CROP YIELDS AND PRICES 125 



Selma there are nearly as many whites as blacks, but in Dallas 

 County outside of this city there are almost 9 black persons for 

 1 white. A large proportion of these few white families live in 

 small villages, so that the proportion on the farms is still less. 



The results on production have been just as bad. These rich 

 soils, which should be producing as Iowa soils do, do not produce 

 their own mules or all the feed for them. Little but cotton is 

 grown, and the yields of this are very poor for the soil. There 

 are few regions where poorer use is being made of the natural 

 advantages. 



These facts are given as an illustration of the general economic 

 laws that govern changes in farm population and farm ownership. 

 When persons who can underlive the present farmers settle in 

 a farm community, they tend to displace the present farmers, 

 partly because they live for less and partly because, living for 

 less, they make the community undesirable as a home. At the 

 same time the agriculture is made poorer rather than better. The 

 same principles have frequently been illustrated in the northern 

 states, but the statistics are not so readily available. When we 

 settle any persons in a rural community as workers we should 

 consider, not whether they will pay us a profit as laborers, but 

 whether they will make the kind of persons that we desire for our 

 future farmers. 



Some persons are now advising that the lowest class of our 

 immigrants be turned to the farms. These immigrants have an 

 entirely different experience and a different standard of living 

 from any who have yet settled on northern farms. It is certain 

 that any considerable settlement of such persons in any rural 

 community would drive out the present farmers. It is certain also 

 that a poorer agriculture would be established. Of late years it 

 has been a popular thing for public speakers and writers with very 

 limited knowledge of the facts to berate the American farmer. 

 Lmfortunately some persons who have occupied important posi- 

 tions have contributed to the confusion, until many of the thinking 

 persons in cities have been convinced that our farmers are in- 

 ferior to those in any other country of the world. The misleading 

 and often untrue statements of the wonderful things done in 



