving as much for one as the other. It was then "that all king's screwvs broke loose," as the boys used to say, and as soon as' the fires dliedl down on theflrst curing of sand lugs the local papers wouldl 4n nounce that if a'.l warehouses would be onen next Tuesdny with i full cropa of buyers on ha,:l all anxlous to pay the higm dollar, so bring on your to bacco while the price is high, etc., and 4from then till the North Carolina mar kets oren it is hurry, hurry, rush, rush. ' Many farmers take the tobacco that was finished being cured Saturday nights, get it in order Saturday and Sunday night, take it ofi' the sticks Monday morning, tie it up in cotton sheets, load it on a wagon, carry it to market and sell it the same (lay, and~ there is no man living who can tell what its value is in its then con dlition. It is a well known fact that if to bacco is taken from~ the curing barn in proper condition, carriedl to the pack house, bulked (down while still on the sticks and securely covered p with sheets it wvill wonderfully im prove in a very short while. As the farmers say, "it, comes to itself" -In fom three to four weeks. All the - ;ne color it is cal"'ble of showing comes out and it feels like sor'ething that has life in it. If vhen a suitable clay comes, not too -dry andl windy nor too clamp, you will take dlown that tobacco and take it off the sticks a stick' at a time, throwv out the burnt and grceen leaves. You nnel not grade 'as Mi. Cothra!. clearly shows in his rccent let ter, an:1 carry that to CHICH ETER S PILLS . TE IA3IONJD nRAND) Pill n oamgonld a .., boxessee with IueRtbon. SOLDBY DRUGGISTSEERYS( M va It 0 0 0 o *0 0 bacco to a warehouse you will get the highest price that quality of tobacco will bring. As an experiment last year, I had a barn thuet treated divid:d into two piles, one, I thought, a little better than th.. other, but when seld on the warehouse floor they both bro'.ght identically the same price, 50 cent a pound. You can't Zool the buyers. If your tobacco has the quality and is in good. condition when offered for cale you will get the highest price that quality of tobacco will Lring; other wise you will gct nny low old price I have been planting "The News and Courier crop" twenty-five years and no year have I fn.iled to get more for tobacco than frort an equal area of cotton, no matter how high or low elther ma;y be. I have never realize the high prices sonie have. My high water mark was for the crop of year before lnst when I got a little over $31r) per acre on a crop of tweIve acres, and believe I would have reached the $400 mark on a crop of fifteen acres last year had it not been for the heavy July rains as the 1919. Just about the time everything is wvorking smoothly without too much crowding in the warehouses and the crop is about one-half soid the world goes out from the wanrehousecz tn the farmers that at a specified date in the near futuree all warehouses will close for the season as the buycres wvill have to leave for the oponing of the North Carolina markets. Tfhen it in, Mr. Editor, that confusion anevl pan demoniunm break loose. Every w.are DoYouWa Begin the year right or repairing the one you a small bill of lumber use save you many dollars. either. Write us for pri AVERY LU South Harvin St. Galvanized Corrugc ROO) Have two thousand two hu number twenty-nine gauge Glalva: lengths. One thousand four hun, same lengths. This is car that le day. You ought to use our Lead ing. Send for circular. COLUMBIA SUP 823 West Gervals St. IW. I 1 0 Oill hou e is filled to overidowing. To bacco is pilcd to the cei!ling in the driveways while ouiide long lines of wagons in every dir2ction are wait ing (often in the rain) a chance to unload on the warehouse floors. Inside the weisrhers. warehousemen, auction Crs, buyers, statemeent carriers and bookkeepers are working hard all (lay to clear the floors and for hours noth ing can be heard but the monotonous jargon of thc auctioneer as he cries ("ach1 pile separately and the quick jerky response of the successful buyer as he blurts out "Mark it B." And this condition of things Is repeated from (lay to (lay till the warthouses close and the buyers leave. How can we remedy these condi tions? First, I would be in favor of a regulation among warehousemen or a law on our statute books requiring every warehouse to remain closed till at least one month after curing be comes general say about the first week in August. This would enable farmers to bulk (Iown their tobacco so as to get same in the best possible condi tion for marketing and then if the buyers insist on leaving a's before the crop is sold let the farmers 1hold their tobacco bulked dlown in the pack, houses and wvhen convenient, ship to Rocky Mount. or Danville andl get the fr~ncy prices now being i aid on those markets. Farmers, as a rule, can eas ly (10 this for wvlth the high prices of cotton and tobacco of the past few years most far-mers are out of debt and are now riding in automobiles in stead of buggies and ox-car ts as in the nt a H ome? by beginning your home have. A few shingles or d at the proper time may We can help you with ces, grades, etc. MBER CO., Sumter, S. C. ted and V Crimped ndred (2200) sheets Corrugated nized Roofing in 6', '7', 8' and 10' clred (1400) sheets V Cr-imped in ft factory .Jan. 21st, expected any Headed Nails in putting on Roof PLY COMPANY Columbia, s. C. mm m muumm.......... 1.4 Ox,/ ItHelps! + There can be no doubt as to the merit of Ca.rdui, the Woman's tonic, in the treatment of many troubles peculiar to women. Th te thousands -. of womnca wo have been helped by Cardui in the past 40 'ycars, is conclu sive proof that it is a good medicine for women who siffer. It should .help you, too. Take CARDU + The Woman's Tonic + Mrs. N. E. Varner, of Hixson, Tenn., wrues: the . .. My Unck and sides wcre terr~ble, and + my suffering indescriba- 1 ble. I can't tcll just how T and wvhere I hurt, about all over. I thiink ... I began CardLui, and rmy pins grewv less ..>d less, until I was cured. I am remarkahl1 strong fcr a -4- woman 6~ years ci aze.+ I do all my housework." Try Cardui, today. F..76 oldlen days of '4-cent cotton, andl at the .inorey of a commission merchant at Lhe ports. And then, why cannot we have our own natiye tobacco buyers jutst as wve hmave cotton buyers on eveery market, who stays with usfrom yeair to year are making a good liv ing and1( ar on the job fronm Janaary to January? It has always been a source of wvon decr to mo that so fewv of our young men have gone into the tobacco buy ing business in thc past thirty years. They readily become expert cotton buyers and why thecy don't combine the two I can't understandl. . They supplement each other and make a year-roundl business. It is just as easy anrd more convenient for the farmer toa drivep his wagon Iaods of cotton on the street in front of the tobacco wvarehouse as it is to drive up Main street, crowdedl as it usually is wvith passing automobiles, wvagons and~ mfo tor trucks. The warehouses are usually near and convenient to the freight stations, and wvhen the cot toni is rampledl and sold to buyersit is easily dlelivered andl weighed at the depot. Both cotton and tohacco are paid for by chech on a bank. The oung men who come from North Carolina, Virginia andl Kentucky to buy our tobacco are usually a splen did set of men, affable, pleasant and agreeable, with p'. "a WI Sea le After the Cher, Bottle is uniformi it passes to the au1 crowning machine, it is hermetically with the famous Cola crown which keep goodn-ess in and all impur This gives you Cherc pure, wlhoLsone and refr it ik; dhcious. This is another of t' reasons fur the univers larity of Clicro-Cola. get up" about them; and I have no prejudice against them ,and really like them, but they are birds of pas sage and don't stay long enough with us to proVe their real worth or to inspire our coiplete confidence. Let us encourage our young men to learn the tobacco buying business and then our warehouses can be kept open till the last pound is sold without. a great rush and hurry. The early and persistent advocacy of the crop by the lamented Dawson put the biggest kind of a feather inl the cap of The News an] Courier. It surly has l'"n a godsend to this Pee Dee section. Looking bick to the gloomy days of 4-cent cotton I don't see how we ever could have pulled through had it not have been for The News and Courier crop. And then the coming and settlinig amoung us of such men as Mr. Cothran, Geo. Yar borough, the Dickson bro.. Eldwards and Clar, of Mullins; Winn, of Mar ion; Wac of Dillo'n, and many others I h c .'.ur2t th tohneco belt have added much to the splen-li eIcit izenship of our Sta:t e. Geo. Yarho rough came to Mullins many years ago is a youcng toba 'co buy< r. Heo andi his boys are nowv leading warehousemen and successful fa rmers. al has rearte I en:l eduicated a large fan v, graduat ing his children in the rol~ecges of thc State and one of h is b'ys. Lieut. George HT. Yarborough , .I1.. a grahtat I of the 1itadcel , mnadle the supreme sa crifice on the hattil'fieh! of F'rance. Ithink a multiplicaition e' warehause isi not to tiIhe best in tere'st of the to - bacco business. Most of our ambi OUR BANE STHEWY ARE INSEPAR ABLE A godfuture without den't often happen, yc S Our institution is a p andlinvesting bank. We solicit the patriona; al atributes are likewise ly esreto become such. You never regret moi use to regret when it is The Bankt - JOSEPH SP T. M. MOU15 d r)Cola y filled ;omatic where sealed Chero s all the ities out. r-Cola as eshing as rte many al popu AgD tlous little towns as soon as they are incorporated seeing what tobacco haa done for Mullins, Timmonsville and Lake City which forty years ago woro barely "wide places in the road," and are now flourishing young cities, erect warehouses that cannot serve the farmers as c!Ticiently as the larger muarkets. It w-)ul(d be much better if all the warehouses in a county could be concentrated in a few centers in eacli county and thus the season for selling could be much lengthened and the foreiga buyers kept with us till all the tobacco coald he sold gradually an wit hout the rush and hurry, as now. In this day of good hard-s9r faced roads and motor trucks distanco does not count as in the olden days. John C. Sellers, Sellers, March 2, 1920 CIWATES RACING BOARD. A inapolis, Md., March 8.-The House tonight by a vote of P2 to 24, pa5ssed the bill creating a racing comn mission for Prince George county to Mir ('harlos D). L/ vy, of Baltimore, is visiting his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. A. Abrams. For CROUP, COLDS, INFLUENZA & PNE~UMONIA Mothers shou ld keep a bra of Itrame' ,vapomethaI Salve canrentent. wh Ien Croup. Ionuenza or P nen mni a 1threatensa i odehgbtful calve rubb ed wtelI Into tbe throat, chest anid under the arms, wall relevc the choking, break congtestion and promotoe rcetful aleep. 30c, 60cand $l.20at alldrug slores or eal pn(pajby Braime Drug Co. N. Willwiaborn, N. C. and sav'ing is somethingr that U know. r'ogressive money saving e of these whose person -and( those who earne(st mey saved. There is no rone. >f Manning ROT T, President CON, Cashier -