Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Os Interest to the Wealth Creators WHAT UNION HAS DONE. When the agricultural interests of Texas are united they are invincible. These interests have stood together and won great victoiies within the past eight months. The issues on which the Farmers’ Congress with its allied associations, the Farmers’ Un ion. with its aggressive.membership and the staid and reliable Texas Grange have presented a solid front in demands made on the legislature are: 1. A vigorous State Department of Agriculture, which shall be sepa rate from and independent of all related depaitments. This has been secured and SIO,OOO provided for its support. Farmers’ Institutes will be conducted by this department. 2. A Scalp Bounty Law that will encourage the destruction of wild an imals preying on our live stock and poultry interests and dangerous to human life. This bill passed both the house and senate with an .appropria tion of SIOO,OOO. 3. To make Agriculture a Requir ed Subject in the Public Schools. This law applies to all public schools in Texas except independent school districts having more than three hun dred scholars. 4. An Act Validating the Diplo mas of the Girls’ Industrial College at Denton, for public school teachers. The same action was sought for A. & M. graduates, but was nut accom plished. 5. The Anti-Bucket Shop Law for the protection of the cotton market and in the interest of good morals. This passed and is a death blow to the cotton gambling interests in Texas. 6. Appi opriation of $15,000 for Live Stock Department at A. & M. College. 7. Enactment of Game Warden Law. This bill passed just at the close of the session after being amended materially. The fruits of this farmers’ cam paign are plainly in evidence. Things of great moment have been accom plished. The thanks of Texas farmers are due the earnest men who have given their time, money and influence to advance these issues and to change resolutions into laws. All honor to Judge Lee Young and his associates on the Farmers’ Con gress Committee on Legislation. A full measure of praise is due Judge V. W. Grubbs, of the Farmers’ Un ion Committee on education, and to E. A. Calvin and Mr. Davis of the Union, who stood shoulder to shoul der with the other committees in the bitter fighting and returned blow for blow on the enemy. C. B. Metcalf, Vice-president for Texas, of the Cotton Association, with Secre tary Thornhill, spent days in the “trenches” and never faltered when the fight was thickest. These were the generals, and fol lowing them was a trained army whose delight it was to obey the com mand to “charge. ” All have united “tv 5 nvrnrKri-T -prrTTrnvsCTr ixnt and gained great and peaceful vic tones. Let not these victories go without renown. Crown the victors. Applaud the worthy men who have served Texas thus well. —Farm and Ranch. FIFTEEN-CENT COTTON THIS YEAR. The cotton producers of Texas have their sights considerably elevated this year, and it is a result that could but naturally be expected from the success attendant upon the improved methods adopted for the marketing of the crop last year. It is only a jump of four cents from 11-cent cot ton to 15-cent cotton, and 15 cents is the figure aimed at for the coming season according to Colonel E. S. Peters, of Calvert, secretary and the head of the transportation and fre : ght committee of the National Farmers’ Union, who says the farm ers will be certain to obtain 15 cents per pound for their cotton this sea son. He gives the following reasons for the faith within him: “Many reasons may be assigned for cotton reaching this point. First, the crop is bad, very bad. Conditions are worse this year than they have been for years. The boll weevil, the pest which has done countless dam age to the cotton crop, is decidedly more numerous than it has ever been at this season of the year. The stand of cotton is bad, and so much was replanted and at so late a period, that there will be a great loss. Weath er conditions are responsible for this state of affairs. “Among the spinners of the world is an increased demand for cotton, and the mills are running to their greatest capacity to supply the de mand for cotton goods. Prosperity abounds, and with the wdiole world at peace, business conditions could be no better. Thp cost of producing cotton is greater, and other condi tions make' it imperative that the man who raises the staple should re ceive a higher price in order to make a fairer profit. Fifteen cents a pound is not too much. Labor is scarce and high. Land, mules' and plows and everything else is going up. Why not cotion? I think the mills will be perfectly willing to pay 15 cents, as the advance is only a small fi-action per yard on the cost of the production of the manufac tured cotton goods. “The union has been very busy preparing to take care of the crop. Through its efforts the farmers will be in a position to store their cot ton until they can secure a satisfac tory price. West of the Mississippi river warehouses have b en built with a storage capacity of bales.” —Fort Worth Telegram. (From the Dodson Times.) WARNING TO COTTON FARM ERS. Reports are now beginning Io reach us from planters in various parts of the boll weevil section to the es- feet that the “boll weevils are dis appearing.” The planters of Texas, during the first fevV years of weeyil infestation, experi°nced this same pleasurable sensation each summer, until a few years of sad experience taught them that appearances were deceitful. The reports received from Ento mologists of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology 7 , now at work in western Louisiana, show that adult weevils are getting scarce in many of the fields. This apparent “disappearance” of adult boll weevils is accounted for by the fact that the hibernated wee vils which survived the winter, and most of which now emerged from their winter quarters, are now dying off very rapidly, but another bro d —the first brood for the summer — is now developing in the squares and when this brood has matured and starts to depositing eggs in the squares in July, the farmer will quick ly realize that there has been no real disappearance at all. This article is sent out as a warn ing to the farmer, to caution him against letting this coming temporary absence of adult weevils lull him in to a false security. This same thing has taken place in the boll weevil section each year, and will take place in every year to come; therefore do not neglect tffbse measures which will protect the crop. Give frequent shal low cultivations and pick up and cage the fallen squares as directed in Cir cular No. 15 of the Crop Pest Com mission. (Any farmer who has not received this circular should write at once to the Commission at Baton Rouge for a copy.) The farmers who have been experi menting with Paris green on the cot ton now behold this seemingly mir aculous disappearance of adult wee vils and naturally jump to the con clusion that the poison has done it. Circumstances could not conspire more perfectly to create false results in these experiments. Whether he has “banked” on Paris green or not, our advice to ev ery farmer in the weevil territory is to protect his crop by giving frequent cultivation and taking care of the fallen squares, for in most of the in fested area these are the only means by which cotton can be made now. WILMON NEWELL, Entomologist. Baton Rouge, La. THE COTTON SEED OIL TRUST. We want to call attention of the Farmers’ Union of Arkansas to the practice of one of the most heart less combinations that has ever exist ed in Arkansas, and that is the Cot ton Seed Oil Combine. This combi nation has so effectively done its work that it takes the* shrewdest kind of efforts to detect their meth ods of speculation, and we found on last season that the Farmers’ Union membership, the ginners, many who belong to the Farmers’ Union, no, we won’t say many, but a few who belong to the Farmers’ Union, and a nhmber of ginners in the country who do not belong to the Union, aid ed and abetted this heartless combi nation in robbing the farmer from three to five dollars per ton on the seed. To illustrate how slick this was done, they put a piece of eleven dollars (the mills did on seed de livered), they then would go to the ginner and hire him to buy seed for them at the gin, giving eleven dollars for the seed at the gin. Then said ginner would get from $2.50 to $3 per ton for delivering the seed at the railroad station. This little han dy scheme of bribing the ginner rob bed the man who hauled his seed di rectly to town, who could get but eleven dollars to save his life, of from $2.50 to $3 per ton. It does look strange to think that the ginner who derives his support like all other classes from the farm er would thus enter into a combina tion that takes the advantage of his unsoffisticated brother and allow this oil trust combination to use him as a tool in controlling the price of Cot ton seed throughout the state. Farm ers awake to your duty, and if it can be proven- on your ginner that he will do such a trick as this, we are not in favor of the boycott propo sition, but we do say that it is your duty to let him and his gin sell out to the oil trust and carry your cot ton to those who will help to pro tect your inteiest. This combination known as the cotton oil trust of Arkansas must be “busied,” and the way that we can do it is to understand and co-operate with each other with the full and avowed purpose of not sell ing a ton of seed except that the pice agreed upon by the organiza tion in Arkansas. We call the attention to this evil for the reason that a personal in vestigation of matters last fall dis closed the above conditions to be in practice in immediate vicinity, and we, therefore, warn our peop’e not to repeat the “slip-shod” meth od of handling seed that was prac ticed last year. The farmer should control the price of his cotton seed as well as his cotton. Therefore, see to it that your ginners do not enter a combination that gives him a bounty on every ton of seed that he buys of you, and thereby enable an oil trust to control the entire seed market. Get busy, boys.—Ar kansas Union Tribune. FARMERS’ UNION WARE HOUSES. As stated in your paper recently, the Farmers’ Union has rented a cotton warehouse at Cedartown and one at Rockmart. This step gives them entire control of the handling of our cotton for the next crop, for no one should wish to, nor could they afford to, antagonize ns in this legitimate, business-like effort to get the worth of our cotton. A large majority of the Farmers’