{"id":9521,"date":"2023-04-27T20:41:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T20:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=9521"},"modified":"2023-04-27T20:41:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T20:41:30","slug":"jere-nash-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/jere-nash-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Jere Nash Oral History"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Jere Nash Oral History<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1682627675712-10″ tab_id=”1682627675713-9″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1682627675722-2″ tab_id=”1682627675723-7″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1682627683670-8″ tab_id=”1682627683673-10″ link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1682627684375-7″ tab_id=”1682627684376-1″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1682627685415-6″ tab_id=”1682627685416-9″ link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1682627686025-7″ tab_id=”1682627686025-9″ link_url=” https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Interviewer:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Charles Pearce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interviewee:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jere Nash<\/strong><\/p>\n

Date:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 June 22, 1976<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today is June 22, 1976 and I am Charles Pearce interviewing Mr. Jere Nash, Sr. of Greenville, MS.\u00a0 Our location is the Delta Implement Home Office in Greenville and the topic today is mechanization of Delta Farming and specifically the role of James Hand, Jr. in the advent of farm machinery.\u00a0 Mr. Nash is a long time associate of Mrs. Hand and is also a very prominent figure in the mechanization story.\u00a0 Mr. Nash, would you begin by relating the reason why you came to the Delta and under what circumstances you met Mr. Hand in the early 1920\u2019s.<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had farmed several years at Westpoint, MS and on December of 1923.\u00a0 I went to Memphis and got a job with International Harvester Co.\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t had any activity of sells or dealers in the Delta in a number of years.\u00a0 They sent me to the MS Delta.\u00a0 I had traveled most the Delta and traveling the lower part of the territory around Rolling Fork, I saw a store building burning and I stopped naturally to inquire and met Mr. Hand.\u00a0 His store and office was burning.\u00a0 Mr. Hand had a hardwood sawmill out from Egermont which they gad out the timber and were disposing of the equipment.\u00a0 Of course, the timber business in the crash of 1919-1920 left little desire to continue in the manufacturing of timber.\u00a0 Since the lower part of the Delta from Rolling Fork south, because of the exodus of labor from the 1920 back water, and the labor gone to industries in the North, half or more of the bank was idle growing in weeds and grass.\u00a0 Mr. Hand had the idea of having a hardware store and implement store in Rollin Fork which there were none at the time.\u00a0 He purchased a stock of hardware from a hardware company in St. Louis\u2026Shapely, I believe, and leased a building a building in Rolling Fork.\u00a0 About the same time he signed a contract with International Harvester Co. to handle farm equipment and tractors.\u00a0 As time went on, I spent most of my time around Rolling Fork endeavoring to sell tractors and farm equipment.\u00a0 In July, the Harvester Co. management of Memphis came to Rolling Fork and an agreement was made between Mr. Hand, Memphis management and I worked Rolling Fork full time with Harvester paying half of my salary and Home Hardware paying the other half.\u00a0 This association has continued for 56 years.\u00a0 Our problems, of course, have been many, but nothing that the two of us couldn\u2019t solve; even during the 1927 overflow and the Depression of the 1930\u2019s, and during World War II without any equipment to sell.\u00a0 As you know, Mr. Hand has been very active in flood control, and has been Chairman of the Delta Council Committee on flood control since its existence.\u00a0 He was President of Delta Council and a supervisor of Sharkey County, as well as other interest of any importance was his thinking first, of course along with his business.\u00a0 During the years we acquired property in the Lower Delta of which Mr. Hand looked after and to see to the management of five plantations.\u00a0 At the same time after Mr. Gibbs death, Mr. Hand became president of the Delta Implement Co. and our office was in Leland, and he came to Leland to or three times a week while still looking out after the plantations.\u00a0 In 1955, we moved the general office to Greenville.\u00a0 He continues to come there two or three times a week.\u00a0 He elected me president of Delta Implement Co. in possibly 1962 or 1963.\u00a0 The plantations have been very successful and at the same time during the Depression, the Harvester dealer in Yazoo City, Indianola, Cleveland, and Blytheville were having financial difficulties and the Harvester Co. approached us to take these operations over, which we did.\u00a0 Later we established one at a little town called Manilla, Arkansas.\u00a0 These operations have been, I would say, successful during the years.\u00a0 Many problems, as you know, during World War II we couldn\u2019t get any equipment and during the last 3 or 4 years the equipment has been on allotment.\u00a0 However, we were in a position to survive the 1927 overflow, the Depression in the 1930\u2019s and the shortage of equipment during World War II.\u00a0 Our company at the present employs about 200 people.\u00a0 The plantations that we operate at one time had no less than 150 families and that many mules.\u00a0 Since we\u2019ve operated them there hadn\u2019t been any mules and 48 to 50 families.\u00a0 Mr. Hand was one of the first to put running water and bathrooms in the nigger cabins.\u00a0 He tore all the old cabins down and moved them up on the gravel road which proved to be a splendid move.\u00a0 We have had very good laborers; I understand it on the plantations.\u00a0 This fertile land had been lying out, we might say, since the exodus of labor during World War I and the backwater for 1922, and the overflow of 1927 and the backwater of 1928 and 1929 demoded all of that property\u2019s labor from Rolling Fork and Mayersville to Vicksburg, leaving 50 to 60% of the land growing up in weeds, with the Federal Land Bank, and various insurance companies having to foreclose property.\u00a0 Most of this property that we thought was purchased from these companies.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why was the Farmall tractor superior to any other tractor that was on the market at that time?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Farmall tractor, manufactured by the Harvester Co.., was like the McCormick reaper that was manufactured in 1830.\u00a0 The Farmall tractor was first introduced in 1924, which was a successful tractor to plow, plant, and cultivate the crops.\u00a0 We started out with tow \u2013row equipment and in the early 1930\u2019s we had four-row equipment.\u00a0 The tire companies played a big part in manufacturing rubber tires for farm tractors, which was an education problem for us and the rubber tire people to educate our farmers to use them.\u00a0 We had the same problem to educate our farmers to go to mechanization, because the owners and management were only interested and knew how to farm with sharecroppers.\u00a0 Those that were gone the land was idle.\u00a0 One of the big problems during the beginning of mechanization was our financial institutions that loaned money for crop production.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t believe in and didn\u2019t see the necessity of the success of mechanical operation.\u00a0 We had a big selling job to do this.\u00a0 Of course our big competition was the mule and they didn\u2019t have anyone to work the mules.\u00a0 Later, the Harvester Co. developed the first cotton picker.\u00a0 They had spent millions of dollars over a period of 60 to 70 years developing it.\u00a0 During the 1930\u2019s what land that was planted in cotton, we could get white and black labor from south Mississippi to come up and pick it.\u00a0 Then we couldn\u2019t get this labor and it became so high, around $50 to $65 a bale, to pick a bale of cotton with this type of labor.\u00a0 Finally in 1941 the first successful picker was sold.\u00a0 We had a big problem of educating our farmers that that was the way to pick cotton at the price of $9 or $10 a bale instead of $50 or $65 a bale.\u00a0 Their idea was that they didn\u2019t have anyone to operate it which was easy to do.\u00a0 Then, too, the problem of cotton gins to clean machine-picked cotton.\u00a0 Harvester Co. spent $100,000 at Hopson\u2019s Co., Clarksdale, and developing cleaning equipment to gin mechanical picked cotton.\u00a0 Then the gin people came around and made improvements.\u00a0 We had very few pickers during World War II.\u00a0 They were scarce and high priced.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What was the role of Mr. Joe Aldridge in the promotion of the tractor and how was he connected to Mr. Hand and Delta Implement Co.?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Aldridge after the 1927 overflow, by his foresight and ingenuity, who operated 3,500 acres of land south of Leland, started buying tractors to farm with and was one of the first completely mechanized operations in the Delta.\u00a0 We have a letter back here written by him, and he gives his reasons and how successful it was even when our equipment was not what it was today.\u00a0 Mr. Aldridge was a good friend of mind as was his two brothers.\u00a0 He had a great influence over the mechanization of corps in the Delta.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why did Mr. Hand get involved in the business of buying land and plantations and becoming a farmer himself in the Delta?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, Mr. Hand had always farmed.\u00a0 His educational background was in agriculture at Missouri.\u00a0 He farmed some when he got out of college, around Purvis, MS some of the cutover land that his father had cut over.\u00a0 Mr. Hand, Sr. had sawmills in Purvis, New Orleans, and Mobile where he cut pine timber and some Mahogany.\u00a0 After the cutover they went to other things.\u00a0 Then was when they came to the Delta and bought hardwood timber.\u00a0 The plantations we bought for one reason: nobody didn\u2019t want them because there wasn\u2019t any money in 5\u00a2, 6\u00a2, and 7\u00a2 cotton.\u00a0 We had a number of repossessed tractors on hand, I believe during the years of 1931 and 1932 we repossessed and bought repossessed tractors (approximately 200), and sold them at a very low price with the equipment with them.\u00a0 The Harvester Co. came out with a program that the farmer didn\u2019t have to pay anything down on a tractor, cultivator planter, and disc to make a crop.\u00a0 That was their contribution to help the farmers cultivate their soil and produce cotton, corn, and what hay and grain they needed.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mechanization of farming means more than just the availability of machines.\u00a0 It depends more on how you use those machines.\u00a0 What kind of progressive farming methods did Mr. Hand use on his plantations in the Lower Delta?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He had some good men as managers, and he practiced the best know methods of farming.\u00a0 Of course we didn\u2019t have the chemicals at that time.\u00a0 He checked the cotton which he planted both ways to keep the grass and weeds out.\u00a0 Later, a number of our farmers followed this same procedure.\u00a0 Later, too, they planted the cotton thick and cross plowed it which was to check and it was very successful.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t been for that, I don\u2019t know what would have happened, because we didn\u2019t have the chemicals to control weeds and grass that we have at this time.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How did the Depression affect the progress of mechanization and how did Delta Implement Co. survive these hard times?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would say, the Depression, really, was helpful toward the mechanization of our land, although money was scarce and cotton was cheap.\u00a0 The only thing we raised was cotton, oats, and some corn.\u00a0 We carried on our business without any interruptions which was reasonably successful and has continued to be since.\u00a0 In 1936, cotton to 13\u00a2 or 14\u00a2 a pound.\u00a0 In 1937 the Delta country raised a big crop, and it raised all fall and had to hand pick it which was very expensive.\u00a0 The gins were ginning the cotton for the seed.\u00a0 Some of them would, others wouldn\u2019t and it wasn\u2019t worth it.\u00a0 I would say that 90% of the 1937 crop in the Deltas was put into 8 \u00bd% loans.\u00a0 At that time we were paying during the Depression, $25 to $30 a bale to pick it and we were selling a bale of cotton for $42.50.\u00a0 So you can easily see where the profit was, which wasn\u2019t any.\u00a0 Many farmers had struggled to keep going.\u00a0 Fortunately most of them continued and came out of it in good shape.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 International Harvester\u2019s first experimentation with a mechanical cotton picker was with a pneumatic or suction type picker.\u00a0 Did you see any of these used in the Delta or did you have any kind of business with these?<\/p>\n

J.N:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, the first picker the Harvester Co. sent to the Delta was in 1926.\u00a0 It was pulled by a Farmall tractor, one-row.\u00a0 It picked cotton very well, but our people were not ready for it, the company couldn\u2019t produce them, and that type picker was not satisfactory.\u00a0 The company\u2019s engineers knew that it would have to be self-propelled.\u00a0 The main thing was to develop a picker that would pick cotton and not damage the unpicked bolls that were yet to mature and open.\u00a0 So that experiment went on from 1926 until 1941 when the first mechanical picker was developed by the International Harvester Co..\u00a0 We had quite a program with a moving picture showing the mechanization of cotton and to help our sales office show these pictures to towns throughout our area.\u00a0 We would have a dinner meeting with 40 to 60 farmers, and we had the moving that would show the pictures from time of plowing the land, planting the cotton, cultivating the land and picking the cotton.\u00a0 I believe that picture was made in 1943 or 1944.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you witness any of the earliest tests with the spindle picker in the Delta?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you know where they experimented with the picker in the Delta and could you describe some of the experimentation that International Harvester did here in the Delta?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of the experiments were on the Joe Aldridge plantation, some at Hopson\u2019s plantation at Clarksdale, and some at the Sam Logan plantation, Pertshire.\u00a0 Several pickers were sent to our company at Rolling Fork to experiment on the plantation.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you invite farmers to come?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the early stages we didn\u2019t encourage many farmers to come.\u00a0 Those who wanted to would.\u00a0 But the farmers themselves weren\u2019t particularly interested in picking cotton with a machine as long as they could get it picked any other way.\u00a0 So that was the educational program that we had to educate our farmers to pick cotton mechanically, same we did to plow, plant it, and cultivate it mechanically.\u00a0 It was all an educational program which Mr. Hand along with the rest of us participated.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is Charles Pearce continuing our interview with Mr. Jere Nash, Sr. of Greenville, MS.<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In discussing the further development of the cotton picker, this has been in the time of Mr. Alexander Lay, who was president of the company then , McCormick, who was the son of on e of the founders.\u00a0 They visited the Delta often with engineers during the development of the cotton picker.\u00a0 Also, Brooks McCormick, who is presently president of the Harvester Co., also paid visits to the Delta, our company, and our plantations from time to time.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the International Harvester\u2019s experimental picker at first had some local competition.\u00a0 Why did the International Machine eventually triumph over the Rust Brothers picker?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That I can\u2019t answer.\u00a0 The Harvester Co.\u2019s picker was successful.\u00a0 It gave little trouble, few problems, and it had a dealer organization to stand behind it, as well as the Harvester Co.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard in talking with other people and I was wondering if you might have an opinion about this, is it true that the Harvester Co. used the doffing device developed by a local Greenville resident, Hiram Berry?\u00a0 Did you know Mr. Berry?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I knew Mr. Berry and his son, and Dr. Gambel.\u00a0 Harvester Co. always used the spindle-type to pick the cotton.\u00a0 They had an opportunity to buy the Berry \u2013 Gambel cotton picker, but didn\u2019t see fit to do so.\u00a0 Their engineers could see that they had a cotton picker in the making.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you recall some of the political opposition or newspaper opposition to the introduction of the cotton picker?\u00a0 I remember reading newspaper columns where newspaper men would come out and say that the cotton picker ought to be thrown in the Mississippi River.\u00a0 There was a politician in Memphis who wanted to legislate the cotton picker out of existence.\u00a0 Do you recall any of this propaganda?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll have to go back farther than that.\u00a0 The editors of all newspapers that I know about criticized the mechanization of cotton from planting to cultivating to picking.\u00a0 The reason was that most of the writers said that mechanization and mechanical picking was the reason that Negroes left the plantations and had nothing to do.\u00a0 Well, it was just exactly the reverse.\u00a0 The help was gone, and the mechanization of cotton was two or three years late.\u00a0 This was the reason that so much land was idle.\u00a0 The cotton picker, itself, was two or three years too late.\u00a0 There has got to be a demand before anything is going to be developed, there was definitely a demand for a good tractor, like the Farmall tractor and its equipment, and the cotton picker as it developed.\u00a0 There was a great demand for that.\u00a0 In other words, there wasn\u2019t any us in building, manufacturing it, and go to the expense of millions of dollars unless there was a demand, and there had been a demand.\u00a0 Of course, you can\u2019t do these things overnight.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What were some of the defects, if any, in International\u2019s first pickers and how were these defects corrected?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the Harvester Co. placed a picker on the market, I don\u2019t recall any specific defects.\u00a0 They did build a two-row picker that mounted on an M Farmall tractor.\u00a0 This picker did a good job, but the Harvester Co. didn\u2019t think it was the proper way to pick cotton.\u00a0 It should be self-propelled.\u00a0 What they though at first was that they could use the tractor for other uses.\u00a0 Then mount the picker in the fall.\u00a0 That was after they had the one-row picker mounted on a Farmall tractor.\u00a0 Then they put the two-row on it, but they didn\u2019t think too well of the idea, although it did a wonderful job.\u00a0 We sold two, and they sent their engineers down here and instructed us to go out with them to these folks that bought the picker to give them their money back.\u00a0 They instructed us to junk the picker, that is, where it could not be used for anything.\u00a0 We sold the junk to the junkman.\u00a0 Those pickers picked on crop and the farmers who had them, we had a time giving their money back and taking their pickers.\u00a0 They wanted to keep them.\u00a0 That was the Harvester Co.\u2019s idea which they didn\u2019t want to think was the successful way to pick the cotton.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Are you aware of any suggestions that Mr. Hand might have made to International Harvester Co. to improve International machines, either tractors or cotton pickers?<\/p>\n

J.N.: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In those days, many engineers from the factory come and visited with Mr. hand and getting his ideas to plows, planters, an cultivators for the mechanization of cotton which were very helpful.\u00a0 The engineers were responsive in lending their ears to his suggestions.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it true that you were involved on the improved ginning techniques at Hopson\u2019s Plantation?\u00a0 Would you please describe the problem that you had with cotton grades and describe the operation at Hopson\u2019s Gin for us?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harvester Co. spent several years in improving ginning, and perhaps if the gin people hadn\u2019t come forward with ideas to better gin mechanical picked cotton, no doubt, the Harvester Co. would have had to start building the gins.\u00a0 They did build a cleaning device at Hopson\u2019s Gin, this side of Clarksdale.\u00a0 My guess would be that they spent up to $100,000 building this equipment and the same time developing trouble free cotton pickers on the Hopson\u2019s plantation as well as other plantations in the Delta.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What kind of changes had to be made in the type of plant that was planted in the Delta in order to make mechanical picking more efficient?\u00a0 In the length of the staple, wasn\u2019t there some kind of changes made or the length of the fiber?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cotton that was planted 40 or 50 years ago, there was some difference as to the maturity date and some difference in the ease to pick cotton, that is, to pick the cotton from the bur.\u00a0 Our cotton still, we can pick it from September to March.\u00a0 Perhaps more of the cotton will fall out on the ground from the present high developed seed than did 40 or 50 years ago.\u00a0 As to the variety of the height, largely depends upon the climatic conditions during the growing season.\u00a0 The cotton has been bred to produce more cotton per acre, with a shorter maturing time, and a 1 1\/10 to 1 1\/8 inch is the most desirable length for the consumption by the cotton mills.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What kinds of alternations had to be made in the soybean and rice combine so that it could be adapted to local conditions?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The soybean combine is largely the same as the wheat combine with some modifications.\u00a0 The rice combine is a heavier machine built to stand the pressure necessary to harvest rice in the wet fields with rice levies all over the field.\u00a0 They are hard to get over and across.\u00a0 It was very difficult for the machine to handle.\u00a0 Rice is beginning to be and has been on of our most profitable crops.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Nash, in conclusion do you have any final remarks you would\u00a0 like to make about the contributions of James Hand, Jr. to Delta farming and to the mechanization story?<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No doubt what I\u2019ve said has covered the story, however there has been many hardships in mechanization.\u00a0 Plantations that Hand look out after and farmed were among the first to be completely mechanized which stood for a lot of criticism according to what you paid your labor.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have been practical rod ethical for Mr. Hand to pay labor more than Joe Doaks, his neighbor, was paying to do mule work, even though it\u2019s more profitable to pay labor more and have better labor.\u00a0 But being in the implement business, it was to Mr. Hand\u2019s disadvantage to retain good labor at the same price of his neighbor plowing one mule with a double shovel, instead of a man plowing two rows, cultivating 25 to 40 acres a day, against the same labor cultivating for 4 or 5 acres a day.<\/p>\n

C.P.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Mr. Nash, for all this valuable information.<\/p>\n

J.N.:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF DOCUMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":637,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":99,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9521","page","type-page","status-publish"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9522,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9521\/revisions\/9522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}