How to Prosper in Boll Weevil TerritoryAlford, George Howard
Science
How to Prosper in Boll Weevil Territory
Alford, George Howard
Boll weevil; Cotton growing
Life on the farm is robbed of practically all of its pleasures as long as
we pay fifty per cent credit profits and the creditor constantly knocks at
the door. The only people who really suffer in periods of hard times are
the men who are in debt; men who owe money and are often compelled to
sacrifice their property to meet the imperative demands of their
creditors. The farmer who is out of debt when the boll weevil comes and
has an abundance of high class food supplies on his farm is not materially
affected. Many of the cotton farmers who are in debt when the boll weevil
comes lose their homes.
Labor Saving Implements
The following is an extract from an address delivered at Greenville,
Miss., in the boll weevil territory, by Dr. S. A. Knapp, a man who did
more for real genuine progress in the South than any other one man has
ever done. "The farmer who uses modern machinery in planting and
cultivating his crop will succeed, and the one who does not will make a
failure. The old way of making a crop by hand by the use of the hoe and
plow must soon be a thing of the past. We must come to use the modern
implements and the sooner we let the negro understand that he must work
his crop in this way, the better off we shall be."
[Illustration: Boll weevils attacking growing cotton boll]
The Personal Element in the Boll Weevil Fight
By B. L. Moss
Editor Progressive Farmer, Birmingham, Alabama.
A man's personal attitude and convictions play a large part in his
successes and failures in all walks of life, and nowhere is the truth more
apparent than in a farmer's attitude toward the boll weevil problem.
Before the coming of the weevil, it is looked upon by nine farmers out of
ten as a remote danger, doubtful in time of arrival and greatly
exaggerated in its possibilities for damage. No preparations for it are
made, the farm mortgage is left hanging like a cloud over the family
homestead, and the old methods so long in vogue are left unchanged.
Then the crash comes! The obsolete methods of the past are worthless
against the weevil; the cotton crop is swept away, interest on the
mortgage is unpaid, and its foreclosure is certain. This picture is the
rule and not the exception.
Such a situation calls forth the real qualities of the man. Many a farmer,
for the first few years of the weevil invasion, has proven a quitter. He
has failed because he did not think he could succeed. Usually he has been
the identical man who failed to believe in and prepare for the coming of
the weevil.
The exceptional man has believed in and prepared for the weevil's coming,
and he has succeeded. Incidentally, his success has shown out as a beacon
light to his doubting neighbors and has ultimately pointed the way for
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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