The banner of the South and planters' journal. (Augusta, Ga.) 1870-18??, May 18, 1872, Page 4, Image 4

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4 fanner cf the J>mitli planter’s Journal, DEVOTEDTO agriculture, horticulture NEWS. MEMORIES OP THE LOST CAUSE, LITERATURE, BC7KNOE «nd ART. HUNKY MOORE, A. R. WRIGHT. PATRICK WALSH. TERMS—S2.OO per Annum, in Advance SATURDAY, MAY 18m, 1872. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR. J'rom and after this date, the sub scription price us the Banner op the South ani> Planters’ Journal will be $2 a year We hope this will in duce a large addition to the subscrip tion list, as our paper is now one of the cheapest in the South. April 27, 1972. Southern Losses. Ky the last United States census it appeal’s the losses and depreciation of pioperty in the Southern States exceed twenty two hundred million dollars— so vast a sum that the mind can hardly conceive the amount. Os this, perhaps one thousand million may be set down to slave property emancipated, ami half as much to depreciation in value of landed property. The balance, say seven or eight hundred millions, to the robberies perpetrated by United States Army officers, upon cotton, mules and horses, provisions, timber, and what ever was available to them, there being a long meriod of time in which such a fcMj el 'P etrate d notoriously pshties. eminent, whether civil or military, who did not steal, were rare exceptions, yet there were such, to their honor belt said. In the border States, Missouri, Ken tucky, Maryland and Delaware, the value of real estate increased largely in the past ten years, while personal pro perty decreased, over two hundred millions, as shown by census figures. Siuce the slave property in those States hardly equalled half this depreciation in personalty, tho chief causes of it were perhaps the same to which are attributed above the seven or eight hundred millions decrease in personalty in the whole Southern States. For the border States were largely subject to the oppressions of the military during that period just after the close of hostilities, m which the whole South was the prey ot any vagabond who wore a uniform, whether of right or fraudulently. The more prompt recuperation of the border States, and especially the advance in value of real estate, we readi ly attribute to the greater political quiet that prevailed in those States during several years in which the more Southern States were being violently constructed, reconstructed and re-re constructed,—for some of us went through this ordeal three distinct times, and each time in strict accordance with the act of Congress for each case made and provided. Also in the border States was a smaller proportion of ne gro votes, and the State Governments were never monopolized by them. White men were the ruling class, and there was never such utter insecurity and uncertainty of law and govern ment, as prevailed here for years, and still prevails in Florida and South Caro lina. The Germantown Telegraph com ments on the relative value of es- BANNER OF THE SOUTH and PLANTERS’JOURNAL. tate in the Southern and border States, with a very different view as to the causes of difference, however. It says: “The landowners of the South have suffered more from the Ku Klux Klan, and the rebel denunciation of carpet baggers, and the general rebel hostility to emigrants than from emancipation of slaves. Northern policy lias tri umphantly vindicated itself in the bor der States, and had it been allowed free scope it would also have vindicated i in the other States of the South. " It would be bard for us to tell wiiat it was that hail “free Scope" in all the years reconstruction in the South if it were not “Northern Policy.” With army officers for State Governors, and squads of soldiers at every central point over the whole country, military appointees in half the civil offices, ami the land swarming with United States tax gatherers; and habeas corjnis sus pended whenever a lieutenant or a captain chose to have it so,—all this was “Northern policy” pure and sim ple. The oppressions and wrongs of this policy alone bred the Ku Klux Klans, for whom we are no apologizers, but of whom we can say with truth that witnesses bribed by Northern money told more of wrong than they ever were really guilty of. Ot general hostility to emigrants, there never was the least, but on the contrary hundreds of ln>na Jide settlers here from the North came just after the war, and are yet here, taking part with us in everything, and leading prosperous and peaceful lives among us. Carpetbaggers are not emigrants, nor should they be so considered, for the word is only applied to the political offscourings of the North who come to steal, and go away when they are gorged with plunder. The Telegraph joins to the full baggers” in its reference in the same article from which we have quoted to the vast accumulation of State debts. Ihe taxation rendered necessary by these debts; as it says, is enough to drive away emigration. The carpet baggers alone are responsible for those debts, and it is for account of these debts alone they are denounced. “Northern Policy" has had tree scope indeed, and all that we are, we are in spite of it. Its freest scope is in South Carolina, where the negro population is in the largest majority, and the fate of that down trodden State is yet in obscurity. The Tomato. The tomato is supposed to have been first introduced into England about l.)90, and it was widely cultivated in gardens solely as an ornamental plant, the bright red and yellow fruit being greatly admired. The fruit was never used for food, until perhaps within the last forty or fifty years, and indeed, it was commonly supposed to be poison ous. Buist says: “As an esculent plant 1828-9, it was almost detested: in ten years more every variety of pill and panacea was “extract of tomato.” At this time there is no vegetable grown in our gardens more universally liked. It is palatable and pleasant, and esteemed to be the most healthful of all garden truck. It is singular and interesting, that this greatest popularity of all vegetables has been attained by the tomato, after two hundred years ot utter neglect as an article of food. Lotanically, the tomato is of the same family with the egg-plant and Irish potato. It does best in a light lawn, tree of weeds and only moderate ly fertile. If too rich, the plant runs exuberant growth, and bears little fruit. The vines should be supported as they grow to good size, so that the fruit will be fully exposed to the sun and air. It never ripens to perfection lying on the ground. Early fruit may be brought to maturity by cutting back the vine as ■ soon as the lower limbs set their fruit. This throws the strength of the growth to the fruit, increases iu size and hastens the ripening. i The Fowl House. The sweepings from the poultry house, if properly saved, will prove the richest source of manure on the planta tion. Analysis of the droppings of do mestic fowls shows more than sixteen per cent, of nitrogenous matter, and nearly six per cent saline matter, indi eating its value to be nearly equal to j the richest specimens of Peruvian Gu ano. Since the cost of it is nothing, j the profit in the use of it is great. The j fowl house should be swept out twice or three times every week, and all the droppings placed in a barrel, and, while fresh, they should be covered over with land plaster, charcoal dust, or fine woods earth. This will preserve it in good condition, and prevent any loss by evaporation. The peculiar richness ot the dung of fowls is supposed to be from the fact that the liquid and solid excrements are together. Its value as a manure is far more permanent than any guano, the strength of it being very perceptible for years. For liquid manuring, there is no better preparation than water, in which fowl house manure has been leached, j A barrel half filled from the fowl house, and sunk in Ihe ground in the garden, and then kept filled w ith water, to be used as wanted, will furnish’ liquid manure for many weeks. When the j t 8 ho„l.l be j dilute* for it is r ve'rv plants by using too strong a solution. i A correspondent of the Farm and Home gives his practice and experience in the use of this manure, which we copy below, remarking, however, that probably the use of ashes is not advi- j sable as he used it, since the tendency of an alkali in direct contact with the manure, would he to free and dissipate the ammonia. He says: I manure my garden with a mixture of hen droppings, land plaster, wood ashes, woods earth, and a little salt. I keep about thirty fowls ; beneath their roost, I have a shelving floor made of boards, which collects .-ill the droppings I sweep this clean, twice aweSk, into a box made for the purpose, and in the coui-se of a year gather eight or nine barrels of far better guano than I can buy from the “Agent of the Peruvian Government. I mix with this ei<*ht barrels ot plaster-—the genuine article eight barrels ot good ashes, the same bulk ot woods earth, free from trash, or. weeds, and about a sack of refuse salt/ This gives me about thirty-five or thnty-six barrels ot a first-rate compost for my garden, costing me nothing but a few dollars for the plaster, and the time spent in gathering and mixing. I prefer it to stable manure. It is finer, more easily incorporated with the soil, more handy to haul and spread, free from all noxious seeds, and better suited to all vegetables.” What English Farm Laborers Live On. A\ e give from the Dublin Freeman's Correspondence the following picture, drawn from the life of an English agri cultural laborer—a representative man. Our readers will understand four shil lings to stand for one dollar, and ask themselves whether, when the laboring class is reduced to the condition here described in the wealthiest and most mouev ed country in the world, thev can avoid concluding that “there must be ■ something rotten in the State of Den mark, or feel surprise that a demand | | for republicanism or some other “ism,” 1 has arisen: ’lhe man is sixty years of age: he has worked as a farm laborer ever j since he was ten years old, on one farm laloneI alone * or forty years of that time. He began life as a crow minder, and then served first the grandfather, then the son, and now the grandson, on the same farm. His wages were first of all only eight shillings a week, then by 1 degrees rose to twelve, to drop again ! to eleven. He has had nine children, and brought up seven of them. He I . has four sons, all of them farm laborers j ; All have worked as he has done him- self ever since thev were eight years of age. Only the two eldest have had any education. He has to walk two j miles to work, and must be upon the j ground every morning at six. At j eight he has half an hour for breakfast ! generally dry bread. If he can catch anything else lie does, sometimes “a i j ot bacon the size of your forefinger sometimes a hit ot 'cold meat Sit of ! two pounds which had to serve the | family for a week, sometimes a cold potato. After this sumptuous repast, he goes to work till one o'clock, and then he has an hour for dinner, which consists of the same strengthening diet as the breakfast At halt-past five he leaves oft work and comes home to supper, which again consists of drv bread and tea, and any scrap of meat which could be saved out of the scant allowance for the week. From his i master he never received anything ex tra save two quarts of home-brewed beer one day during harvest time. The I most he ever had to live upon was six j teen to eighteen shillings a week. ! which formed the combined earnings j ot the whole family. The rent of hTs j cottage was once £4 a year, then £.5 lAn old cottage at 30s. was then hired [and here the family dwelt till it was pulled down. So much for the stom ach—now for the back. Ever since he married he cannot remember having had anew garment. Now and then he gets an old coat from his master— what more he needs he buys second hand in the village. “It would often puzzle a lawyer," says this man, whose i inuncisJohiKLewhLofWalton parish, l I “to ! have kfiown us all sit looking at each ■ other and considering where the next (meal was to come from." And this i John Lewis is a hard working, respect able man, sober, honest, self-denying who has spent sixty years amid toil and privation such as the slaves on the cotton plantations of America have never known. No wonder that the rising generation, sons and daughters ot such men as John Lewis, should look with envy on the occupant of the county jail as being less worked and better fed than they; and what is mar velous is the resignation of those peo ple who have kept honest and respect able, not because they preferred the comforts of their home to the county jail, but simply because they had a character to loose.” How to Get Immigrants South. Our correspondent, Agricola, a well known successful planter of East Alabama, thinks the best way to o- e t emigrants into the South is to bring them in at Southern ports. We would be delighted to see it done, but we ask him to look at the tacts. I* itty vessels arrive at New York to every one that conies to a Southern port/ Shipping cannot be improvised just to carry inu migrants. There must be sufficient trade and commerce with foreign coun tries to induce regular lines of vessels. There must be large capital invested and plenty of freight provided Gradually the Southern ports will es tablish such relations with Liverpool, i Havre, Bremen and other ports. In the meantime almost the entire im j migration into this country will take place as it is now, through this and j one or two other Northern ports, j It is an entirely practical thing to i get immigrants to go South, even j at 'tor they land here at Castle Garden. | But it can not be done by talking and holding conventions, and passing ; resolutions, and sending agents to spend a month or two traveling in Europe. It must be done, if at all, in the same plain, common sense sort of way that men do other business. If Agricola wants a gin, or a plough, or a mule, he does not call a meet ! iug of his neighbors and deliver ! a harangue and pass a resolusion that they are good things to have and ought to encouraged. No, he sends an order :o his merchant here, there, or elsewhere, or he goes himself aud pur chases what he wants. Now, the same sort of practical work will get immi grants. If Agricola would like to have one, five or a hundred white ■ laborers, all he has to do is to send us J f fr e order for them, describing the kind I lle wants—whether English, Scotch, ! Irish. German, French, Scandinavian, I or what not, whether single or married, i *tate the wages he will pay, and how,' | accompany his order with money | enough to pay their expenses, which can be deducted from their wages, and we will fill his order wjjhin a reasonable | If I>e would’like to divide up his ! la, ge plantation into small farms of a I few acres each and sell them to good, J well-to-do, thrifty English, Scotch, or J German farmers, and will send us a full plot and description of his property j describing its location, facilities for reaching it, accessibility to market, j what can be produced, and the terms j he offers, we can in all probability put : him in a speedy way of realizing his plans. If several land-owners in the same vicinity were to unite their pro perty for such a purpose, so as to offer the advantages of a large settlement or i colony, and would go to the trouble | an< i expense of a thorough laying of j out, having maps and plans executed, : and agree to offer some inducements ; to immigrants, such as building small houses or cabins, giving them a start, donating some few lots for churches] schools, and then be really ou hand to receive and direct the new comers when they arrive, it would not be a difficult thing to get settlements made in almost any part of the South. It would be better, of course, to be near rail roads or navigable streams, and accessible to market. If people will go to work in some such way they can get a population amongst them that \vM make the waste places blossom. The South wonders why the tide of immigration Westward ‘ cannot lie turned in that direction. It can, if the j do it. ~ So far as we know, there is not a single Southern State represented in this city by an agent whose busines it is to induce immigrants to go South; there is not a single rail road corpora] tion in the South, with perhaps one exception, that has set apart any of its lands for colonization purposes, or that offers any inducements in transporta tion for settlers along its line. Ihe truth is that every Southern State should have its representative here in New York, with means enough to enable him to compete with the VV est, actively engaged in repre senting his State/ or, wiiat would be better, for all Southern States to unite ,n „ establishing and sustaining an agency here to carry out an active programme in behalf ofthe South. We will indicate further at another time what such an agency could accom plish. It is enough to say now that the destinies of the South are in the hands ot its own people. They are at fault if there is any delay in developing the wonderful resources with which their country is so bountifully blessed. Th : South. Hen Manure, Ashes, Plaster and Salt.— John Jones, in the Rural New } orker, says that a valuable fertilizer and one in reach of every farmer, es pecially adapted to garden culture as well as tor top dressing and field cul ture, is hen manure, ashes, plaster and salt mixed in equal quantities, except ing the salt, of which one fourth will be sufficient. Mix intimately, and ap ply either in hill at the surface or broadcast. It gives good results upon all soils and crops. I keep, usually about twenty five hens; these roost at a certain place the year round. Beneath the roosts is a light plank floor. The annual produce of dropping is six bar rells, of the pure thing. This mixed with the same of ashes and plaster gives eighteen ban-els, the salt brings it up to twenty barrel! sos choice fer tilizing compost, equal to much of the superphosphate of commercial ma nure firms, avd worth far more than the manure of two cows.