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PAGE SIX
UNION DEPARTMENT
DIVERSIFIED FARMING.
Never before has the wisdom and
common sense of the farmers who di
versify their crops been so well dem
onstrated as at present. The extra
ordinary weather conditions that have
prevailed, the effort being made by a
large number of farmers to hold their
cotton for higher prices, and the ex
igencies precipitated by the financial
situation, have served to emphasize
the independence of the farmer who
uses prudence and good judgment in
the diversification of his crops.
If he has raised plenty of corn,
meat, poultry, eggs, potatoes, honey,
etc., he has plenty to eat, or things
that he can sell for a good price and
not feel the necessity of selling his
cotton at the present. He is also in
dependent of the financial stress for
the same reasons in that he has plen
ty to live on, and does not need much
money. He can sit down under his
own vine and fig tree, cross his legs,
light his pipe, and tell the New York
speculators, and the politicians, to
go where snow does not fall, and the
high price of coal is not considered.
If there is any man under the cano
py who can do these things it is th*
farmer who grows those things need
ful to the welfare of himself and fam
ily-
This being true, it is indeed strange
that any farmer will persist in fol
lowing the old methods of the one
crop cotton farmer. It is well to con
tinue to raise cotton, but do not do so
to the extent that you will hazard
your financial success, the content
ment and happiness of your children.
In the Southern States the climate
is well adapted to the production of
almost any variety of crops; its soils
are too fertile and farmers too intel
ligent to longer be chained to “King
Cotton.” —Opelika Post.
THE TEXAS COTTON CROP IS
SHORT.
There is much evidence coming to
light to corroborate the statement
made by President Neill of the Texas
Farmers’ Union in our issue last
week, namely, that the Texas cotton
crop is only 45 or 50 per cent of an
average crop. Prof. W. C. Welborn,
College Station, Texas, writing us in
regard to the boll weevil, for example,
declares in the course of his letter:
“This year the weevil has been
very destructive; and, along with oth
er unfavorable conditions, has made
the cotton crop of Texas very short—
so short that I believe if the trade
knew how short it is, cotton would go
to sixteen cents a pound. Last win
ter was favorable to large numbers
of weevils living over, and than cot
ton was late starting last spring.”—
Progressive Farmer.
FARMERS AND HIGH PRICES.
There is a wonderful deal in being
ready for a good thing when it comes.
Sometimes a farmer misses the high
price of the season because his cattle,
sheep or hogs were not in market
trim at the right moment.
This might have been a fault in the
stock, but more likely it was a fault
in the farmer, becatw
established ideas and principles at
WATSON'S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
the bottom of the feeding business
which point a sure way to hasten and
perfect all animal growth and de
velopment.
Ask a successful breeder of cattle
or a man who turns off his fat droves
once or twice a year, and he will tell
you, “My dear sir, it’s all in the tonic
—you can’t fat steers, hogs, sheep or
fit a horse for the show ring or for
sale without using every day the
proper food tonic,” and this man’s
testimony would be just what thou*
sands upon thousands of others would
say if it were possible to ask them
the same question.
It is a well-known fact by every
man who owns a domestic animal, that
heavy feeding is likely to upset the
digestion and make the animal “go
back. ’ ’ Why this as so, is alos well
known—no animal stomach is suffi
ciently strong to stand the continual
stuffing that is necessary to make a
desired weight in a certain time.
Hence the feeder is constantly facing
a possibility of loss even before he
is ready to reap his gain.
Just here a knowledge of the “tonic
idea” comes to help the feeder out.
It tells him that a “food tonic” given
regularly (at small cost) to "the steer,
cow, horse, hog or sheep which is be
ing fitted for market, will remove the
possibility of digestive disorder and
,by increasing assimilation actually
shorten the time necessary to fatten
the animal. Every day gained in this
way is, of course, so much on the
profit side of the account, and well
worth considering when the final bal
ance is struck.
These things being so, it is evident
ly sound business to use the “food
tonic.” Thousands are doing it, as
the increased demand for it proves.
There is abundant evidence of the
value of this “food tonic” idea in the
actual practice of interested parties,
but an added force is given by the
unqualified indorsement of such men
as Profs. Winslow, Quitman and Fin
ley Dun—men known everywhere as
authorities on such subjects. They
tell us that bitter tonics are neces
sary to strengthen digestion, that iron
is the best known blood builder, that
nitrate cleanes the system of poison
ous matter, and these are the ingre
dients which enter into the proper
“food tonic.”
Using a “food tonic,” then, be
comes a practical farm economy—one
of the steps which lead to satisfactory
profit.
That it gives a great return is
proved by well-attested experiments—
in one case the outlay for the “food
tonic” being returned with a profit
of 235 per cent. Tn view of this
fact we are led to this conclusion—
no man owning live stock, farmer,
feeder or breeder, is rich enough to
leave the “food toni'c” idea out of
his calculation when business possi
bilities are considered.—Texas Farm
er.
STARVE THE EAGLE, IF YOU
CAN.
When a Spanish general who had
been closely beseiged for two years
and every resource had been exhaust
ed, was called on by the enemy to
surrender, he answered: “If you
knew the history of our people you
would know that we never surren
der. ’ ’ He was then told by the enemy
that they would starve him to death
and this brave hero’s reply was,
“Starve the eagle, if you can.”
Now, my brethren, the principles
for which we stand are closely be
sieged, the enemy has stormed the
entrenchments of labor, and we have
succeeded in holding them in check
until reinforcements could arrive (by
reinforcements, I mean ’tater diggin’
and hog killin’). They have used
the United States treasury against
us, and still the siege goes on.
They would use the United State®
army against us, but oh, what a re
lief it is to know that the rank and
file of the United States army are
composed of laboring men. No cap
italist would ever enlist in the ranks.
The most serious problem that con
fronts the war department now is,
how to get men to enlist, and then
how to prevent those who have al
ready enlisted, from deserting.
Now, my brothei, you have been
summoned to surrender your cotton
They tell you to come lay it down
at their feet and say, “Here I give
myself to thee; ’tis al that I can
do.” But you have refused to agree
in the terms, and some of you have
been told that they would shut down
the factories and starve you into sub
mission, but I fancy that I hear from
that faithful martyr filled with hog
and hominy, clothed with the staple
which his own hands produced, the
calm but satisfied reply, “Starve the
eagle (farmer), if you can.”
But your would-be master says,
‘ 1 Look here, old hayseed, you owe me,
and you must sell your cotton and
pay me.” But the old hayseeds have
been studying the finance of this
Republic, and they have found that
the way their masters got their start
was by refusing to pay their just '
debts. We know that it is a bad
practice, but we find that it has made
what the ruling class call “captains
of industry.”
Somebody wants to know how long
the farmer is going to hold his cot
ton. Well, I will tell you this, as
it is not a profound secret, and I
don’t suppose that it will go any fur
ther, they are going to hold it either
till they get their price for it, or un
till Hades freezes over, only we won’t
use the Greek.
Well, if this misses the waste bas
ket, and I am not exiled for defend
ing labor, I shall come again.
J. A. JACKSON.
Jasper, Fla.
—Jasper News.
RURAL DELIVERY BOOM.
Rural Delivery is certainly a fine
thing—in some localities, but is there
not a possibility of going too far with
a good thing? There is no question
that this service has been introduced
in many localities for the good it
would do the Representatives in that
district, regardless of poor Uncle
Sam. Unfortunately I have always
looked on Rural Delivery with some
suspicion for the reason that it got
its great boom under the direct man-
agement of that patriot who is now
serving his second term in the peni
tentiary at Moundsville, W. Va., and
bis side partner who escaped through
the beneficent influences of the stat
ute of limitations. Rural Delivery
is a good thing in thickly settled com
munities, but why should people in
towns of two or three thousand inhab
itants be compelled to walk a quarter
or a half mile to the post office when
people in the country have their oc
casional mail brought to their door ?
Light From Watson.
I have never been very enthusiastic
for the Parcels Post proposition for
the reason that I thought it would be
injurious to the merchants in small
towns and villages. The Merchants*
Trade Journal (remember the name—
“Merchants’ Trade Journal”) has
been one of the publications which 1
have read from time to time, and it
convinced me that the Parcels Post
would be injurious to the country mer
chants and beneficial to the mail order
houses. This conviction of mine haa
been changed since I read an editorial
in the current number of the Jeffer
sonian published by Tom Watson, of
Georgia, one of the brightest minds in
this country—a man of convictions,
and of the moral courage to express
them—but whose political doctrines I
fail to follow. Here is the editorial
which has put me in the doubtful col
umn, if indeed it has not converted
me:
“The reason why the mail order
houses can take business away from
the local retail merchants is that col
lusion exists between the mail order
house and the express company. The
mail order house gets special rates.
“If the Government carried small
parcels in the mails, at moderate
charges, nobody could get special
rates. Therefore, the mail order house
would have one of the props knocked
out from under its business.
‘ ‘ Consequently the express com
panies and the mail order houses have
confederated to fight the Parcels Post.
Afraid to show their hands, however,
they are working under the name of
the ‘Merchants’ Trade Journal.’ They
have hired men and put them on the
road, to get signatures to a protest
against the Parcels Post. And the
argument which causes the retail mer
chant to sign the petition of protest
is this: If the Government establish
es a Parcels Post, the mail order
house will get your business!
“And the guileless merchants are
signing a paper which, in effect, asks
the Government not to interfere with
the combination which now makes the
express company the partner of the
mail order bouse in the profitable bus
iness of taking trade away from the
retail merchant.
“How sharp the conspirators are!
How blind the victims!”
With the addition of the postal sav
ings bank, which will come in due
time, these are some of the subjects
which the public wishes to see consid
ered, and I hope and believe they will
all receive consideration at the hands
of Congress through the efforts that
will be made by our. present Postmas
ter-General. ,
Os course we want to see something