158 Musings by Camp- Fire a^id Wayside 



They do not think they can make a cotton crop 

 without guano. Mr. Benson has demonstrated the 

 fact that he can make more cotton to the acre with- 

 out it than they can with it. He makes his own. 

 When the cotton crop is harvested, and all others 

 are idle, during the months intervening, he rakes 

 leaves in the woods, and makes compost by using 

 his cotton seed, which others sell at ten cents per 

 bushel. This compost, with the savings of his stock 

 barns and yards, gives him a fertilizer superior to 

 the adulterated guano, without cost other than labor 

 which would otherwise be unemployed. 



The second traditional drag is the credit system. 

 This is an inheritance from the remotest past of 

 cotton planting in this country. The small planter 

 or farmer never sees money. He is furnished with 

 a living for himself and his help, and his mules, 

 mortgaging his crop for the same, is charged what- 

 ever prices the store-keeper likes to charge, and 

 takes him his receipts for his cotton, which usually 

 leaves him in debt, and he begins to borrow on the 

 next crop. 



The third traditional drag is that he raises cot- 

 ton exclusively, and buys his corn and meat, paying 

 high prices. They are just now paying fifty-five 

 cents per bushel for their corn. This was always 

 so. I remember that the Ohio farmers depended 

 upon a good cotton crop to give them a market for 

 their pork. 



The fourth traditional drag is laziness. When 



