The National Co-operator and Farm Journal (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 12, 1906 Page: 3 of 16
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THE NATIONAL CO-OPERATOR AND FARM JOURNAL
3
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CORN.
The Farm and Fireside:
I am a grass, and nothing else, and
I belong to the tribe called in Latin
“phalarideae,” a rather hard name you
will admit, and my size is largely af-
fected by cultivation and the climate.
I have relatives living in South Amer-
ica that do not grow taller than three
feet, and whose ears are not larger
than your little finger, with grains, or
kernels, about the size of mustard
seed.
If you will pull up a stalk of ordin-
ary grass you will find that its stem
is hollow. Mine is solid, or at least
filled with a spongy substance. In
that only do I differ from other grass-
es, so far as my stalk is concerned.
When I grow thick upon the ground
like other grasses I do not stand up
and send my tassels toward the sky
so proudly as you see me in the fields.
It was by taking the stronger members
of my family and planting them alone
and cultivating them that caused me
to develop into a great stalwart thing,
and to send forth one or two ears
with many grains upon them. . The
Indians did that for me in the begin-
ning, but the white man has helped
me along wonderfully by selecting only
the more perfect grains and giving me
an abundance of rich soil in which to
grow.
It is generally believed that in the
beginning each of my grains possessed
wholly unnecessary and gradually gave
it up. Wedged in as my grains are,
and covered with a stout husk or shuck
I get along nicely without the overcoat
and feel that going without it has help-
ed to make me more useful, as it
was in the way.
Have you ever noticed that the rows
of grains’- which grow upon mv cob
are always an even numbe' — is,
you will find that there ar icher say
twelve, or fourteen, or twenty-four
rows of grains—never eleven, or thir-
teen or twenty-three, and so on. The
rows vary greatly in number, but I
have nothing to do with odd things,
putting out always an even number so
that there will be just so many pairs.
In this country where so much corn
fs raised people do not pay attention
to my beauty, but I am really one of
the most glorious of plants. In some
countries I am used as an ornament
and grown in pots like flowers. That
is the penalty one pays by being com-
mon in this country, to be passed by
unnoticed.
. Tall and graceful and well propor-
tioned, I am altogether lovely. My
great, broad leaves, pointed as finely
as a sword, stiffened just right with
a heavy rib running the entire length
rising toward the sky and then droop-
ing like a rainbow of hope; my tassel-
ed top, with little ornaments balanced
upon them; the flowing silks that
wave as a great man’s beard—all of
those things help to make me beauti-
ful, but it is a beauty I fear you do
not stop long enough to admire. The
rich green which is sent coursing
through my veins and deposited in
my skin, as it were; the rustle that
comes over the fields where I grow;
the waving of the stalks—are not such
things to be considered when people
talk of beauty?
But beauty is not my greatest vir-
tue. I am rich in those things that go
to build flesh. Fatty oils and starch
and sugar are drawn up by my stalk
and deposited in the grains in pleasing
proportions, and when consumed the
kernels lend bouyancy to the spirits
of man or beast. I can sustain life
without another morsel of food. Men
have existed on me for years without
so much as tasting other substances.
Famines disappear at my approach.
The markets for all flesh products
are regulated by me, and when the
drouths burn and stunt me over any
considerable portion of the country I
am talked about in the banks and
counting houses, and my loss has to
be reckoned with. In the milk sold
in the cities, in the eggs and the but-
ter and the cheese, in the beef and
pork and mutton, in the poultry and
the fowls, in the wines and liquors
even, in almost all things my being
is now considered.
Great industries have been built up
about my home. Paper is made of my
husks, battleships call upon me for
material to prevent them from sinking
in case of accidents. My starch and
suger are converted into whisky which
sends men’s souls to perdition, but
it is not my fault. I gave them not the
secret of the mixture. My stalks are
ground to pieces for the juices of my
joints and the marrow of my bones,
and the shredded husks made beds
for men. I am the greatest industry
in this country, and there are none
who can compare in value with me.
Some call me King, but I do not like
the name, for I am more than any
king; I am a grander part of this na-
tion than any king can be of any
land. I am the friend of the rich and
poor, the playmate of the other things
that grow, but I stand aloof when men
tell in dollars and cents the value of
their crops. I am the beginning of
all prosperity, and my failure the be-
ginning of all adversity in this broad
land. Some day I may have a monu-
ment erected in my honor.
ENGLAND'S PROFITS UPON COT-
TON DURING1905.
An exchange quotes it as a fact
"brought by a consular report" that
England’s total profits from cotton dur-
ing 1905 amounted to $389,320,000. The
figures for the same year show that •
of the 19,674,960 hundredweight of
raw cotton imported, no less than 15,-
440,574, or three-fourths, came from
the United States. In other words,
three-fourths of the gross profits of the
British cotton industry in 1905, or
$291,000,000, were derived from the
manufacturing of the American raw
product. The manufacture of cotton
is the largest single industry of Eng-
land, and despite long effort on the
part of the manufacturers, but little
success has been attained in the work
of developing the growth of cotton in
Asia and Africa. Egypt leads in this
respect, but the limit of arable land
covered by the overflow of the Nile has
been reached in that country. So
there is no apparent chance for Eng-
land and other countries using cotton
to become independent of the Ameri-
can cotton market.
Taking the above statement as true
—and it is upon the authority of an
American Consul—it is certainly elo-
quent argument for the establishment
of cotton mills, in the South. The Eng-
lish mills labor under the handicap of
having to import from foreign cotton-
raising countries all the raw material
they work up into cloth. Yet, in spite
of this handicap, they have prospered
and are prospering. If these mills
can live and thrive and pay big divi-
dends, it must of necessity follow that
mills located on the ground where the
staple grows to perfection and in su-
perabundance have all the advantage.
The fact of the matter is that Amer-
ica should not only have a natural
Simpson-Eddystone Prints _
These are questions to ask in mak-
ing a dress: Will it hold its color ? 4
Will it wear well? Will it pay for the e
time spent in making?
Simpson-Eddystone Prints are s
standard for quality, fast color, and
long wear. Some designs with a new
silk finish. Ask your dealer forMC"Y%
Tonoemaosoe—oa Simpson-Eddystone Prints. T *
DTVSTOAN Three generations of Simpsons
01vAVta, have made Simpson Prints. "
PRINTS The Eddystone Mfg. Co. (Sole Makers) Philadelphis.
00]
monoply of the cotton of the world, but
it should have, because of its advant-
ages, a natural monopoly of the manu-
facture of cotton goods and the cotton
trade of the world; and, in this connec-
tion, the South is America. It is doubt- /
less strange to the foreign spinners
themselves that we allow them to have
control of as much of this business
as they have. The South should man-
ufacture as well as raise the cotton.
A beginning has been made, Let us
"push it along.”
Did it ever occur to you what a
check to each other are the different
elements or classes of the agricultural
calling? The grain grower, cattle rais-
er, horticulturist, are vitally interested
in the cotton planter obtaining a fair,
remunerative price.
Cancer and Tumor Cured
With a Combination of Oils. Write
to the Originator for his free books.
Beware of imitators. Address Dr. D.
M. Bye, 316 N. Illinois St., Indianap-
olis, Ind.
OK PITILESS SCALE
All above ground. Steel frame. Eight
inches high. Compound I beam.
ACCURATE and DURABLE
Send for CATALOG and PRICE.
Scott Hay Press Company,
748 W 8th St., i -I- i Kansas City, Me.
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CAREFUL TRAINING GIVEN. ,
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H. H. HARRINGTON, LL. D., President
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The Greatest Commercial School of the South. More than 1000 students
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EARN ‘80 TO 150 A MONTH
WANTED—Young Men for Firemen and Brakemen
On all Leading Railroads and on New Railroads build-
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TRAINING ASSOCIATION
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"To Mestore Vise” • I
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VICTOR TALKING MACHINE,
the most wonderful musical instru-
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We sell Victors everywhere. Write
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Thos. Goggan & Bros.,
Dallas, -:- -:- -:- Texas.
SPRINGFIELD GAS
================== AND ==========
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PORTABLE AND STATIONARY
Made for all purposes in all sizes
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Pumping Jacks and complete Pump-
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John Williams Taylor, Sales Agent,
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tory.
101 South Houston Street,
Dallas, Texas.
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Pyle, O. P. The National Co-operator and Farm Journal (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 12, 1906, newspaper, December 12, 1906; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1636849/m1/3/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .