Youngblood-Armstrong & Allied Families
smaller area must be planted. It is necessary that the cotton lands be kept in a high state of fertility on account of the boll weavil. In other words, the Mexican boll weavil has sounded the death knell to old time methods and conditions in the South. The cotton plantations of the past will soon be a thing of remembrance only. In a few years Alabama will have, not the large cotton plantations most of us were born and bred upon, but FARMS where a variety of crops are raised. Cotton will be grown but only as one of the several crops on a farm. It will be, more or less, a side line. Never in the future will Alabama farmers put all their eggs in one basket - the cotton basket. The Reign of King Cotton is ended.
Let me assure you that this change in the method of farming will bring greater and more lasting prosperity to our peoples.
All of this points" to the necessity for the production of live stock on what we have regarded as our future cotton plantations. The raising of cattle on the farm is of great importance and of great profit if carried on intelligently. But first, we must get rid of cattle ticks in this state.
Every member of Congress, not only from the Southern states but as far as I know, from all the states, has voted large appropriations to help in the work of eradicating the cattle ticks which are doing so much damage to, your cattle. They feel it is to your interest and they feel it is their duty as your representatives in Congress to help in this undertaking.
Dairy products go on every family dinner table. But how do cattle ticks affect these foods? Milk from a tick free, healthy cow is thick with muscle and butter fat while from a poor tick infested cow it is like blue John, tastes insipid as if filled with water and in churning it is "hard to get butter to come." When it does come it is light in color and looks like tallow and is just about as tasteless.
The day is not far distant when buyers and consumers of milk and butter will not buy except from a farmer who keeps his cows clean and healthy; that is to say, free of cattle ticks. The Company, the largest milk dealers in the United States, are way out in front with their sanitation improvements. They have men who inspect their pasture lands, the food of their cattle and to see that the cattle are washed twice a week with disinfectants to rid them of ticks and lice. This firm ships milk in iced boxes to San Francisco and even abroad to London and Paris to people who request absolutely pure and healthy milk, paying high prices for it. This company deals in milk only. It does not handle butter.
Just north of your county lies Giles County, Tennessee. All
137