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CG. Smith Tells of Change That Has Taken Place Through Dairying. EDITOR'S NOTE—C. G. Smith, the writer of the article below, is a native of Mississippi and has bad opportunity at first hand to cbserve the improvement that cairving has wrought in the eco nomic condition of the people of the people of the northeastern rest of local men who went to Misissippi to buy dairy cattle for Mississippi county farmers. By C. G. SMITH Some fifteen or sixteen years ago practically all of the cultivatable area in northeast Mississippi was devoted to the production of cot on with only here and there a pasture on which some trader was grazing a bunch of scrub cattle with here and there some far skchted man who had started a small herd of good Jersey dairy cattle. At the Mississippi A. M. College located near Starksville, Mississippi. Professor J. S. Moore, who was professor of Dairy Hus bandry, and a few more in that territory were continuously preach ing to the farmers that to put part of their lands in feed crops and keep a few good Jersey cows would stop the practice of having to bor row money at the banks with which to make a cotton crop. As in most countries however the farmers were very slow to take this advice and borrowing money to grow cotton system was the rule. Roll Weevil Forced Change About that time Mr. Roll Weevil came along and absolutely cleaned out the cotton with the result that the roads and railroads for months were filled with farmers, both white and black, leaving that country—by trains, by wagons, and walking with packs on their backs, going to a country where cotton could be grown without the boll weevil menace. Many of them came into Arkansas and a good many located in Mississippi county. Those that were left, however, saw that the advice which they had failed to heed for the last few years was good advice and al though most of the banks and prac tically all of the business institu tions throughout this great section were practically bankrupt, these business men rallied to the assist ance of the farmers and began to loan money on dairy cows rather than on cotton. Today in this section of Mississippi, there are four large condenseries, the largest cooperative creamery in the south, if not in the United States, numer ous small creameries and five or six cheese factories and the farm ers throughout this section are practically all milking cows and prowing their feed and the thing that impresses me most with that section is that not only are the farmers milking cows but a great majority of business and profes sional men are keeping small herds of Jersey cattle and milking them, and those few that are not are very enthusiastically boosting for the dairy industry. Another angle to their develop ment down there is the sale of dairy cows to other sections of the country. In most of the towns throughout this territory they ship on average of one car load of dairy cows per day the year round into the northern and eastern districts to replenish the herds of the men who are furnishing milk to the larger cities. The banks in that territory are all in good condition, the merchants are prosperous, the farmers are prosperous, and the majority of the loans that are made by the banks are on commercial paper. Same Thing Possible Here Some people may argue that what can be done there can not be done here because of the difference in the price of the land. However, I would like to submit this for your consideration. The average taxes on the land in Oktibeha county, which is possibly the center of this deiry development, is one dollar per acre and I make the statement without fear of contra diction, that our lands here will produce from twice to three times 28 much per acre as their best birds will produce and corr ingly more feed crops with the possive exception of corn than they can produce and we can produce as much to twice as much corn per are as they can. It is not my intension to urge that we try to develop Mississippi county into a strictly dairy farm ing country, but I know from ex perience and observation that if we could get the average forty acre farmers to planting twenty acres of his land in feed and food crops, milking five or six good Jersey cows and growing cotton on the balance of his land that this entire county would show a much more prosper ous condition than it now shows. I wish that it were possible to get every one of our business men and farmers to spend two or three days in Northeastern Mississippi, study ing the conditions which are there.
Newspaper Details
Blytheville Courier News
Blytheville, Arkansas, US
Sat, Apr 27, 1929
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Jeanne H.
AR, USA 28 Apr 2026
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