4 The Bulletin. 



these supplies — fifty, seventy-five and even one hundred per cent for six 

 or eight months credit. 



This custom was almost universal when cotton was the principal crop, 

 and it was generally true that the people were in straitened circum- 

 stances. At the same time, in most of the counties there were men who 

 raised com and meat to sell and who had money to loan, made by this 

 manner of farming. The trouble was that the fanner brought ruin upon 

 himself by endeavoring to raise something to buy corn with instead of 

 raising it upon the farm. 



When I became connected with the Department of Agriculture in 

 1899 the almost universal lack of cash with the farmers made them a 

 dependent and not an independent class of citizens as they formerly 

 were. This caused me to inquire if there was ever a time when the 

 Southern farmer had any money or had this always been his condition. 

 Being old enough to have been farming in 1861 (going from my farm 

 into the Confederate Army in 1861 and returning in 1865) knowledge 

 of the condition of the farmers at that time answered my question : the 

 farmer then was the most independent class of people, and when a man 

 in town needed money he did not go to some other city to borrow but 

 went into the country among the farmers and they had it to lend. Why 

 did the farmer have this cash then and was in such bad financial condi- 

 tion now? The change had been caused by the different financial re- 

 sults in the farming in these days and at that time. Then the farmer 

 raised all the supplies for his farm and generally a surplus of this class 

 of crops; cotton and tobacco were his money crops, and what he re- 

 ceived for them was not consumed by debts for supplies. It was net 

 profit. Corn was then as now the foundation for farming. It was recog- 

 nized as such by epigrams. An independent man was one who had 

 corn to sell ; a hat on the side of the head "looked like a man who had 

 com to sell." A state of happiness and contentment was by the min- 

 strels said to be : 



"Corn in the crib, money in the pocket, 



A babe in the cradle, a pretty wife to rock it: 



Meat in the smokehouse, and there I go to find it." 



I have in my life attended many sheriffs' sales for debt, but have never 

 seen the sheriff in execution sales offer a full crib of corn ; and although 

 I have called attention to this in nearly every Southern State I have not 

 found the man who has seen it. There were forty states represented 

 in the Congress at Muskogee. I called for the men who had ever seen it 

 and no one arose. I claim it as an axiom that a man with a full crib 

 of corn ivill not he sold out for debt. 



The boys sang: 



"All I want in this creation 

 Is a pretty little wife and a big plantation." 



if: 4; :{: ^ :{: H: :}: 



"If ever I get back again I'll lead a different life, 

 Save my money, buy a farm, take Dinah for my wife." 



