The National Co-operator and Texas Farm Journal. (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 1909 Page: 1 of 16
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3
DEVOTED TO TH
SIDE OF THE FARM
2
- coven) THE
DIVERSIFIED INTEREJIS
’SOUTHERNAGRICULTURE
Volume 30.
; FORT WORTH TEXAS, MARCH 11, 1909
Number 19
lews on Diversification By Co-Operator Readers
. Does diversification pay? Read what
one Panhandle man has done during
the past year and find the answer.
Co-Operator readers are invited to
contribute their own experiences.
HEREFORD, Texas, March 3.—J.
F. Dollar is a plain sort of man, but
an indefatigable diversificationist, rais-
ing successfully many things on his
farm and something to sell at all
• times. Upon solicitation he gives out
the following statement:
Two hundred and thirty acres in cul-
tivation for 1908, with the yield as
follows:
40 acres wheat................400 bu.
50 acres oats, thrashed.......17.50 bu.
90 acres oats, bundle..........90 tons
10 acres corn.................500 bu.
40 acres maize........:......1,800 bu.
Fodder from same...........40 tons
1 acre kershaws............1 car load
% acre turnips................100 bu.
Few sows peanuts ............10 bu.
16 fattening hogs, meat.....5,600 lbs.
Chickens, turkeys and eggs, of which
no account wa ksept. Of the maize,
sixteen acres were on fresh sod land
and thrashed out forty-two and one-
half bushels to the acre; ten acres
were on old land and made fifty bush-
els average; the remaining fourteen
acres were left in the bundle, but the
crop was as good. The forage from
the thrashed maize is very fine stock
feed and is being used to feed horses,
mules and hogs. The kershaws are
being fed to the hogs and cows. The
hogs were raised on maize and fin-
ished on corn and will average 300 and
400 pounds.
/ A little more figuring and the re-
sult of his year’s work may be seen:
400 bushels wheat, 90 cents..
1,750 bushels oats, 50 cents..
500 bushels corn, 65 cents...
1,800 bushels maize, 50 ecnts
90 tons bundle oats........
40 tons fodder, $3-----....
.$360
. 875
. 325
. 900
. 720
.120
100 bushels turnips, feed value,...
0 bushels peanuts...............
15 bushels potatoes........
1 car load kershaws.......
500 pounds meat, 5 cents..
25
20
15
... 10U
... 250
Total
.$3,710
(Three thousand, seven hundred and
ten dollars, and this does not take
into account the eggs, chickens and
turkeys which were sold during the
year. Mr. Dollar says that though
he has nine children to support and
educate, only one boy is old enough to
help him in the field. This boy goes
to school while it is in session.
The girls, five in number, do not
work in the field—they have no cot-
ton to pick. When it is known that
no money was paid out for "hired
help” of any kind and that what work
was done by neighbors was “paid
back” in similar work, it must be a
wonder to many and a hard-to-believe
story. There was little expense in
making or harvesting the crop.
RAISE FOOD AT HOME.
J. P. Kennedy, who lives in Jack
county, near Shannon, was a recent
Fort Worth visitor. He is the county
lecturer of his county and deputy state
lecturer, and is familiarly known
among the boys as the "Bachelor."
He is a native Texan, having been
born in Hill county. “There was a
lot of sickness last year,” said he, “in
our county and I was so much away
attending to my sick people that I
tried to resign, but could not make
it, for the boys would not let me. It
has been very dry up with us. I am
sure that the wheat and oats crop will
be a failure, but as there is not much
wheat planted there won’t be much to
lose.
We had good corn, with cotton
above an average. The two gins at
Jacksboro ginned something like 4,700
bales. The sentiment to raise every-
thing at home is greatly on the in-
President Neills Letter
BY D. J. NEILL.
My intention this week is to give in
detail what I saw while on my trip
East.
The farmer in the Northeast is, in
the first place, a painstaking business
man, pursuing the business of farm-
ing for the money there is in it. Nis
first and chief concern is to raise what
he consumes at home and then his
surplus is for sale. They try to raise
the finest horses, the finest cows, the
best hogs, sheep, goats and chickens.
They reason that it costs no more to
raise a first-class animal than it does
the third-class.
Each farm has its meadow, where
an abundance of good wholesome hay
is raised in connection with the grain
that insures plenty of feed and fat
stock. Each farm has a commodious
barn, where the grain and hay is stored
and is kept from waste. The barn
yard is carefully looked after and the
droppings are carefully saved. The
Northeastern farmer regards his barn
yard fertilizer as a part of his capital
and takes as much care of it as he
would his bank account.
The farmer studies to improve his
farm as the years go by, lands that
crease and will soon become as much
the rule among Union farmers as cot-
ton is now. I raise everything I can
only buying in the way of provisions
coffee, sugar and flour. I raise no
wheat so have to buy flour. I have
more meat than will do me and lard
in oodles, so that “shortening” for the
bread is not lacking. With it and a
little soda we won’t go hungry for
good bread. I sold all my surplus
meat fresh for not less than six cents
around home. I believe that Bermuda
is the finest grass pasture for hogs
that we can get. I would not do with-
out it for anything. I am going to
try burr clover with it as soon as I
can for I have heard a lot about its
value for winter pasture.”
MAKE A LIVING AT HOME.
Now, brothers, 1 am not a big gun
and only self taught, but I want to
ask you to just stop and think about
your pledge to your family and your
union. You can make a living at
home. There never was as poor a
farmer as I am and I am living in -
Southeast Texas and have not sold but
two bales of cotton in two years and
shipped them to Galveston this fall.
I have twelve bales to sell, but m
not begging those street weevil 1 /
stick their bills in one that has 8 6
For God’s sake, be a man < r”
union man; make your living at hon.. "
if you cannot just tell your wife: 1
“Here, Sally, put on the breeches. I
have been in constant cultivation for
a hundred and fifty years will pro-
duce three times as much as it would
at the beginning. Land that once
raised eight and ten bushels of wheat
per acre will now produce thirty-five;
land that would make fifteen bushels
of corn per acre will now produce 100
to 125. Instead of starving the land
as practiced in Texas each acre is
carefully fertilized and made more and
more productive.
The orchards and berry patches are
carefully looked after. The hollows
in the trees or limbs are neatly filled
with cement, thus giving them all the
protection possible. The orchards are
kept neatly trimmed and cultivated,
yielding the farmers a handsome re-
turn.
Seed corn, wheat, barley, rye and
oats are carefully selected. The lands
are plowed, harrowed and brought into
a perfect state before the drills are
put in operation, thus insuring a good
crop'when harvest time comes. The
harvesting is done with the same
care and thought. The grain is placed
in well repaired bins, and the straw
is carefully housed and is fed to stock,
thus making a profit out of that which
is supposed to go to waste in Texas.
More anon.
can’t make you a living, and I will
bet you a summer coon skin she makes
you a living out of her eggs and
chickens.
What is the thing for the farmer
to do? This is it: just keep out of
debt one year. “Oh, I can’t,” you may
say. You can. I have been that road
and am halter broke. Have been asked
for a mortgage once. Now what do
you think, brothers? I thought it was
a shame and old Satan rose up and he
said “Go to h—1.” I can say whether
he went or not, but God bless your
wives and sweet children, I did not
give a mortgage.
We can’t blame the merchants.
They know that we are a sorry peo-
ple, the worst down-trodden people on
God’s green earth. We know the
same, and still some of us weak-kneed
union men go to town and walk
around to some merchant and say:
“I am tired of the Farmers’ union.
I am going to quit them.” Those
fools think that the merchant thinks
that they are the stuff. They are, but
sorry stuff. Be true to your brethren,
and God will be kind to you.
The Upshur county union is going
to build a warehouse in the county,
if nothing happens. I think that the
Gilmer Board of Trade will treat us
right. If they don’t there is a place
that will. Our county meeting is on
the 9th of April at Little Mound, and
I surely would like to see Brother
Neill or some other good brother
Me W ell, I must close. Wishing
6x01444' Operator and the union broth-
7 7rs happiness.
"tqeses H. BURK,
President Local 1093.
Texas.
Glenye
HOW A
RENTER CAN DIVER
SIFY.
Editor Co -Operator;
Several times I have thought that
I would write to the paper, but it is
only just now that I have finally made
my first attempt. It is a sad thought
when one sees the present condition
of the poor farming people. And sad-
der still to think of the greater part
of the people are asleep or dead ta
the welfare of themselves and the ris-
ing generation of children of this
world.
It does seem sometimes that the
people are just like the beast or cat-
tle of the earth, they run to find a •
better place. It is sad to think that
so many of us have no place. It is
said that a rolling stone gathers no
moss, and a slave is not his own boss,
and that is the condition of the renter
today.
You can talk about diversification
of crops, but how can a man diver-
sify when ‘he does not know what
he can plant until the majestic land-
lord tells him what he must plant.
Most of the renters don’t want any
cotton themselves, but the landlord
wants you to plant all of vour crop
in cotton and no feed, n ats, nor
wheat, nor sorghum. Sor7, ts they
want you to pay standing 1 % 1 the
oats, corn and sorghum if th low
you any at all. There are son °o -
ple who seem to listen to other %
ple, as one brother said in his let. 7>
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Grant, A. W. The National Co-operator and Texas Farm Journal. (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 19, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 1909, newspaper, March 11, 1909; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1636872/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .