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* Official Organ of the Patrons of Husbandly.
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Written for The Georgia Grange.]
PRIZE ESSAY.
DIVERSIFIED FARMING
By Sam’l Barnett, of Wilkes County.
This is, perhaps, the most hackneyed and cer
tainly the most important subject affecting the
material interests of the people of Georgia, and
of the whole South. Whatever of interest we
have in agriculture—and it is by far the lead
ing industry of the State —is really dependent
on a wise use of the wide range of production
Providence has placed within our power. I
desire, therefore, to present a very thorough
view of the subject, and in elucidating its prin
ciples, to make the exposition as broad, deep
or general as possible.
COTTON, AT THE SOUTH, THE FOE OF DI
VERSITY.
The range of possible production being wide,
why is it not varied and diversified according
ly ? The answer is ready—The special phase
assumed in Georgia, by want of diversity, al
ways takes the cotton form. If farm labor is
limited in its aims, it is because, practically, all
farmers become mere cotton-raisers, and thus
the great bulk of our population consisting of
farmers, the greater portion of our labor be
comes unremunerative. It is generally admitted
too, that, as a matter of experience, the exclu
sive culture of cotton is unprofitable. No re
mark is more common than this. “It is as trite
as true, and as unpracticed as trite* As all
men think all men mortal but themselves, so
it seems that ail farmers think all farmers
should diversify hut themselves.” One reason
of this is, that by calculation, as ordinarily
made, cotton ought to be the most profitable
crop. And our people incline to follow the
figures rather than the facts of the case. To
harmonize experience with calculation in this
matter, therefore, will be part of our task, by
showing, Ist. The compatibility of other crops
with the cotton crop as far as this can be really
remunerative; 2. Certain elements of cost
usually omitted or underestimated in calcu'at
ing its profits.
Men being governed by their interests, real
or supposed, we desire to show clearly, and to
their real and honest satisfaction, their prac
tical interest in this matter to be on the side
of “diversification.”
AUTHORITY —ALL ON THIS SIDE.
In confirmation of this general view, we
might refer to. a’ thousand authoritities, old
and new—especially, quite recently, to the Re
port of the Executive Committee of the State
Agricultural Society, to the message of Gov-
Smith, and to an article, with some unpalatable
truths, in the Boston Advertiser, comparing the
situation of Massachusetts and Georgia.
NEW AND INCREASING REASONS.
Beside the old argument, however, and the
light of experience in favor of diversity, there
is an increasing necessity laid on us, Ist. By
the expansion of the cotton area ; ‘2d. By the
increased power of production on the old urea,
by the use of fertilizers. To these two causes
is attributed the unexpected size of the present
cotton crop —that of 1573. The new area is a
formidable competitor, introducing into the
competition rich lands, and these necessarily
stimulated by fertilizers, to make a shorter
season suffice, and so giving a heavy yield per
acre. Krom tins new source of rivalry springs
j more danger than from India, Egypt or Bra
zil. And it is already upon us. We are no
alarmists, but simply state and face the truth.
NEW DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES.
New dangers of excess in this regard arise
also trom the form too often assumed by the ten
ant system, the rent being made payable exclu
sively in cotton. From the same quarter arise
also new difficulties, especially in the failure of
superintendence when the rent does not de
pend at all upon it. Unless the negro works
tor wages or tor part of the crop, or rents for
part ot the crop, the white man’s direct interest
in giving direction to his industry, ami seeing
that he works, is gone. Bad as things have
In'en, they threaten to be worse. The growing
practice of renting for so much cotton reallv
will amount (till the evil works its own cure)
to the virtual abandonment of the country to
the negro, left to his own indolence, wan, of
judgment and ot skill. He cannot lav off his
work, nor will he do the work, as a general
rule, unless under some supervision; and this
will not be given when the motive for it, in the
| direct interest of the white man. is gone.
These preliminaries lead us to the oppor
tunities and corresp Hiding obligations arising
from
DUR NATURAL RESOURCES.
1 :.e , ‘i'i r.o reasons‘or Diversified Farming
are t > l>e foun 1 in < ur climate. > i! and fnciii-
■ its of p.-ednetion, all eminer.tly adapted to
I that end. Our opportunities, providentially
|p granted, ail mu diversity c! <> Ul .
S circumstance* quite as decid dly make it our
f interest an 1 duty: and this n.-t only is the in
v U'tres f the general arn in - c tun .
J it e individual farmer and of his family, as well
S . as ot the other classes who co-operate bv mantt-
K faeturing transpor ation or<therwise in bring
ing the producer and consumer together, or
who are needful to complete the social structure-
The vastly superior certainty and security of
a livelihood derived from varied crops
taking into consideration the uncertainties of
season and of prices—furnish a leading argu
ment. Farming is not a speculative business.
It requires too hard work to be a mere game of
chance. The homely illustration holds especi
ally true, with those who depend upon it for a
living, that it is best not to carry all their eggs
in one basket.
We will consider the farmer’s powers of pro
duction and also the necessary outlays for pro
duction and for living.
NEEDFUL COTTON ARRANGEMENTS.
At first, we will consider the necessary out
lay and needful arrangements for the produc
tion of cotton, as if this were the only crop
aimed at —unfortunately true in too many’ in
stances. For cotton alone, we need to have
land, laborers, mules, utensils, and perhaps
fertilizers. The laborers on a cotton planta
tion must be engaged by the year. In this
fact is found one great distinction between
cotton production and agricultural work in a
grain or grazing country, where work is needed
at only two short seasons.
The cotton season covers the whole year.
Twelve months are required for its production,
and arrangements are necessarily made on that
basis. But while it thus covers twelve months,
it does not exhaust it. This is another very
material point in our investigation. Arrange
ments are necessarily made for twelve months,
but do not consume all the time.
COTTON PINCHES.
A farm, to make maximum results, must,
like any other investment, be worked up to its
capacity. Now, there are parts of the year
much busier than others, and parts in which
the cotton requires no attention; but the
land, the hands, and the mules, are neverthe
less all on ha .d, and the two latter on expen
ses, the hands also drawing wages. In pitching
the cotton crop, the limit of possible production
is found in the pick g capacity of the hands
engaged in its production, and of the extra
hands who can be hired. These extra hands
consist mainly of the non-workers (women and
children) on the farm, of drones about the
town, and of some who quit household work
and go to cotton-picking to the great discom
fort of house-keepers. Certainly the two latter
classes are not to be encouraged.
Another pinch in cotton making, is in the
time of hoeing, when the same classes are
brought into requisition. We have here no
great reservoir of laborers, usually engaged in
other pursuits, from which to draw at these
seasons, as they have in other countries. The
hoeing season is to some extent embarrased by
other crops, but by good management, even
with the drawbacks these occasion, a farm can
be made to produce as much as the available
labor can pick. So much for the limits of the
actual power of cotton production.
Another limit, and quite a different one, is
found in the price, which determines the power
of profitable production. Usually, as the crop
goes up the price comes down, and so a large
crop and a profitable crop do not necessarily
mean the same thing.
SPARE time.
What shall be done during the unoccupied
or partially occupied seasons? The farmer has
the land, stock and labor on his hands ; these
are all capable of the production of other
things as well as cotton. The mules ought
not to be idle, the hands ought not to be idle
Seldom is any other occupation within reach,
except work on other crops, while for this
work all the means are at hand. The inter
vals, also, between the times for working cot
ton are too short for outside work ai d the
hands not expert.
UNAV Oil ABLE EXPENSES.
We spoke of the expenses of the farm.
These consist largely of food, for man and
beast, of fertilizers, and the cost of implements
and stock.
TRANSPORTATION, NOT ONE OF THEM.
Food is ever a heavy article for transporta
tion, and the cost of transportation is ill appre
ciated. If supplies are not made at home,
consider'the usual round between the producer
and the consumer: They have first been
hauled to the wrong crib —taking corn as an
illustration. In the case of corn, it has, then, to
be shelled and sacked by the wrong hands and
hauled to the depot by the wrong mules in the
wrong wagon. A new class ot laborers is then
introduced, and the corn transported by rail
or water to another depot, some hundreds ot
miles off', usually, and then the hands, team
anil wagons which might to have been engaged
in its production, haul it, not trom the field,
but from the depot to the crib. Corn cobs are
scarce, and the horses fed poorly on corn,
eaten too fast because not taken in its natural
state, or because the horst's are hungry, the
corn often damaged at that. Now, if this corn
could l>e made at home, what huge, unnecessary
labor it has cost, viz . twice the cost of trans
portation by wagon and once by rail.
THE EXTRA HAULING CF PROVISIONS would
ALMOST MAKE THE CROP.
If any additional force is needed by this
argument, it would be furnished, perhaps, by
an estimate of how many miles of ploughing,
compared with the miles of hauling, would be
required to make the same corn. With judi
cious work, corn or small grain can be made
with little more than the actual work of hauling
it ten or twelve miles from a detail. Tie- is not
a mere artful way of putting the case, but the
sober statement of the fact. I ca.'y, t o. the
: . ’ -. rn is de! ayed as 1 ong - ;
till the hauling e r.t’icts with cit n-w ,u_
is much as the i iking, or when ths ads arc
at the worst-
We have thus illustrated, ns a sample, one o.
the numeroti- sources of less arising from the
nun-production of supplie. at ’m ine. What
were the hand-, mules, <.tc d ing when they
might have been making supplied’ T'.ere be-
osKfii® sanest
ing unoccupied time, without donbt, what has
become of it? We will come to this point at
once, not entering into the other items equally
instructive.
MEANS OF DIVERSIFICATION.
lii giving the reasons, we have anticiwted
to some extent the means ot diversifying farm
ing- „ • i
One, and the great means of course, is the
production of provision crops, which produc
tion should extend in a farming community
not only to the supply of the farm, but the
support of all the dependencies and allied in
terests of such a community. The farmers
have both the facilities for production and the
market for sales to this extent, with all the
advantages of a home market over a foreign,
viz., freight, insurance, delay, and the like. If
abroad there be richer land, at home there is
labor partially unoccupied and proximity.
Thus provision crops may become money
crops also, not merely supporting the family
at home, but sold to others.
WE ARE NOT RESTRICTED TO CROPS—STOCK.
2. But we are not necessarily restricted to
raising crops as the means of diversifying farm
labor. One of the heaviest expenses connected
with farming in Georgia is the supply of work
stock and of other live stock, as of for
beef and milk, sheep for food and wool, bacon,
poultry, etc. This annual source
is not half so much understood and decWl as
the foregoing. Stock-raising furnishes,how
ever, one of the choicest and practically most
needed lines of diversity in Southern farming.
The annual drain on Georgia for mules is
simply alarming. Will not mares breed in
Georgia? Will not horses and mules born
in Georgia survive ? Is there any law against
raising them here? Why, then, this exhaust
ing annual drain on on our feeble resources?
SAVING THINGS.
3. Some other most important work is If be
found in saving manures, and especially cot
ton seed; in making tools, and in doing at
home the jobs for which money is usualljfpaid
out- Rainy day work, saving from waste, mak
ing the most of everything— e.g-, when a beef
is killed, of hide, offal, bones, etc. Taking
care of things generally. In former times, the
waste on almost any place would have sup
ported any frugal family. We cannot afford
such waste now, at all events.
SPECIAL CHANCES. '•
4. Each farmer, if awake and alive, ustrally
has some special opportunities of advantage by
conformity to local or occasional circumstan
ces — eg. if near a city by sale of melons, pota
toes, etc. Fruit raising, dairy products, sale of
hay and poultry.
LAYING OFF WORK. ft
5. A very large part of a farmer’s work, per
haps more than that of most other men, con
sists in properly laying off his own work. His
head and hands must both be busy. At much
of his work the head can go ahead of the hands
and both be occupied profitably.
GOOD HUSBANDRY. <
6. Consists in the economical usd of ah our
means and resources. It implies the saving of
scraps, of time, labor, food, fertilizers, etc.; in
a word, making the most of our means. It is
illustrated where food given to horses, for in
stance, has the waste eaten by chickens, and
the very ordure by hogs, and the residuum at
last used as manure. It admits of little waste,
but has new selves set to catch the lesser frag
ments that escape. It saves bones, ashes and
soap-suds; makes hauling count both ways,
and ail edges cut —and this not meanly but
wisely and sensibly. It is a part of a plan.
The leading items of saving realized on a
farm are: 1 A home; 2. Stipples; 3. Fuel ;
4. Garden and orchard; 5. Equipage.
Th ' expenses, after the original outlay, tire
keeping up stock, especially work-stock, sup
plies and fertilizers, materials for tools, and
marketing.
SHORT CUTS.
What are you farming for ? For money.
What will you do with money ? Live on it?
Suppose you live on what you make, even your
own products. Take the short cut and thus
save numerous intermediate losses and ex
penses.
CASH, COMFORT AND I'EAt E-
By these means the farmer is independent.
He can work on a cash basis, take his own time
for selling, buy on the best of terms, living all
the while in comfort of body and peace of
mind. Such, briefly, are same of the advanta
ges which arise from diversification, superior
certainty, thrift and happiness. We propose
now to discuss
TWO ANOMALIES
in farming, which perplex the minds of many.
The first is as regards concentration. 1. The
general rule of success in business, with indi
viduals, is conceutration. How is it that
the firmer is an exception ? And to what ex
tent? The answer to this has been already part
anticipated. It is true as a general rule, that
while dii'ersi'icati>n on the part of a people is
essential to prosperity, the reverse law holds
with individuals with whom the law of concen
tration of energy prevails.
There is genuine philosophy, true political
economy in this rule. Divide the industries I
of a people, concentrate that of a person. Why
then is diversified farming an exception? The
fanner is one person, with one farm. Does
not the i 'Ctrine of the divi-i n of labor apply
to him With certain limitations it does, but .
not to the ext x< usive cotton produc
tion.
■. Perl ;•if < n required the whole
VG.r’> time a -r:.i :u:-i n,t!ie gen r.u rule
might pievaii. : ut a- w • have seen, its exclu
sive < w .' : iv-.- - . ns ot entin idl -
ness.
sA N E IN ST RU M ENT ALI TI E>.
2. A.’.iin. the needful preparation of cotton
i.- already preparation for the general w >rk of
farm. The cotton cannot be made with less '
than annual engagements, and skill in plough
ing, hoeing and general culture, is applicable
to all other crops. There is time for the study
of each in its turn, and nature does not allow
entire concentration.
WORKING TO CAPACITY.
3. In order to work up to capacity he must
work to scale. Farming is a system and must
cover all the means, the land, the power and
the seasons. Save all the fragments and fill
up the interstices. In these savings mainly,
the profits consist. They do not displace more
profitable work by less profitable, as many are
inclined to suppose, but are really something
versus nothing, labor versus idleness.
LIMITS CF DIVERSIFICATION.
This doctrine, however, has its limits.
Farming is usually a big enough busi
ness for one man ; therefore, to make it
the leading business and pursue some side call
ing seldom succeeds; and so to make law or
merchandise, or manufacturing the leading
business and farming aside, is usually unprofi
table. We come now to
THE SECOND ANAMOLY.
Cotton always works out best on pa
per. The explanation of this has also
been partly given. “ Every one” says that
all the successful planters and farmers he ever
knew made their own supplies, so that all ex
perience is that way, and yet that one can fig
ure out more on cotton than in any other way.
This discrepancy puzzles many minds. We
think it can be made plain on paper. There is
nothing mysterious about it, but all the condi
tions and facts are open to our senses and ob
servation.
FACTE AND FIGURES.
“There is nothing more deceptive than fig
ures,” says Sidney Smith “except facts.” This,
however, is because our problems have not
been stated right. 1. The principal reason ex
planatory is that already given, that he who
cultivates cotton exclusively must actually waste
much time and labor.
NOT PER ACRE, BUT PER WHOLE COST.
2. A second reason is found in the compari
son of money made per acre. As the land con
stitutes but one of a number of necessary ele
ments of production, mere acreage is not a test.
In the view heretofore given, we supposed as
many acres of cotton as the hands, including
extra hands, could gather There was, there
fore, no loss of cotton, or little loss, in making
the oth r crops and attending to other work.
The number of days’ work needed upon an
acre of cotton, from the first to the last, is
greater than upon any other crop, and the
other expenses bestowed upon it greater. The
hand-power, horse-power, fertilizing, gin
ning, hauling, freight, marketing, are all ele
ments of cost. Probably in estimating the
cost of cotton there are more uncomputed
items than in any other crop—because they
are more numerou-. Its share of the general
expenses, and the necessary conditions it im
poses at seasons when labor is high, are not set
high enough in our calculations.
The relative exhaustion of land is another
element unconsidered, but which the old red
hills of Georgia attest, and with their scarred
and gullied faces utter a mute protest to Heaven
and to man. For while cotton takes less into
itself than other crops, clear culture consigns
our the river bottoms and the sea.
IMAGINARY WEALTH.
3. A third reason is found in the imagina
tive income it bestows greater than the real.
There is some intoxication in handling more
money, though it has to be paid out again. It
is apt to enlarge the scale of expenses, unless
due consideration is given to the difference
between gross and net results. The farmer
feels richer than he really is, and it is hard to
anticipate all the items of outgo —just as in
building a house, it is safe, after computing all
you can think of, to add 50 per ct. for what you
have forgotten. In accordance with this view
an observant old commission merchant once
told me that all his customers who did not
make their own supplies would, about March,
or earlier, come to town to see their factors, re
marking that they wished to make “some ar
rangements,” which always meant to borrow
money. I have made some arrangements, at
' times, myself, and so the thing came home to
me. Do any of our rea’ers know anything
| about making arrangements, or is the idea al
together novel to them? If so, we will war
rant they make provisions at home, for all who
do not make supplies are sure to have to
make arrangements.
STIMULUS.
4. The provision crops serve also as a stim
ulus to industry and forethought—one of our
biggest needs. They keep us awake and astir,
and if we undertake them we work up to these
crops as under a new necessity.
INDEPENDENCE.
5. They give us independense; which is bet
ter still, our option as to the management of
our means —they emancipate us from the bon
dage of debt.
NET PROFIT.
6. The last and of itself all-sufficient reason
we shall present, is the effect of over production
upon net profit.
Net profit is the difference between two
things—the cost of prcduction and the selling
price; or in other words, between what it cost
us and what we get for it. We will consider
the effect of over production, first on cost then !
on price.
Its effect is to bring things together which we
want as far apart as possible, because in their
difference consists our pn fit—the rewar 1 < f
our lalwrs —the measure of < ur success.
THREE MILLIONS OF BALES Ci MPA RED WITH
FOl R MILI.tON OR FIX E.
I iuill ns f bales at 2 I yield
the same gr'>-' -:tm as four million would at 15. ,
or as five millions at 12 cents. Would not the
crop of three millions sell at 20 cents and
over? Would a crop of five millions probably
bring an average of 12 cents ? The gross sales ;
of the cotton crop amount to a tolerably uniform i
sum. Mankind gives us as much or more fora
small crop as for a large, without the smallest
reference to what it cost us. This is a fact of
huge significance, the full importance of which
it is difficult to realize. That it is a fact is
demonstrated, however, by experience, and the
reasons are not abstruse. Were five millions
of bales made the present year, 1874, we do not
believe it would bring an average of 12 cents.
For the lower qualities there would be scarcely
any demand. Probably the gross sales of three
millions would exceed those of five. Let us
consider the effect upon cost of the odd two
millions of bales.
EFFECT ON COST.
Not only would the five millions cost more
in the aggregate, but the actual cost of produc
tion per pound would be greater.
For to make the odd two millions we must
call into requisition much poor land, scarcely
paying for cultivation. Again, the character
of the cultivation would be poorer. Much extra
labor would have to be paid for in hoeing and
picking, the picking would be protracted and
gin an inferior quality. We would also have
extra ginning, bagging, rope, freight, commis
sions, and other market expenses, and with this
policy pursued more than one year, usury on
the means of production. To all this we must
add the cost of the supplies we might have
made, and we see that the hardest of work and
of anxiety enter in with the enhanced cost.
More land, more work, more care, enter into
each added pound, after we pass the proper
limit.
So much for the extra cost of production for
each pound made on poorer lands and under
less favorable circumstrances.
EFFECT OF A COTTON GLUT ON PRICES.
The very words are startling—a glut of cot
ton ! They are enough to make us quail at the
consequences of our injudicious and inconsid
erate policy. The law of supply and demand
has been violated, and its penalty must be sor
rowfully paid.
ILLUSTRATIONS ON SMALLER SCALE.
The effect of scarcity on price (the demand
greatly exceeding the supply) is marvelous.
In a besieged city when water is scarce, it will
command fabulous prices. Reverse the cir
cumstances, let water be abundant and it com
mands no price. Let the market gardeners
near a city glut the market with strawberries,
and only the best quality will sell at all. On
the other hand, the first berries of the season
bring extravagant prices. This familiar illus
tration applies to the cotton crop.
DEMAND NOT UNLIMITED.
This is shown not only by experience, which
fully attests it, but is evident in the nature of
the case. We have seen from year to year the
effect of the general law, and felt it keenly, too.
As much cotton can be made on the cash
basis, and consistently, with full provision
crops for the whole cotton region, as will meet
the remunerative demand.
MANUFACTURING CAPACITY GROWS SLOWLY
AND CAUTIOUSLY
To build and equip factories requires capital
and time, and as the capital once invested can
not be drawn out, it proceeds cautiously. With
much greater facility production of cotton can
be increased and diminished than the machin
ery for its manufacture.
SUPPOSE A FIVE MILLION CROP ON THE MAR
NET —GROSS SALES.
Well, now, you have made your cotton. You
have neglected everything else and made noth
ing else. Others have done likewise, and we
see a whole country, and a whole population,
devoted to cotton, with much of that on hand
and little else.
This cotton is for sale, not for personal con
sumption. A part of one bale would serve you
and all your family. What will you do with
it? Sell it, of course. You must sell it, and
sell annually for whatever it may bring. Now
follow it through. The sellers are at the mercy
of the buyers, for the supply largely exceeds
the demand. The excess in quantity has also
deteriorated the quality (by hurried and late
handling.) The reports from your factors as
' to what it will bring are absolutely appalling
( In the keen competition between the bulls and
j the bears, the bears have it all their own way.
I NET PR IFITS—THE FOOT IS ON THE OTHER
LEG.
The thing to be calculated is the net loss, and
j how much you will have to pay for the privi
j lege of working a year and finding yourself.
• i
LIMITATIONS OF iHE COTTON CROP.
The usual rather by disaster,
, as of the season, the caterpillar and the worm,
■ than by design and forethought. If limited by
i design, and all consequent advantages foreseen
and enjoyed, the difference would be almost in
calculable. The extra two millions which
brought us in debt would be replaced by abun
dance of supplies and comforts, and the other
three millions would yield us a large net in
! come.
LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND ON THAT.
With a few actual crops on a general scale of
diversified farming, our Southern land would
smile and blossom as the rose, and our hearts
be gladdened as they have not been wont to be
for yeans past. With the cotton crop limited
by design, all the needful extra crops and work
would be included by design, and we should
’ have abundance, independence, and once more '
some quietne-s of mind.
. : i :: i.-. neigl l>or“, countrymen, in pitchin" ■
: ' i■' -L;,_ L;-
-lead I,f a eott< n glut, let us witne.-s a keen de
mand. In-tea.l ot usury t / mak" cotb n, let ‘
u- -imply make cotton on the ci-h basis, and '
:i le - we are in for it, already ’ y a had police
in the past, we shall soon have monev to lend. '
OUR FRIEND— THE CATERPILLAR. ■
If he would but distribute his attentions im- .
partially, the caterpillar would be than
we. He would often save us much trouble and I
expense, and not lessen our profits.
WHO IS BENEFITTED?
By the over production of cotton, neither the 4
farmer himself nor his people is benefitted. It 1
is work for their purposes thrown a .vay; if it .
benefits others at a distance, it is a charity be- J
stowed by the poor on the rich —by labor at
home on capital abroad.
Is the cotton lost ? No, of course not. But
the profits are. Are we able to bestow this
charity on populations richer than our own ?
Nay, not on population so much as on capital
its and speculators!
SUMMARY—THE DISCUSSION PRACTICAL, AND
THE APPEAL MADE TO OUR INTEREST.
We have thus discussed this question of Di
versified Farming under three leading heads:
Our Resources; Their Unwise Restriction to
Cotton, and the Actual Means of Diversifica
tion ; and attempted the explanation of too ap
parent anomalies in our condition. The whole
subject is intensely practical, involving the
dearest interests of our people and the result of
all their hard labors and harder cares. We
have endeavored to sift the matter closely, to
arrive at the truth, and to make it very plain.
For it is important that individuals should
thoroughly understand their actual interest in
the premises. As a rule, each individual will
act according to his opinion of his individual
interest, rather than for the supposed good of
the community. The exceptions are noble,
but few. Co-operation on so large a scale is
hopeless, as the result of patriotic conviction ;
it must rest on a business basis of actual persua
sion of personal interest.
. You think all this good—for other people
, to consider. For you—man—it is for you
Southern farmers, who are much alike in in
terests and practices, motives and habits.
Their thoughts are germinal. Plant them
in your mind. And observe that in the whole
: discussion we have given cotton every advan
tage it can have—supposing (1) it the only crop;
(2) limited by the seasons; (3) limited by design.
DEBT AT BOTTOM OF IT.
Another remark. Debt is at the bottom of
most of the evils of over production. Credit,
once invoked, won’t down at our bidding. Debt
injudiciously contracted has committed men
to the policy of excessive cotton crops, and
urges them forward with vain hopes, often end
ing in bankruptcy. Even men deeply in debt,
however, will do well to consider whether the
same policy which got them in is likely to get
them out, and whether on the whole they can
not make most, as well as save most, by the
policy of Diversified Farming.
Slieep Proceeds.
Comparatively few men know or appreciate
the value of sheep, in addition to the income
from the sale of wool and mutton. They place
s too low an estimate on the sheep as a fertilizer.
To all such the following is commended, as it
comes from the highest authority on the sub-
! ject:
“A hundred Mereno (Other sheep will do as
well it is presumed.—Ed. Star.) sheep, given
abundance of bedding, will, between De
cember Ist and May Ist, make at least forty
two-horse loads of manure ; and, if fed roots,
considerable more. I scarcely need to say that
both the summer and winter manure of the
i sheep is far more valuable than that of the
, horse or cow. Its manure on high priced
land, which requires fertilizers, cannot be esti
' timated at less than fifty cents per head per
• annum, and I should be inclined to put it still
higher.”
The author quoted here introduces a state
ment from his former work. He says: “If
milch cows are not returned to their pastures at
night in summer, or the manure made in the
night is not returned to the pastures, the differ
ence in the two animals in the particular
named in the text, is still greater. Even graz
ing cattle kept constantly in the pastures, and
whose manure is much bettei than that of
dairy cows, are still greatly inferior to the
sheep in enriching land. The manure of sheep
is stronger, better distributed, and distributed
in away that admits of little loss. The small
round pellets soon work down among the
roots of the grass, and are, in a great measure,
protected from sun and wind. Each pellet
has a coat of mucus which still further pro
tects it. On taking one of these out of the
grass, it will be iound the moisture is gradu
ally dissolving it on the lower side, directly
among the roots, while the upper coated sur
face remains entire. Finally, if there are
hill tops, dry knolls, or elevations of any
kind, the sheep almost invariably lie on them
at night, thus depositing an extra portion of
manure on the least fertile part of the land,
and where the wash of it will be less wasted.
The manure of the milch cow, apart from its
intrinsic inferiority, is deposited in masses
which give up their best contents to tiie at
mosphere before they are dry enough to be
beaten to pieces and distributed over the soil.”
New England’* Prolit in Manufactur
ing.
Estimated by decades, the profits of
manufacturing in New England were
as follows :
From 1820 to 1830, a shade over 8 1-2 per ct.
From 1830 to 1840, just ... 10 “
From 1840 to 1850, hardly . . 8 3-4 “
From 1850 to 1870, a frac’n over 5 1-2 “
From 1860 to 1870, not quite . 12 “
Here is an irregular increase from
8 1-2 per centum in the decade from
20 to 1830 to 12 in the last decade.
■ New England has made manufacturing
| pay, notwithstanding the fact that she
' is from fifteen hundred to twenty-five
hundred miles from the chief producing
region, the South. The question arises, l
! if this Le so, why should the cotton any 1
Jongcr seek the mills ? The mills should 1|
[ seek the cotton. The expense of maim
; faeturing would be greatly less. The
true manufacturing section of the
Union is the South. Nature made it V
| so, and in the end nature will have her d
’ way. tag