San Marcos Free Press

ED. Free Press:-

Presuming that all farmers of this county are subscribers of your valuable paper, kindly permit me through its columns to offer a few suggestions for their consideration. It has been customary with us in this county to act separate and independent of each other, having no consideration for each other's interest--no concert of action with regard to the price of farm labor-and by this means allowing work, and especially cotton picking, to assume fabulous prices, thereby keeping us sorely pressed, hardly able to meet our obligations with our merchants, notwithstanding we have a fair annual yield from our farms and occasional years our crops are immense; such are our present prospects. Now the question is, will we profit by past experience or will we continue to give our profits to the cotton pickers? All will concede that farming in any country is a hazardous vocation unless properly conducted, and until we learn the importance of having our association-sharing experience with each other and having stipulated prices for all kinds and classes of farm work-just so long will we continue to be poor, buy on credit, not able to spare money for any luxury except such as can be obtained from our merchants. Nine-tenths of the farms in this county are without suitable barns for the proper protection of their products and stock in winter, the result of giving half of their cotton for the picking of the other half. I appeal to you, farmers; consider this matter. Let us have our organization; get every farmer to join; have constitution and by-laws; attach a penalty for the violation of any clause thereof; establish the price of cotton picking and in fact all kinds of farm labor, and you will witness a complete revolution in the farming of this country. You will be able to pay your merchants, have money left to make needed improvements on your place, and, best of all, you can redeem yourself from the abominable credit system which is ruining the country and the people. I will also call your attention to a fact that is the experience of all farmers with whom I have conversed, that, when cotton picking reaches one dollar per hundred pounds, a large majority of the pickers will not work more than one-half of the time. The colored element, getting ten or twelve dollars, rushes off on an excursion, and the Mexicans, working three or four days during the week and gambling the remainder, and generally with sharpers from a distance-so a large per cent of money paid them does not benefit any class of our citizens-whereas, when less wages are paid, they work full time, gather out more cotton and spend more money with our merchants. Merchants, mechanics, bankers and all professions have their organizations. Why not the farmer?

Respectfully,
FARMER.