Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME YI.
A33DRESS
or
Col. THOMAS HARDEMAN,
President of the State Agricultural
Convention, at Americas, February
12th, 1878.
Gentlemen of the Conventio?i
Thanks to that overruling Providence
that gives us the changing seasons,
the early and the latter rains, the seed
time and the harvest, we are again
permitted to assemble in general con
vention, where we can counsel one
with the other as to the best means
of stimulating and elevating the agri
cultural interests of the State. '‘Line
upon line” has been written, and
“pie opt upon precept” has been pro
mulgated upon the duties and neces*
sities of the hour —a progressive spirit
has “eeri infused into the people, yet
after all the efforts and teachings of
scientists, theorists and educated
practitioners, it cannot be denied there
are fields of research yet unexplored,
and sources of
AGRICULTURAL rOWBIK AND INFLUENCE
as yet unavailable which must be en
tered and utilized, if we would attain
that elevated position in wealth, in
telligence and power which would
make us the peers of any, the inferiors
of none.
THE AIM AND OBJECT
of this Society is to stimulate a spirit
of enquiry and progress, to educate
public opinion upon the great impor
tance of industrial pursuits, a.id to
bring together, in the bon is of a clos
et union, all the workers in and sym
pathisers with, that great industry
that stamps the impress of indepen
dence upon character, peoples and
States. Progress or retrogression are
the alternatives now presented to this
people, and upon their selection will
depend the future not only of your
chief material industry, but of every
other agency and element that give
refinement to society, wealth to the
people, and honor to the State. Hand
in hand, with one, comes wealth, in
fluence, population, power, while with
the other is associated poverty, thrift
less homesteads, a demoralized people
and a ru'ncd State.
INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS AND AGENCIES
are sources of power, and individual
industry, properly directed, is the foun
dation stone upon which rests the
prosperity of communities and States.
THE OMNIPOTENCE OF WORK.
The public should be educated to
the fact that nothing great or honor
able was ever attained without work.
It is the magician’s wand that trans
mutes into gold the rough stone ol
the quarry; the Aladdin's lamp that
lights up with dazzling splendor the
princely palaces of earth. Wealth
tills its coffers, plenty crowns its
boards, peace broods over its altars,
joy kindles in its eye, and glory
wreathes it with the fadeless flowers
of immortality. Day after day, in un
ceasing toil, the coral insects of the
sea build up their castle walls; witn
unwearied step and on tireless wing
the ant carries to his house his win
ter's store, and the busy bee fills her
roomy cells with the sweets of forest
flowers. Stone after stone for twenty
years was laid by 100,000 me i, before
one of the pyramids of Eg\q t lifted
its finished head, the folly of that and
the wonder of succeeding ages. As
with the ant and the bee, so with the
man, By labor must he live, and by
that alone, can he make himself hon
ored, respected and great. Labor is
an ordinance of Heaven, stamped in
the title page of the world's history,
and he or she who would disobey its
requirements or skulk its duties,
should be made to glean with Ruth in
the barley fields or grind corn with
Sampson in the prison house. The
channel iu which that labor should be
directed, should be the source of much
study, for labor uncontrolled by incli,
nation and adapted talent, will rarely
result iu ‘'perfect works,” for as the
soil that we cultivate requires differ-
@b* gaehmitt
ent plant food for successful culture,
so do the occupations of man engage
different tastes, faculties and educa
tions. As the streams from the moun
tain take different courses to the sea,
owing to the conformation of the re
gions they traverse, so wiil the indus
tries of man run in those channels
most accordant with the taste, talent
and education of those engaged in
them. And as these streams, in their
different courses make at last a grand
ocean, so do different interests con
verge in one grand element of power
and greatness, despite of seeming an
tagonisms and opposing interests. Di
versified industries are not mcessar -
ly antagonistic. They are but tfie
opposing forces that hold in check
every material interest of society. Di
versity is writieu upon the face of na
ture, mountains and valley la ,and and
sea. The springtime green, the sum
mer fruit, t!ie autumn leaf, the winter's
blight, are but ihe evidences of differ
ent sentiments and promptings in the
Divine mind at earth’s creation
Change and variety are stamped upon
the earth below, while above we real
ize the fact there is “one glory of the
sun, another glory of the moon, anoth
er glory of the stars—for one star dif
foreth from another star in glory”
As in the natural, so in t'<e physical
world; different conformation, differ
ent tastes and natural .promptings, di
rect to different pursuits, into which
men gravitate as naturally as did the
planets to their re-pective orbits.
And bow wisely are these different
pursuits adapted to the growth of so
ciety and the pemaneut welfare of
the people ?
DIVERSITY OF PURSUIT.
Were all men merchants, commerce,
that great refiner and stimulator,
would soon furl her sails and leave
the ocean to tempi-st and to storm.
Were we all mechanics, the fields
would ripen no harvest, and the ham
mer and the saw would be heard
only ‘'upon the works of our own
hands/’
Were we all manufacturers, the
spindle and the loom would quick’y
stop, and the wheel would no longer
move to the power of the stream for
want of the raw material upon which
to operate.
So, were we all agriculturists labor
would confine itself to the production
alone of the necessities of life. Ener
gies would languish arid die; for there
would be no remuneration for toil.
Society would retrograde as the peo
ple became idle and listless, while
progress wit., no good in view and no
motive power to propel, would leave
the world to abject necessity and
slothful indifference. How essential
then to growth, prosperity and happi
ness is diversified industry, and how
wisely was it ordained that so large a
majority of earth’s laborers should be
engaged in that occupation upon the
success of which, that of every other
one so eminently depends. It antag
onizes none, for on all lean for perma
nent prosperity.
MUTUALLY DEPENDENT.
They should move in sweetest har
monv, each guarding with sacred lidel
ity, the best interest of the other. Tin
plow, the lo<>m and the anvil are the
grand rounds in the ladder of advance
ment. One broken, and the ascent is
slow and unsatisfactory. Waite, then
I do not overestimate their combined
power for growth and prosperity, I
will not undervalue that great pro
dueing, sustaining, life-giving power,
which is the source of our commercial
growth abroad, and our prosperity at
home. lam aware there is a grow
ing disposition to decry its usefulness
and to underestimate it as a source of
wealth and prosperity, and the present
unfortunate situation of the planting
community is cited as a proof that as
a wealth-producing ageucy it has
fiiled, but the records of other States
do not justify the conclusion that
THE AGRICULTURE OF THE SOUTH
is less remunerative than the indus
tries of other sections thought to be
more favored. Asa people we have
EASTMAN, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, IS7S.
p issed through our ordeal of fire and
of blood. War after war of revolu
tion rolled over us, sweeping away
our property, desolating our fields,
destroying our labor, yet to-day—
thanks to the energy of her &ons and
the self-sacrificing spirit of her daugh
ters—desolated Georgia will compare
favorably with other States over
which no tide of revolution rolled.
That property has decreased in Geor
gia, and values shrunk, no one will
deny; but what people have not felt
the shock that has shaken our for
tunes ?
condition of other states.
Look at Peun-ylvania, the “Key
ston of tie arch,” with her mineral
wealth, -er coal, tier iron, and her ag
ricaltural i iterests. Has she advanc
ed ? In 1875 the aggregate of her
taxable real estate, estimating the re
turns of a few counties, not enumera
ted even at the present value of land
ed property, was, in 1875, $1,740,461,-
158; in 1876, $1,671,617,691, a de
crease in one year of $68,843,467,
while her decrease in household furs
niture is $8,287,052.
In the great State of Ohio, into
whose lap Georgia and other Southern
States have emptied yearly their mil
lions for her products, I find that her
abstract of personal property was in
1874, $497,203,587; 1875, $490,094*116
1876, $477,033,330,5h0wing a decrease
in two years of $20,130,247. while her
consolidated returns of real and per
sonal property show a reduction of
$1,105,896. In the District of Colum
bia, that pet place of the government,
sustained and supported by the money
drawn from the people of the States,
where wealth aggregates for pleasure,
and I like to have said for plunder,
the shrinkage in value of real estate
is over twenty per emt. in the last
year. Tennessee, our border sister,
as rich as she is in all the elements of
material prosperity, realizes a reduc
tion of over $30,000,000 in her taxable
property. If Igo farther East, to the
land of pilgrim habits and cunning
shiewdm ss, I find from the returns of
the Secretary of State that in Massa
chusetts last year the loss in real and
personal property aggregated $70,943,-
146. From the great State of New
York, the emporium of trade and com
merce, each day brings the report of
ruined values, of wrecked fortunes, of
declining prosperity. Into her ports
comes the shipping of the world. Her
great city is the fountain head of
America's commerce. She is the
great financial sun, around which the
other State planets revolve, and from
which, in a great measure, they draw
light and heat. Yet the tidal wave
of misfortune is sweeping away her
collossa! fortunes, which honest toil
strikes for wages and for bread. This
decrease is not confined to isolated
States, for it is estimated tli t through
out the commonwealth there has been
a reduction in value of thirty three
per cent. Yes, my countrymen, from
every section of the Union comes
THE CRY OF HARD TIMES,
unremunerative labor.impending bank
ruptcy. It is heard in the work shop of
the mechanic, whose steady stroke
barely earns a scanty subsistence. It
is verified in the noiseless wheels of
the factor! s whose starving operas
ttves cry in vain for bread. It comes
up, plaintive as the lamentations of
the prophet over stricken from
the collieries and the iron works. It
is heard in the wild shriek of the loco
motive as the desponding engineer
opens for the last time the throttle of
the engine he is abandoning. It comes
from the fields of the agriculturist
(but thank God not in mob clamor and
labor strikes) as thej open the furrow,
whose every turned up sod remind
them of mortgage obligations and ru
inous interest. It burns, not in the
furnace or the foundry, but with sear
ing, blistering effect in the breasts of
honest toilers, whose daily labor will
not afford them daily bread. We
have heard the cry, and felt in all our
industries the shock that felled other
great interests and employments, lor
our aggregate property after an ih>
crease of $126,000,000 in a decade of
years, was decreased in 1876 about
$15,000,000, embracing therein every
species of property in the State.
LOSSES IN VALUE,
then, are not confined, it appears, to
the agricultural growing Stites alone,
tor a comparison of Georgia with Mas
sachusetts, and Ohio with Pennsylva
nia, wftl satisfy the most skeptical
that agricultural industry, judiciously
managed,is as the ocean rock—though
at times covered by the tempest-toss
ed billows, yet lifts its head above
the waters, when the tempest is hush
ed.
OTHER CAUSES
The destruction of our values is not
owing alone to agricultural pursuits,
for other causes have been instrumen
tal in effecting these results. Extrav
agance in town, city, State and gene
ral governments, have burdened the
people with taxation almost unbear
able. Ignorance, selfish interests, and
designing deinagogism has tampered
with the finances of the country, and
iu so doing they have paralyzed labor
have destroyed industries, have de
preciated values and produced a state
of almost bankruptcy. To
keep power they have plundered the
people, to satisfy capital they have
burdened labor, to distribute pation
age they have corrupted the govern
ment. To gain favor with the rich
they have impoverished the masses,
and to-day, in city and town, iu Work
shop and field, the country's history
is being written with the tears of toil
and swe ;t of the poor. Shrinkage in
value arose from
SHRINKAGE OF MONEY
in circulation, and is the cause to a
great extent, of our financial troubles.
When the country was prosperous
and all industries were thriving over
$1,000,000,000 of currency was with
drawn from the business of the coun
try, leaving now in circulation for the
requiiements of trade, not one-third
that was in use before contraction
began. This is no tme or place for a
discussion of these questions. I have
incidentally alluded to them to show
the people that this depreciation of
their property is not owing to agri
cultural pursuits for while labor in
your State and in the South has bem
reduced to a mournful condition it
i
has more home comforts—more of the
necessities of life, than are found
among the productive classes of the
North and East. Agriculture has been
paralyzed by agencies mentioned, yet
thanks to her self-dependent, self-sus
taining nature, though shaken by the
storm, she will outlive its power and
i’s fury, and our great staple at last
will be our* refuge and our safety.
Decry cotton as you will, it is
THE SHEET ANCHOR OF SOUTHERN HOPES
of prosperity in the present and inde
pendence in the future. God has giv
en the Southern planter in the cotton
plant the source of wealth and power
that no other people possess, and if
properly utilized wiil re-establish his
private fortune and his State's inde
pendence. Think not, gentlemen, I
atn going to mislead yon into the folly
of exclusive cotton culture, for this
would be bankruptcy and, ruin. The
folly of raising cotton to buy supplies
for the farm, I endeavored to show, at
your convention in Columbus, and I
cannot too strongly reiterate the stern
truths therein enunciated—yet I do
not hesitate to say that after you have
filled barn and store house with all
that is esseniial for life, comfort and
happiness of man and beast, then eve
ry pound of cotton raised by-Southern
plauters will add to their personal
emolument and the wealth and influ
ence of the South. Cotton built up
our States before the war and gave
tneui an enviable position in the fam
ily of nations. And cotton is yet
destined, in its culture and its manu
facture, to make us again rich and in
dependent. While it is the leading
controlling element of our prosperity,
ever commanding a cash price in the
markets of the world, it should be
subservient to home supplies, home
improvements, home refinements.—
Thus directed and controlled, it will
add each successive j*ear to perma
nent prosperity and growth. Fear
not that if 3 r ou give sufficient means
and labor to the food products f the
farm, you will overstock the world
with the cotton of your fields. The
cry of over-production has been
wrung for over fifty years, and yet
CONSUMATION MARCHES APACE
with production. In 1830, with a
crop of 1,038,849 bales, this cry
alarmed the producer, and yet it was
consumed, 182,142 bales being re
quired for our own mills; 773,000 ex
ported to Europe and the continent.
In 1875 the United States alone con
sumed 1,356,598 bales, which was
350,000 bales in excess of the whole
crop of 1830, Let me briefly review
the history (drawn from the reports
of cotton traders circulars) of the
production, consumption and price of
the great staple, that you may learn
its growth and power, and to this end
I will tabulate for the years named,
ihe crop of the United States, the
number of bales consumed here, the
number exported and the average
price of middling in New York.
Crop. Used in Export’d. Price
U. S.
1850- 485.G14 1,988,710 12*
1851- 689.603 2,243,64 6 9*
1852- 803,725 2,538,400 11
1853- 737,236 2,319,148 10-16
1854- 706,417 2.244,209 10*
1855- 777,739 2,954,606 10-16
1856- 257,339 879,936 2,252,657 12*
1857 58-4,015,914 927,651 3,021,403 12
1858-59 4,861,292 978,053 3,774,173 11
1860 -3,849,469 843,740 3,127,368 13
1869- 865,160 2,206,480 23*
1870- 1,110,196 3,169,000 16*
1871- 1,237,340 1,957,314 20*
1872- 1,201,127 2 679,986 18*
1873- 1,305,943 2,840,981 17
1874- 1,193,000 2,384,708 15
1875- 1,354,192 3,233,195 13
1876- 1,360,090 3,040,500 11*
A tabulated statement of consump
tion therefore for a number of
years, will show you that it keeps up
with production. For instance (Re
port cotton pi inters convention.)
Av’age from 1825 to 1830 1,231,000 1,187,000
“ 1830 to 1835 1,450,000 1,540,000
“ 1835 to 1840 1,919,000 1,943,000
“ 1840 to 1845 2,561,000 2,414,000
“ 1845 to 1850 2,791.000 2,869,000
Aggregate production. 9,952,000 ; aggregate
consumption, 9,953,000.
And thus it has gone hand in hand
with production despite of the proph
ecies of those who fear the world will
be over-stocked with cotton. And
while the total delivery in all Europe
last cotton year was 5,570,000 bales,
the estimated consumption is 5,430,-
000. And this is the intimate relas
tionship between production and con
sumption, and as civilization extends
her conquest, the consumption of cot
ton will increase, for new markets for
cotton fabrics wiil spring up in her
van. The population of the world is
now computed at 1,423,917,000, of
this number Asia alone has 825,548,-
500, and yet the use of cotton fabrics
is in its infancy among those people,
but as commerce opens her ports and
civilization blesses her, there will be
a demand for cheaper clothing and
that increased demand must be fur
nished from the cotton growing coun
tries of the world, none of which
equal your own sunny South. In the
years to come the cry will be for more
cotton; for wherever the British
or commerce is
there the consumption ot cotton will
be increased. The wars now pro
gressing in Europe will open new
fields of commerce, trade restrictions
will be removed, civilization will be
extended and as civilization extends
her arts and her requirements, the de
mand for cotton fabrics is enlarged
and necessarily more wdl be con
sumed. Cotton is yet destined to
clothe the World, and the deinmds for
our staple product will continue as
long as our civilization. We then of
the South, must not be biggard in our
duty in keeping up with all the im
provements aud aids in raising this
great regulator of commerce and feed
er of the trade ot the world. And
why cannot Georgia farmers realize
their wishes and their hop* s ? Why
should discontent move them to seek
new homes and new fields of* 11 ,1(
Compare Georgia
.it s'.in juuriiil. bulh.
in her yield of cotton per acre. A<v
cording to statistics in 1873,
N. Carolina yielded per acre 159 lbs lint cotton
South Carolina " 188 “ “
Alabama “ 126 “ **
Mississippi “ 172 “ M
Louisiana “ 180 ** •*
Georgia “ 184 • •
Arkansas ** 195 “ M
Texas “ 221 ** "
This same ration was returned again
in 1874, thus evidencing the fact that
the average yield in Georgia is equal
to any of the States except Texas and
Arkansas, and their increased product
iveness ; s more than counterbalanced
when we consider the advantages of
climate, health and society that sur
round onr homes. And surely these
should weigh something in the scale
of a value of a homestead. But not
only is our State equal to most of her
sister States in the production, but in
the manufacture of her great staple,
Georgia has no equal in the South,
In 1869 the number of spindles re
ported in operation in the South was
225,063, in 1874, 262,221, in 1875,
461,821. Of these Georgia had 131,-
340, more than double that of any
sister Southern State. Then, again,
no State in the South surpasses hew
in
SALUBRITY OF CLIMATE,
in mineral wealth, nor in educational
privileges. These are the elements of
greatness, and in these Georgia is
truly great. Why, then, should Geor
gians seek other homes in the vain
hope of being better satisfied ? lias
society no charms ? Have old local
attachments no chords to bind them
here? Are the graves of their fath
ers to be turned over to the strangers*
keeping and the stranger’s care? Are
the old homesteads around whose so
cial hearthstones our good old mo ti
ers sang the dear old songs of the
“sweet by and by v to be occupied by
those who read no sacred memories
on their time-soiled walls, and hear no
echoes of cliillhood’s joys in the
winds that rattle through the roof tree
shutters ? The fault, gentlemen, is
not in Georgia, her soil nor her clim
ate, for in these she is eminently
blessed. The error lies in her sons
and their system of labor. He who
is thriftless here, will be so in his new
found home unless a change of place
effects a change of habits of life.
Change your agricultural economy
and you will prosper here. Feed and
clothe yourselves at home and your
cotton crop will soon bless you with
means and prosperity. Build up your
interests in Georgia; patronize your
own schools and colleges; erect and
run your own factories and thus util
ize your crops at your own doors;
make yourselves independent at home
and your industrial pursuits will be
enlarged; capital will seek invest
ments here and you will realize in all
its fullness the blessing of independ
ence. My countrymen had I any of
the attributes of divine power, I
would bring forth the people from
their camps to the Sinai of their form
er prosperity and from the thick cloud
of misfortune that now darkens its
summit, while the thunders of discon
tent rolled angrily above and the
lightnings of ill-fortune played Inces*-
santly upon its sides, the voice of the
trumpet should sound long and wax
louder and louder until startled Israel
should receive the fiery law, “Live at
home”
The last words of Victor Emanual
to his son, who was to succeed him on
the throne, were: “Live for Italy7*
Tin's was the dying injunction of a
great monarch, but it is the living em
bodiment of a spotless patriotism.
With no sanction of royal authority,
without the sacred force and power of
a death-bed request, with none of
that impressiveness that characterizes
the language of those in position and
place, yet with all the emphasis of
my nature, coming up from a heart
that loves its native State, I change
his language, aud would to God rt
could be heard by every man from
Enutal/s heights to Tybee’s beacon
island—from the Savannah. JbuJh
pLotLr’ creditors, to show
,“ nv “.v can, why aud admiuistr.t.
u should not be discharged from bis trust
administrator, arid receive letters of distune.
11 on the first Monday in Apiil, 178.
J. J KOZ. IK, Ur Unary D (’,
NO. 8,