110 THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 



New ideas are coming now. New thoughts are shaping the 

 plans and the labors' of the planters of the Canebrake. Hard 

 by the prosperous town of Uniontown. the Agricultural Exper- 

 iment Farm, through its agent Prof. Spillman, is demonstrating 

 the wisdom of diverse crops and the short-sighted policy of the 

 n-ian who pins his faith to one crop and only one. In the bar- 

 becue recently given at the place of General T. T. Munford Pro- 

 fessor Spillman, in the course of a forceful address told the as- 

 sembled farmers : 



OXE CROP UNWISE. 



"The cotton crop this year in Texas will be a million bales 

 short. The boll weevil has widely increased his field of activity 

 ii. Texas. In places where he has never been seen before the 

 boll weevil is today sitting on the weeds' and waiting the time 

 when the cotton plants will have squares on them and he can 

 begin his destructive work. It is only a question of time when 

 he will make his way into Alabama. Nothing can stop him. 

 He is as certain to come as the sun is' to rise." 



This statement of Professor Spillman reflects one phase of 

 the reasoning which is' leading planters and farm- 

 ers into other lines' of agricultural endeavors and bringing them 

 to the study of other crops besides cotton. The interest and 

 enthusiasm with which the growth of alfalfa has been met 

 and the way in which its field is widening has been alluded to in 

 c. previous letter. Something is to be said here not only for the 

 diversification farm on the Munford place and the work of the 

 agricultural experiment station at Uniontown and incidentally 

 of a rather unusual and unique plan of farming that is being 

 ft)llowed by several planters in and around Uniontown. 



The farming interest of E. R. Glass, of the prosperous Farm- 

 ers' Bank of Uniontown, illustrates this unusual w^ay of farm- 

 ing. Mr. Glass, for instance, does not own the land on which 

 he farms. He rents it and pays a good rental for it. Moreover, 

 lus labor is strictly upon the wage system. There are no shares, 

 no lease, no tenant system upon any of the several farms which 

 he operates. The negro laborer is hired as though he was' to 

 work in a store, and he is paid at the end of every w^eek as a 

 store porter would be paid. And in addition to all this Mr. 

 Glass raises nothing- but cotton. All of his land except some 

 small hay fields is devoted to cotton and his feed crops are 

 bought from his neighbors. 



