The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



85 



trouble to that industry, and that is the dog. Now, mind you, 

 I never saw a man who had a sheep-killing dog in my life ; but 

 you cannot have sheep and dogs in the same county or parish. 

 The Legislatures have to take care of the dogs, so we can have 

 sheep. I have no objections to a dog, but I do have objection to 

 a dbg killing my sheep. If we can regulate the dog — there are 

 no sheep-killing dogs, I know — but if we can regulate the dog 

 in some way these cut-over lands can be; brought up to their 

 economic limits at once. You don't have to remove stumps to 

 graze sheep ; they will db your cultivating without the removal 

 of stumps ; but when you go out to plowing, some of us are cul- 

 tivating the same stumps that our grandfathers left. You have 

 to get those stumps out, because you can't farm on it with 

 stumps. Now, the question has often come to my mind, since 

 this great convention was advertised for' New Orleans, whether 

 it is more economical for the large Ir.nd owner to cut those 

 stumps out and put the land in perfect condition, or whether it 

 is best for the forty or sixty-acre farmer to do it. That is some- 

 thing for a man higher up to solve than a common two by four 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. 



Now, gentlemen, I want to warn you all of this : Don't go 

 too fast in some wild-cat scheme. The foundation of this whole 

 problem is to get people that will stay — not any fly-by-night 

 concerns. What we want is something permanent. If you bring 

 some farmers down here and 95 per cent of them go back up North, 

 they will tell them up there that this is a devil of a country. But 

 the best advertisement in the world is a satisfied customer. 



If you just get down to the proper ideas of business methods 

 you will find there is a world of virtue in these cut-over lands. 

 It is very susceptible to drainage, and it is very susceptible to 

 any good treatment you give it. Soy beans is one of its best 

 crops ; and soy beans and velvet beans will soon put these lands 

 where they will be jiist as fertile and raise just as good crops as 

 these alluvial lands. I do hope something tangible and business- 

 like will come frorii this great Conference; and you can depend 

 on the Department of Agriculture doing everything in its power 

 to back up and foster and push forward evei-y movement. On 

 the other hand, if there is any disposition to try anything not 

 just right, and it comes to the notice of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, we v^ill put our stamp of disapproval on it'; for you can- 

 not get by but once with deception. Now, the Department of Ag- 



Destroy the 



Shcep-Killint 



Dog 



Development 

 Must Be on 

 Sound Basis 



