1. John Griffin is a Negro farmer, who lives about four miles from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, about fifty years of age; and he is a man of good character and reputation, well liked and a good citizen. A few years ago John was a small cotton farmer and borrowed money from the bank to make his crop, —generally $400.00 to $500.00. He usually was able to pay up and borrow more the next year, but he was not getting ahead. He was advised to get some milch cows and sell milk. A few cows, milked by his wife who also marketed the milk, did not lessen his farming operations. The dairy business was a side line. These few cows in a short time paid for his farming operations and left him his crop free. He grad ually increased his herd until now he has about seventy head, among them some registered cows and a registered bull.
At this time John Griffin owns about one hundred sixty (160) acres of good land, has money in the bank and loaned 2. (A) A man who cannot read nor write, not even his name, bought a farm twenty years ago from a man who sold it because the farm was so poor that he could not make a living on it. The man who bought this place had worked in cotton practically all of his life, but he stopped making cotton except about one bale per year and sometimes three or four bales, but he raises everything to eat. He carries a load of cut wood to town each time he makes a trip and thereby makes each trip count. He has pigs, a milk cow and some of almost everything that he raises for sale each year. He values time and he values money. His farm is now in good condition, equipped with mower, reaper, wagons, teams, etc. It is paid for and he has money out on interest. He has an automobile but he paid for this when he bought it, and now he practically pays for his fertilizer each year with the interest that he receives from the money that he has loaned." (B) A man who raises cotton but is never compelled to sell it on a low market. His wife sells chickens, strawberries, cantaloupes, vegetables of all kinds and they are willing to make sacrifices to keep out of debt. This man has an auto mobile, but it was not bought on a credit.
3. (A) One farmer raised cotton first and made an abun dance every year and raised a little feed and practically no food. He had practiced this policy prior to 1912 and suc ceeded fairly well until the year 1912, and of course during the period of the war he made money, but the year 1920 practically broke him, and during the past six or eight years he continued this policy until he lost his farm, live stock and everything he had, his life time earnings.' (B) Another farmer of about the same class so far as size of his farm and equipment and equally as industrious, farmed on the plan of raising his feed and food first and his cotton second; has not lost his farm. He apparently did
not make as much money during the period of the war, but his losses in 1920 were not disastrous, and he has gradually pulled out of the loss he sustained in 1920 until he now has his farm practically free of debt.
4. (A) The two cases which I will give you are called Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones, which are far from the names. About twelve years ago the company which I represent fin ished cutting the timber off of some of their holdings and built houses on it in the cut-over state and offered the farmers what they could make on it three years for putting it into cultivation. Mr. Brown moved on 40 acres of this land with a wife and five children, a pair of small mules, about 60 bushels of corn, a few tools, one milk cow, about 30 head of chickens and about a 40 pound shoat and $85.00 in money. Today Mr. Brown owns 110 acres of land on which he owes about $4,000.00. He owns 6 head of good mules, 5 good milk cows, about 150 pure bred chickens and 12 or 14 head of registered Poland China hogs, has a nice home orchard, has his place well fixed up with necessary out buildings and conveniences, owns his own automobile, pays cash for every thing he buys, and borrows no money. He is a member of the school board in his local community and is an upstanding leading citizen ." (B) Mr. Jones moved on just as good a piece of land on the same kind of trade about the same time with a wife and three children, 4 head of mules better than the mules Mr. Brown had, but no cows, no chickens, no hogs, a Buick auto mobile, and $600.00 in money. When we foreclosed on Mr. Jones two years ago because he was dropping further and further in debt we charged off to profit and loss a little better than $2,000.00, and today Mr. Jones is making a share crop. His son is making a share crop and both of his daughters have married share croppers. There was no dif ference in the two men's conditions, but there was a big difference in the personal equation. One man attempted from the beginning to raise as near as possible his feed and food supplies and have something to sell with which to pay for what he had to buy, planted the balance of his land in cotton, which belonged to him when it was picked; the other man did. not believe that it paid to grow garden truck, corn, hay, pasture, and things like that on $150.00 an acre land that could make a bale of cotton per acre; therefore, he lived from the grocery store and depended on his cotton crop to furnish his living twelve months a year.