78 The BuLLETI^^. 



touch with every possible source of information, and should take that infor- 

 mation to help him to a solution of that problem. From Augusta, coming 

 across Georgia, j'ou will find hundreds and hundreds of acres of cotton dying 

 from the cotton wilt. What are they doing? Using cowpeas, that are just as 

 susceptible to the wilt as cotton itself, and accentuating the disease in the farm 

 by improper farming, putting back cotton every two years, and the odd year 

 putting on a crop susceptible to the disease. They should use in the other years 

 of the rotation crops immune to the wilt, such as the velvet bean. 



There is one thing that I want to mention here, before I forget, that I 

 think very important. Some have the mistaken notion that the demonstration 

 work seeks simply to produce large crops. That is not so. That would be all 

 very well as an example, and it is all very helpful, and were that the only 

 cause for its being in existence it would still have sufficient reason to exist; 

 but it seeks not to do that alone, but to teach the farmer to produce a large 

 .vield at a minimum cost by so handling his soil that he can reduce his ferti- 

 lizer bill and in that way save the expense that is being put on the farm and 

 that is not maintaining the permanent fertility of the soil. 



When we have solveti the problem of production, when we have gotten on to 

 a system of farming, when we are producing all that we use, instead of grow- 

 ing cotton and sending the cotton money to Illinois for our corn and our food 

 of every sort instead of keeping the money at home — when we produce this at 

 home and produce cotton on less acreage, but with a larger yield per acre, 

 with live stock to help keep up the fertility of the soil, we shall have largely 

 solved the problem of production. But to my mind we shall have gone only 

 half-way in the duty we owe to the farmers of this country. The farmer may 

 have a splendid crop, produced with the minimum amount of labor and at a 

 minimum expense, and not liavo an opportunity to sell that crop and get the 

 returns for his labor. Without a market the farmer is at the mercy of the 

 railroad. The marketing problem is so indelibly linke<i with the problem 

 of production that it is as nuich the farmer's problem as the production of the 

 crop. The time has come when farmers must hang together on that problem. 

 Dumping any product onto a center where there is an oversupply is not treat- 

 ing the farmer very square. In the tirst place, it is full of waste to the con- 

 sumer and full of waste to the producer. But an equitable distribution of these 

 things to the points where they are needed is the system to be followed. The 

 farmer must meet this question half-way. One need of the market is the 

 production of standard products and the getting of a reasonable price for 

 them after they go to the market. I am glad to know that Dr. Coulter is to be 

 here to speak to you on the problem of marketing. 



Education is the keynote to the problem of the future of the rural com- 

 munity. 1 just want to mention, before I close, this one fact ; that as we are 

 thinking about systematizing our farming and getting it down to the point 

 where we can maintain soil fertility and get better returns, we must not forget 

 that we must attach these boys and girls to the country. They must be 

 interested in the things around them, because country life cjiu be interesting 

 under modern conditions, and education in the country schools can be made to 

 tit the country life instead of the far-off city life. Get these boys interested in 

 these corn clubs, not only for producing large yields, but to do the book- 

 keeping and see that it is done at a low cost. Get these girls interested, as 

 they are becoming interested through this organization and other organizations 

 in the South, in growing tomatoes and canning them for market. The boy 

 and girl then becoming interested in the things of the farm and in the study 

 of them, my observation and experience is that when you get the boy and girl 

 interested, if the father and mother have not been interested before, they 

 will be. 



I have become greatly interested in these subjects. My opportunity for 

 travel brings me into contact with the people of every one of these States. I 

 am profoundly interested in their progress and most profoundly interested in 

 the fact that they are, like you, so deeply interested in the problem of found- 

 ing a sound, enduring system of agriculture. I shall feel that our service has 

 been given to a good cause, that our time has been spent worthily, if we can 

 bring assistance to a people who desire to be assisted in building up a country 

 and in establishing a citizenship that will live up to the heritage it has and 

 have ideals that will surely make it a great and useful people. 



