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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, MAY 1,'1885. 187
It U an easy matter to provide an abun
dance of one sort and another of the va-
: rious crops Bui table for soiling, and
there is no excuse for feeding all
through spring, summer, fall and win
ter on dry corn, fodder and oats, except
^ the few days when the stock can go to
pasture.
War vs. Cotton.
As we write,war between England and
Russia is imminent and already wheat
and cotton markets are affected by the
future. Yesterday flour advanced one
dollar per barrel in the city of Atlanta,
the result of the combined influences of
a poor condition of the growing crop
and the probability of an extraordinary
demand for export in the event of a
European war. The same cause will
doubtlesB put up the price of com, bacon
and other provisions. The Western
farmer will get the benefit of these
changes in the markets, while the
Southern farmer will hare to pay the
piper,if he is not careful. While it is too
late to plant small grain, there is yet
time to enlarge the area in provision
crops of several kinds, and diminish the
acreage in cotton. If it could be certain-
t ly foreseen that the price of cotton next
fall would be as much as two cents per
pound less than the average of the past
ten years, it would be the height of folly
for a large number of planters to plant
any cotton at all. With most farmers
the margin between cost of production
and market price is too small to admit
of any considerable reduction in the
latter without involving absolute losses.
Cultivating Poor I.and.
If one had a field of ten, fifteen, orfifty
acres of land that, by no skill of prepa
ration and culture, and with most favor
able seasons, could not be induced to
yield more than ten bushelB of corn, or
one hundred and fifty pounds of lint cot
ton per acre, what ought he to do with
it? Does it pay to cultivate such land?
Gan a farmer afford to thoroughly pre
pare and carefully cultivate an acre, and
gather the crop therefrom, that will
yield, under the most favorable circum
stance, no more than seven or eight dol
lars’ worth of corn, or nine or ten dol
lars’ worth of cotton?
Suppose the value of the crop just
equals the cost of the labor, interest on
investment, and taxes, where is the
profit? But we have calculated on the
basia of the most favorable seasons.
What if the drouth, or other frequently
occurring casualty, cute ofl the yield by
one-third or one-half? Now, are there
not thousands of acres annually planted
and cultivated in the South that yield
even lets—one year with another—than
the figures given?
The first solution to the problem is to
fertilize such land up to the production
of at least twice as much. If two dollars’
worth of manure will give an increase of
three dollars’ worth of com or cotton, it
would certainly be well to buy the ma
nure. Three dollars’ return for two in
vestment would be just fifty por cent
profit on that investment, and would
bring up the yield, which would other
wise result in loss—if no fertilizers were
applied—to a point of profitable produc
tion.
BuFwhat if the fertilizer be not attain
able, or there is a nook or comer of a
field that cannot be brought up, even
with the aid of fertilizers, to the point of
profit? Then throw it out—don’t culti
vate it. Certainly do not plant in any
crop, like corn or cotton, that requires so
much labort" Put it in peas or Bermuda
grass, or let it lie out and come up in
wild growth, What folly to do ten dol
lars’worth of work for five dollars in
come I
Atlanta, Oa.
A subscriber in Natchez, Miss., would
be glad to hear from some one about
the “Moseley Oreamer,” or some other
similar device; how the creamery sys
tem is doing in the South.
Georgia State Agricultural
Society.
Sicbstaby’b Officb, )
Macon, Ga., April 18th, 1885.)
To the Secretaries of County Societies and
Clubs:
Dsab Bibs—President Livingston di
rects me to call your special attention to
the rale requiring Secretaries to send in
their annual reports at least thirty
days prior to the meetings of our Con
ventions, and to state that the delegates
of County Societies and Clubs that fail
to make their reports in time, or whose
Clubs fail to hold regular meetings,can
not hope to receive railroad passes to
the Conventions.
I' am further instructed to say that
hereafter—beginning with the next Au
gust Convention—during the Experience
Meetings, at night, the roll will be
called, and the delegates of each Coun
ty Society, or Club, will be required to
answer the following questions:
1. How many active members are
there on the roll of your Club?
2. How often does your Club meet ?
3. What is the average attendance at
your meetings?
4. Is there much or little interest
manifested on the part of members?
5. If your Club is not in a growing
and healthy condition, why?
This investigation will be continued
until the entire roll is finished.
The questions and answers will be
published in the Transactions of the
Convention. E. C. Gbibb,
Secretary.
Chattanooga, Tenn., appears to be
keeping up the industrial boom. The
Times reports six new factories starting
there, a planing mill, ice factory, saw
works,cooperage and horse collar works,
which will employ some three hundred
handB.
We are glad to see Southern nursery
men waking up to the importance of
issuing catalogues in the highest style
of art. Dr. Samuel Hape, of the Hape-
ville, Ga., nurseries, has set a good ex
ample of this kind the present season.
He ought to do still better next year.
Farm Implements.
Better Implements for Culture.
The very great majority of the South
ern farmers confine themselves to the
familiar shovel and scrape, and sweeps
of various patterns, to do all the work of
cultivating their crops. In this respect
the difference between our methods and
implements and those of the North and
East is very marked.
In the originally free States,where la
bor has always been comparatively high,
and at the same time all of it prepared
by less ignorant white men, it has long
been a foremost object to expand imple
ments of culture and harvest so as to se
cure the largest results from a given ex
penditure for labor.
In the South, where labor was suppos
ed to cost nothing but the keep of the
laborer, we have been slow to realize the
importance of labor-saving plans. There
has, however, been considerable ad
vance made on this line of late years.
We remember very well when it was the
almost universal practice to put three
furrows to each three-foot cotton row at
each plowing; and not unfrequently
four, and even five furrows, became
necessary. The late David Dickson
contributed very greatly to stimulate the
expansion of cultivating implements,but
confined himself almost exclusively to
the “winged sweep,” which, with its
long point and wide expanded wings,
came to be known as the “Dickson
Sweep.”
Snch a sweep is a good implement of
its kind, bat certainly inferior to some
of the “cultivators” now being intro
duced to some extent in the Sonth, and
which have long been used in other
parte of the country. The desideratum
is a cultivator that will stir the surface
effectually from one to two, or even
three, inches in depth, and that will
“clean out” a three or four foot row
at one trip, or a six-foot row at two
trips. Some seek to accomplish this by
a cultivator that will “straddle” the row
and stir the soil, on each side, to the
center of the middte. Others, like most
of the expanding cultivators and har
rows, are ran altogether between the
rows. The first side the row of plants
more perfectly, while the last, perhaps,
do more perfect work in the middles.
Whatever the implement, or its pe
culiar method of operation, it will not
perform satisfactorily unless the land be
comparatively free of trees and stumps.
This is now getting to be the condition
of most of the lands in the older States—
east of the Chattahoochee—and farmers
cultivating such lands, are no longer ex
cusable in following the old, slow
methods.
The same remarks are also equally ap
plicable to harvesting implements.
Grain “cradles,” hand rakes, scythes,
etc., should give place to the horse-pow
er reapers, mowers, as fast as practica
ble. It is only by the use of such im
proved implements and machinery that
the Western farmer can afford to pay
high prices for manual labor and grow
wheat and corn at the current prices.
Think of an Illinois or Kansas farmer
paying twenty to thirty dollars per month
for a laborer, cultivating.com according
to the methods still in use on many
farms in the South I R. J. Redding.
An Old-Time Plow.
The railroad men of this city, says the
Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, of a recent
date, yesterday had a curiosity to talk
about in the shape of an old plow that
was going through from some place on
the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Rail
road to the New Orleans Exposition. It
was a specimen of the farming imple
ments of seventy-five years ago, the plow
having been made in 1810. In shape it
slightly resembles the ordinary plow of
the present day,-having straight handles
and a straight Block. The plow-share,
a diminutive piece of iron,is nailed“flat-
footed” on the beam, and a wooden fly
is provided to throw the dirt aside. It
will get to New Orleans rather too late
for the present crop, but will grace the
North Carolina exhibit during the re
maining days <jf the Exposition.
I^abor-Savlng: Appliances.
A Northern farmer, traveling through
the South, is struck with the lack of la
bor-saving appliances used in the South
ern agriculture. In many localities the
most primitive implements are used.
This must be changed before Southern
agriculture can be truly prosperous; but
in the way of the change there are sev
eral obstacles:
First, the character of the Southern
laborer.
Farm laborers are mostly negroes. A
“don’t care” spirit 1b characteristic of
the negro. He of all men considers that
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,
and it is rare that he can be accused of
borrowing financial trouble. If his im
mediate needs are satisfied his future
has no concern for him. This is undoubt
edly partly or wholly the result of slav
ery. The slave was blissfully free from
responsibility. He had no care for the
morrow. He worked, as a machine
works, for his master and his master
took care of him. I am inclined to think
that, while this developed the don’t care
spirit in the darkey, it only developed
it, and that it is inherent in his nature.
Anyhow, it has stuck to him, and to
day, he is so careless and reckless, that
to trust the operation of the intricate
machines used upon Northern farms into
his hand, would be to court disaster,and
the immediate fate of the machine could
be certainly foretold. The darkey is also
ignorant as well as careless, and while,
gilted with a large amonnt of that lower
natural intelligence just above instinct,
his mind fails to grasp any conceptions
of the principles of mechanics; if he
were careful enough to operate a ma
chine, he would have to be taught every
point; he could not reason out for him
self the use of that part or this, or the
principles upon which it worked, and
should anything go wrong he would be
altogether helpless. Fancy half of the
Southern negroes operating a self-binder
with five horses attached, or even get
ting a check-row corn planter to work
ing perfectly!
Herein the North has always had the
advantage of the South. Its common la
bor has been careful and intelligent.
We have no better class of young men
than our farm . hands. A majority of
them are the* sons of well-to-do or
wealthy farmers, gifted with good natur
al faculties, given at least a thorough
common school education, and often an
academic or collegiate training, earnest,
with an object in life, and of good moral
character. Such men can set up and
operate the most intricate and delicate
piece of agricultural maebinhry we have.
They drive three and four horses to a
riding sulky plow, pulverize the ground
with spring-tooth or revolving disc har
rows, cultivate the corn with riding cul
tivators, cut the small grain with the
self-binder, and turn engineer and ma
chinist to IhreBh the grain with a steam
thresher.
The common labor of the South is un
equal to this, and I am afraid that labor-
saving appliances will make but little
progress upon Southern farms until that
labor is changed in character or else re
placed with that of a better quality.
This will require years. Already labor-
saving machinery is being used to a con
siderable extent in some localities, but
it has had to contend with this obstacle.
Another reason why there is not more
siich machinery used is, that it has not
existed, and even now machines adapt
ed to Southern crops are not so far ad
vanced as those adapted to Northern
crops. This arises from the fact that
there was no demand for it during the
days of slavery. The planter had an
abundance of cheap labor and did not
feel the need of labor-saving machinery;
and, though he might have felt its diair-
ability, he was confronted by the un
suitable character of the laborera at his
command. Thus there was no demand
in the South, and, therefore, no supply.
Inventors may be geniuses, but they are
mortal and look at the money side of the
question; or if they, should not, their in
vention will lack development, for capi
talists do not engage in enterprises that
promise no return.
The person who has made a study of
agriculture the beBt understands what
influence labor-saving appliances have
upon it; he will understand why the
lack of machinery in Southern fields
was and is a serious drawback to pros
perity, and why the introduction of ma
chinery is a hopeful sign. As long as
the negro plows with an eight-inch plow
and one mule, he cannot be as prosper
ous aB the Northern laborer who turns
four acres per day with a sulky plow.
As long as a heavy hoe in the South com
petes with a two-horse cultivator in the
North, the greater prosperity will be in
the latter section.
The agricultural papers of the South
should pay more attention to this than
what they do, and should devote more
space to showing the ad vantages of la
bor-saving machinery. First, there is
the time gained and the labor saved. If
a man can plow four acres per day with
a sulky plow,while a man with an eight-
inch plow can plow only one acre, it is
plain that in the plowing of four acres
the labor of three men is saved. The
labor saved by improved machines for
seeding, cultivating and harvesting crops
is yet greater. It is this saving of labor
that makes all the profit of Northern
fanning; take it away, and the Northern