H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
11 
GET WISE ABOUT 1912 COTTON 
At the time this catalogue Is necessarily written (Noverrherl there Is 
H great deal of talk about the cotton situation. Conventions nave met 
and resolved; the governors of the cotton States have met in convention, 
aired their views and recommended this, that and the other thing as a 
remedy, which recommendations nobody pays much attention to. 
What’s the trouble'? Cotton selling around 9 cents when everybody 
who makes It wants it to be 13 to 15 cents. That’s the rub. Resolutious 
galorehave been passed, resolving that the price ought to be 13 or 14 or 15 
cents, and recommendations have been passed that the cotton acreage be 
reduced in 1912 anywhere from 20 to iO^. 
At the time this is written,in November,nobody knows what the size 
of the 1911 crop is, but we will miss our guess if it’s anywhere near as big 
as some of tbeNew York “bears” have been figuring on. 
Wehaveseen this kind of a thing happen before. In the spring of 1904 
the prlpe of cotton shot up to 17 cents, and every available fence corner 
was planted in cotton, and the following winter saw a fourteen million 
bale crop before the world was ready for it, and a 6 cent price resulted. 
There was a series of conventions held, even more strenuously than 
now, resolutions passed as to price, acreage, etc. 
In a few years there will come a year that a big crop will be grown, 
prices low, more conventions, resolutloSs, etc., again. 
Large crop years and small crop years are inevitable in cotton, just as 
they are In corn and wheat and other crops, but did you ever see two 
large cotton crops come together two years in succession? 
Granting that the 1911 cotton crop was a large one, what made it? 
First, an Increase In acreage over the previous year, stimulated by the 
steady high price for the short crop of 1910. 
Second, about the dryest winter on record, enabling farmers to make 
the most thorough preparation of the soli ever known. 
Third, the high price of the 1910crop encouraged supply merchants, 
bankers and landlords U) make advances to tenant^ croppers and farmers 
far beyond past advances. Generally speaking, en^uragement was given 
to crop every available acre In cotton, and excepMn few localities, little 
encouragement was given to production of other crops. 
This kind of condition Inevitably leads to a large crop unless some 
disaster overtakes the crop during the growing period. 
A PLAIN, COMMON-SENSE VIEW 
You may not fully agree with us In all we say on this subject, but we 
want you to remember that we are cotton growers, just as most of the 
readers of this catalogue are. 
This present condition will right Itself next year just as It did In 1906 
and other years. With medium or low priced cotton there Is no incentive 
to what may be termed speculative planting. There is-no incentive for 
the landlord to encourage extra acreage on the part of tenants; no In¬ 
ducement to the supply merchant or the banker to take speculative 
chances. Acreage will be reduced naturally If the price stays low, with¬ 
out any resolutions by conventions. 
During the spring months following the fourteen million bale crop of 
1904 we advised all of our customers to plant their usual acreage In cotton. 
We were roundly denounced by ofiicers of one of the cotton growers’ 
organizations for doing It, but our customers who did plant their usual 
acreage reaped the benefit. 
What was true in 1905 is true In 1912. The acreage of the cotton crop 
Is self-regulating through price conditions. It is not the farmer who cul¬ 
tivates bis acres with his own or hired labor that makes the bumper part 
of bumper crops. The crop of cotton from such sources is fairly regular 
and does not vary greatly from year to year. 
The real curse of the cotton situation is the speculative planting of ex¬ 
tra acres encouraged almost entirely by supplj merchants, bankers and 
landlords. Every time the price is high they get busy encouraging the 
planting of every available acre possible. Every town man who owns land 
in the country will stake a tenant to go raise cotton on It. Following a 
season of high price for cotton there are actually millions of whatwe term 
speculative acres of cotton planted, every one of which helps to “bear” 
the market the next fall. 
In seasons of low or comparatively low price cotton these speculative 
acres are not planted and they will not be planted in 1912% The 
country banker, the supply merchant and the landlords have had a scare 
from this last crop. Thousands of them have been sufliciently “burned” 
—through inability of their tenants to “pay out”—to quit playing with the 
speculative fire In 1912. This fact will clear up theacreage proposition to 
Its normal condition In 1912 and the farmer or cotton grower who goes on 
r.nd makes his regular crop need have no fears. If any of you have been 
planting extra acres of cotton on speculation, expecting to make a “kill¬ 
ing” from high prices. It’s time to quit that part of the game. If you are 
putting your energies Into speculative acres of cotton you are as bad as 
the supply merchant and banker in principle. It Is largely the product 
of speculative cotton acres that piles “distress cotton” on the market In 
the fall and smashes the price In large crop years, playing right Into the 
hands of the New York “be'ar” operators. 
YOU CAN FIX COTTON PRICES 
Any time that the South is willing to come to a plain, common-sense 
farming system as against the cotton cropping system, it can absolutely 
fix the price of cotton at a permanently profitable point. 
The South Is today soundly sleeping over the greatest opportunity to 
be the wealthiest agricultural section of the world. 
Any section or'Individual that depends on one crop Is practicaHy In 
slavery to that crop, regardless of whether that crop be cotton, wheat, 
corn or anything else. 
Above are three statements that cannot successfully be disputed by 
any well Informed and thinking man that knows the South and knows 
what may be termed the agricultural history of the world. They all have 
a direct bearing on the price of cotton. 
It Is no secret, but It’s a fact realized by few, that the South as a whole 
Is practically spending the value of each year’s cotton crop for grain and 
rain products, such as flour and meal, hay, meat, poultry and dairy pro- 
ucts, and live stock. It’s eoually true that the South can produce most 
of these items as profitably, acre against acre, as the Northern States we 
buy from, when these other crops are intelligently handled on our lands 
and at a greater percentage of profit than the average cotton grower gets 
out of 14 or 15 cent cotton. 
It Is true that the South can grow all the American cotton the world 
needs on one-half our present acreage, providing the crop is grown from 
properly selected and grown seed and properly cultivated. We know this 
by our own personal experience. With seed of right quality, under gen¬ 
eral field conditions, one bale per acre Is easy and two bales per acre has 
not been any strain on good farm methods, on the Hastinds* Farm. 
If the South will grow during 1912 one-half of the corn, oats, hay and 
meat that It bought during 1911, planting all acres not required to produce 
this grain, etc.. In good, well-bred cotton seed, the crop of cotton would 
be suflficlent and sell for 14 or 15 cents, and each Individual grower would 
have all or most all of his cotton money to put in bank. The turning of 
these surplus acres Into food crops would settle any possible question of 
over-proauctlon of cotton and actually fix high prices for the cotton 
grown. In this way, and in this way only, can the price of cotton be fixed 
at a permanently nrofltable price. Each Individual has his share to do in 
this food supply production, and It’s up to you to do your share In 1912, 
Plant less acres of cotton If you will, but plant better cotton on those few 
acres and you will make just as many If not more bales and at less cost to 
you per bale. 
WHERE DO COTTON DOLLARS GO? 
You get cotton dollars, we get cotton dollars every year; that Is, the 
dollars coming In from the sale of our crops. There is a mighty small pro- 
ortlon of them stays In the South. Where do they go? We will tell you. 
he most of them go to States like Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska for corn, 
for wheat, oats, hay, meat, etc. According to statistics the State of Georgia 
Is .spending fully as much each year for these products as its cotton crop 
sells for. What’s true of Georgia Is true of the other cotton growing States. 
If the State of Georgia would giow the grain and food products It 
bought last year. It would make $50.00 apiece for every man, woman and 
child, whi e and black, on Georgia farms. Under an intelligent system of 
farming all this can be grown and just as many bales of cotton made on 
our present acreage devoted to farm crops. 
Right seed and right cultivation will make twelve million bales of cot¬ 
ton on half our present acreage. Right seed and right cultivation of other 
crops will make all the grain, hay and meat the South needs wltboin 
bringing another acre under cultivation. 
We speak of the South, but It means every Individual farm^ Weare 
all at the beginning of a new year. Each one of us most do his share to 
wards this change. We are doing it by growing 1 to 2 bales per acre on 
every cotton acre on th^e Hastings* Farm. We never put over one-third 
of our acreage in cotton.. We don’t spend a dollar for hay or gralnjjrnt 
have hay and grain to sell. Our cotton dollars don’t go to Iowa or Kan¬ 
sas. How will yours go In 1912? It’s time'to prepare now to keep them at 
home. Your Income will double In 1912 If you do. 
