OUR OPPORTUNITY 
By GEO. J. WILDS, President 
T he South must find and use supple¬ 
mentary money crops since her acre¬ 
ages of cotton and tobacco have been 
necessarily curtailed. THIS NECESSITY 
CAN BE OUR SALVATION. 
The great need of the South has been 
for a diversified agricultural program; a 
program that would keep our labor, stock 
and equipment gainfully employed 
throughout the year. 
Not only must we sup¬ 
plement and distribute 
our income but we must 
cut down our expenses. 
This can be done by 
adopting a ‘^live-at- 
home” program and this 
can be made easy by in¬ 
telligent diversification. 
ADAPTED CROPS AVAILABLE 
We have the adapted crops that fit into 
such a diversified program; such as oats, 
wheat, lespedeza, soybeans, cowpeas, etc. 
We should use those crops with which we 
are familiar until new crops have proven 
their worth and adaptability. 
A RECOMMENDED ROTATION 
A highly recommended rotation into 
which these crops fit is the following: 1st 
year, cotton, followed by winter cover 
crop; 2nd year, corn interplanted with 
summer legumes ; 3rd year, oats or wheat 
followed by soybeans, cowpeas or lespe¬ 
deza, and this followed with a winter cover 
crop. This rotation is safe and sound and 
if followed will also build up the organic 
content of our soils and increase their 
productivity. 
But under the present control program 
not all of us can plant 
one-third of our open 
acres in cotton. What 
must we do with other 
acres? Corn, oats, leg¬ 
umes, truck crops (when 
soils adapted and mar¬ 
kets available) ; some in 
pasture, poorest area in 
crotolaria or trees. 
INCREASED YIELDS NECESSARY 
Many of our good farmers have adopted 
such a rotation and land use, but statistics 
show that these supplementary crops are 
on the present basis bringing in little or 
no additional income. Yields are too low. 
At the present market, price our farmers 
are hardly paying actual expenses with 
these crops. 
This condition could be remedied if we 
applied the same care and intelligence in 
“We are taking millions of acres 
out of the production of cotton and 
tobacco. Can we use it more profit¬ 
ably than by planting a large 
portion in oats and wheat followed 
by forage crops of legumes?”— 
Aug., 1938. 
David R. Coker (1870-1938) 
Founder 
Coker’s Pedigreed Seed Company 
