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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