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VOLUME IV. f Official Organ of the Patrons of Husbandry. For the Georgia Grange.] AGRICULTURAL REFORM. Individual, Slate and National. Ait Address delivered in tho Judges’ Pavillion, Centennial Grounds, Philadelphia, before the National Agricultural Congress, on the 12th September, 1876, by “fIIOMAS I l *. '.rANBS, Commissioner of Agriculture Stato of Georgia. Mr. President awl Members of the National Agricultural Congress : I have been at a loss to know why your President invited me to address you, unless, acting on the idea lhat “necessity is the mother of invention” he hoped that I might be the bearer of some novel thoughts, the offspring of the necessitous, struggling con dition of my people. If this was his expec tation,! fear he must content himself with disappointment. It is true that we have for the last decade struggled up from the ashes of despair through the most adverse circumstances. The land owners of the South were left in 1865 as the captain of'a vessel after a storm, in mid sea without rudder or compass, with even his sailors overheard and his supplies exhausted. By a single stroke of the Ex ecutive pen two-thirds of the entire taxable propirty of the South was des royed, and the productive power of the remainder ser iously impaired. In Georgia alone, the tax able property was reduced $500,000,800 in forty*eight hours. These facts are mention ed in no spu it of complaint or reproach, but simply asjmatters of history to illustrate our condition at the beginning of the last decade, and to show that we have been “practicing” for ten years what I propose to "preach” to day. I invite your attention to a few thoughts and suggestions on the subject of Agiucul - TuitAi, Reform. I will discuss it under three leadin'-;.leads, Individual, State and National. As the aggregation of individual citizens constitutes a State politically, so the aggre gation of the accumulations of individual wealth constitutes the material body politic of the State. Without a pure, conservative; patriotic citizenship, good government is impossible. Without economy, system and industry in the individual, State or national prosper ity is equally impossible. In a government like ours the material prosperity and resulting contentment of the individual is indispensable not only to the advancement of the State in material wealth and greatness, but to her political, moral and religious purity. The material prosperity of the individual being the corner stone of national greatness, his advancement morally, intellectually and materially, becomes a question of vital momin 1 , tndjthould command the most careful attention of the statesman and pa triot. The agricultural portion of every commu nity constitutes its most conservative ele ment because of their attachment to the soil, their isolation and consequent removal from the corrupting influences of trade and the ennobling influence of their constant asso ciation with the developments of God’s will expressed in the works of nature. It is from this usually conservative, contented class principally that we now hear the cry of reform. WhyisthisV Is it due soley to maladministration and corruption in official circles? 13 it due to defects in the financial system of our conutry ? Is it due to the fail ure of the general government to afiord by its internal improvements proper facilities for the cheap transportation of the products of the farm and the mine to market; or is it due to a failure of individuals to realize changes of circumstances which necessitate changes of policy and practice which have not been made, because of a restless specula tive spirit, engendered by the extreme fluc tuations of values resulting front the late civil war ? It is due, perhaps, in part to each one of these causes, but mainly to misdirected individual enterprise, speculative farming and a ruinous credit system. We are prone to look abroad for faults and errors rather than to ourselves. It is useless to deny the fact that a general want of thrift and consequent- depression pervade the tillers of the soil in our country. They are not accumulating money—the bal ance is too often on the wrong side of the sheet at the end of the year’s labor. A scarci ty of money is felt even in the centres of trade. Its cause is discussed in the club, the Grange, and on the street corner. Its discussion has even invaded the halls of the National Congress. Large leaks have been discovered in high official quarters; reckless expenditures of the people’s money have doubtless been made. The fostering care of national and State governments has not been sufficiently devoted to the two nursing breasts of the nation’s wealth —agriculture and mining. There should be reform iu ail of these respects—these large teaks should be stop ped, but that will not remedy the evils which surround us. The leaks on the farm must be stopped before there can be auy substantial prosperity for individual, State or nation. The farm must be made more than self sustaining—the balance of trade must be iu its favor. To accomplish this, brains must control muscle, and machinery be substituted for the latter whenever prac ticable. Restless, speculative fanning must be abandoned for a more conservative, fru gal and cautious system conducted upon a solid cash Ims'r- Credit aud high rates of interest have been and are still the oaue of Southern agricul ture. Left in 1365 with nothing, but land the planter was compelled to resort to the disastrous expedient of borrowing money at extortionate rates of interest to defray the current expenses of the farm. To meet the demands of his creditors he devoted his at tention to the production of cotton as the most marketable product to the neglect of supply crops. This necessitated a repetition of the same system year after year, which, wii.li wasteful, unreliable and uncontrollable labor, has been extremely and fficult todi card. Indeed, as long as our chief staple sold as high as twenty cents per pound some money was made even under this unnatural system. As cotton fell in price the fallacy of the sys tem of purchasing supplies with which to make it became more and more apparent, and individuals began to search more dili gently for the “leaks on the farm.” The tiue magnitude of these leaks were notfully realized until they were aggregated by the Georgia State Department of Agri culture, which commenced its investigations during the fall of 1874. Taking Georgia as a representative of the Cotton States, the facts developed there demonstrate the necessity of reform in that entire section. From statistics collected in Georgia we And that labor is forty per cent. less efficient than it was fifteen years ago— that the average farm laborers devote only 4.7 days of each week to their crops. This is substantiated by the (acts of cotton pro duction since ; notwithstanding the natural increase in the laboring population and the extension of the cotton area by the more extended use of commercial fertilizers, no more cotton is produced now than was fif teen years ago. From partial railroad statistics, collected last year, it is estimated that the farmers of Georgia purchased on a cash basis $29,434,- 013 worth of farm supplies, exclusive of live stock, sugar, coffee and dry goods, from April Ist, 1874, to the same date in 1875. They paid in interest on the supplies which they purchased Jour and a quarter million dollars. They wasted in one year, 1875, by the injudicious purchase and use of fertilizers $3,170,998, by paying from fifty to seventy dollars per ton for commercial fertili zers to be used alone; when an expenditure of ten dollors for material necessary to make a t*h of compost, using home manures in combination with acid phosphate, would pro duce better results in production of crops. This is fully attested by practical experi ment and chemical analysis. They have bought corn and oats at more than twice the cost of raising them at home. They have bought horses and mules at twice the cost of raising them. All of these were bought for what ? Why, to make cotton which brings on the market just what it costs to peoduce it. Was not reform necessary here '3 and w.is not the individual farm the place to apply it ? Never in the history of any agricultu ral people has reform been more earnestly uud vigorously applied than by the farmers of Georgia to-day. The leaks ou the farm have been pointed out to them, and they are vigorously applying the remedies. They are using every available means of making their farms self-sustaiDiug They are cultivating less area in cotton, but improving the pre paration and cultivation of the soil and cheapening fertilization. They have nearly doubled tue oat crop and largely increased tlie area in corn. They are giving more ut tion to the production of clover, lucerne, the grasses and other forage crops, and are de voting more attention to raising stock. In no State in the Union have fa: mersadvanced more rapidly in a knowledge of the true prin ciples of soil culture and fertilization than have those of Georgia within the last few years. FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GA., JANUARY 13, 1877. Nowhere are they learning more rapidly the application of science to agriculture. No where are they more determim and to use wise ly the advantages of soil and climate which the God of nature lias so bountifully bestow ed upon them. Other Cotton States are not moving so rapidly, because they have not used the same instrumentalities for collecting and dissemi nating information among their farmers, hut they will soon wheel into liue and make cotton a surplus crop, the proceeds of which may bo devoted to practical development and productive enterprise. The South must produce her supplies without diminishing her cotton crop, leav ing the surplus grain of the West to swell our exports till combined with our shipments of cotton and tobacco wc shall regain our foreign commerce, turn the balance of trade in our favor, stop the exportation ot gold from our own ports, and, turning the tide again in this direction, bring prosperity and contentment to all classes of our people. Until cheaper transportation can be afford ed more of the corn of the Northwest must be put into the compact form of meat, and the unlimited water power of the South must, as it inevitably will in less than a quarter of a century, be utilized tocouvertour raw ma terial iutoyarns, and thus double tiie vahie A and lienee contribute double the amount UtQ ward establishing the balance of trade in our favor. Phcr-- ■i! water power cttcngli in Georgia alone to manufacture all of tnte cotton uud 1 wool produced in the United (States. The following are some of the mofft important powers reported by Dr. George Little, State Geologist: The Chattahoochee river falls 106 feet in three miles, and gives 30,000 horse power, of which only 850 are used. One of its tributa ries, Mulberry creek, affords 287 horse power. Tue Savannah furnishes the canal at Au gusta with 12,000 horse power. One of its tributaries, Brier creek, gives 515 horse power. The Oconee, with its tributaries in Clarke county, near Athens, gives over 3,000 horse power. The Ocmulgee, between tlio Georgia Rail road and the city of Macon, a distance o! tiity miles, affords 36,000 horsepower, and its tributary Yellow river, 7,000. The Coosawatteo, a tributary of the Coosa river, at one point in Gordon county gives nearly 2,500 horse power. Eight streams furnish, at their principal falls, 91,302 horse power, of which but little is used, leaving nearly the whole of this vast power to run riot to the sea, murmuring as it goes at man’s neglectful waste of nature’s forces. Georgia spins but little more than ten per cent, of her cotton. She loses annually $25,000,000 by not spinning the whole. The cotton States would receive $250,000,000 more for their crop, if it was sold as yarn, than they do by selling the raw material. We, of the South, are far behind our North ern and Western brethren in the introduction ot labor-saving implements and machinery, consequently are more dependent upon ex pensive and unreliable human muscle for our •arm labor. The difficulties of the Western 1 aimers rest more in the lack of cheap trans portation to sea than iu misapplied energy aud misdirected labor. I’hey have diversi fied their farming to the full extent admissible in their climate. Not so iu the South. With a soil and climate susceptible of almost end less diversity of culture and products, her farmers have relied mainly upon one market product, which, in consequence of a failure to produce provision crops, is sold without net profit. Georgia and Indiana have nearly the same population. Let us compare their material wealth, and see what arc the principal items of difference in the wealth of the two States. Georgia had in farms, in 1870,23,647,941 acres. Indiana had 18,120,648 acres. Georgia had on these farmsonly 6,831,856 acres improved, while Indiana had 10,104,279 improved. The Georgia farms were worth in cash $94, 559,468, while those of Indiana were worth $634,804,189. The crops produced in Georgia were worth $80,390,228; iu Indiana, $122,- 914,302. Hence, on the capital invested in real estate in Georgia the agricultural products amount ed to eighty five pet cent., while Indiana made only nineteen per cent, on her capital invested in farms. So it appears, Mr. Piesidcnt, that, considering only the value of the land, an in vestment iu Georgia farms pays more than four times the profit of the same amount in vested in the famous lands of ludiana. Indiana bad, in 1870, $52,052,425 invested in manufactures, which produced new values amounting to $108,617,278, or $2.08 for one cne dollar invested. Georgia had, in 1870, an investment of $13,930,125,which produced or $2.24 to one invested. In view of these facts, why is the average Indiana farmer to-day in a better financial condition than the same class in Georgia ? The same source from which we get the basis of the above facts, United States Census 1870, will, to some extent, explain the fact. Indiana, by an investment of $13,061,890 in labor-saving farm machinery, which is, to some extent, a permanent investment, ex pends In producing her $122,914,302 worth of agricultural products, $10,111,738 less for labor than Georgia does to produce her $80,890,228 worth. In other words, Indiana pays only eight per cent of the value of her agricultural products in wages, while Geor gia spends twenty-five per cent of hers lor wages. Again,'lndiana diversifies her products and devotes proper attention to raising slock of all kinds, sc, that the farmer has nothing to buy except his sugar, coffee and diy goods, while in Georgia, the planter too often depends upon his cotton to buy meat and bread, as well as to defray all pther expenses of the farm. In every instance the cotton planter who raises his supplies and stock on his farm is prospering. That is the key to the whole matter. Make (lie farm,produce first its own supplies and after that us large a surplus as is possible for market. Much can be done towards accomplishing reform in individual practice by wise, judi cious and just State action. In this respect we need STATE REFORM. In order to reach a just understanding of this qUt'Aipn let us consider for a moment what is a State ? % It is a polqtel nbdy governed by represen tatives ; a commonwealth. Under our system .the people rule directly through their repre sentatives chosen from small communities, and supposed to represent the wishes and interests of the voters and tax-payers. in a f.inmon'Wenhh, therefore, in which a large innj irity of tiie property owners are en gaged in tiie fundamental food-producing oc cupation of Tiling the soil, it is highly proper for that commonwealth to employ the machin ery of its State government to promote this great fundamental interest upon which every business of life depends directly or indirectly. It the tax-payers by the investment of a very small amount in a State Department of Agri culture, as a medium of communication between the different sections and individuals for the collection and dissemination of ituformation, can realize a large saving in their annnal ex penditures, or an increase in their productive power, then the investment is both wise and profitable. hi what way can the people of a State more wisely direct the energies of their government than in promoting the intelligence and wealth of thecilizens. Instead of wasting the people’s money in the discussion of questions purely political, on the passage of laws local in their application, and in perpetual tinkering at the t’oc/cj let our statesmen study thoroughly the sources of material wealth ot the common wealth, the obstacles in the way of their devel opment, and the means of increasing the pros perity ot the citizen. Let them look more to the means of preventing crime than to the en aetment of laws for iia punishment. Let them, by wise and just legislation, so encourage the productive lorces of the Slate that peace and plenty shall surround the citizens and there will be little need of criminal codes. There is much that the producers of a com monwealth tan accomplish through the agen cies of government which con neither be reached by individual enterprise or by the or ganized effort of voluntary associations. There must be the prestige of official author ity, there must he the feeling of proprietary right on the part of the citizen whicli each ex peric-ncti towards the State government which he aids in supporting, on which he feels at lib erty to call for information, and which he de lights to contribute the results of his observa tion and experience. At the annual expense of one cent to each inhabitant, Georgia lias es tablished a Department of Agriculture which has bum annually worth to the commonwealth more than two dollars to eacli inhabitant, though it has been in operationonly two years. You may naturally ask, “How lias this been done ?’ The farraersol Georgia purchased during the last season, 56,090 tons of fertilizers. Under the law, the Commissioner of Agriculture lias especial charge of the inspection and analvsis of fertilizers, and is authorized to forbid the sale of such articles as do not contain a reason able amount of plant food. All worthless brands are, therefore, entirely excluded from the Georgia market. The analysis of all others are published for the information of farmers, as well as the commercial value and selling price of each brand. Five hundred pounds of each brand are required for soil tests, which are now be ing conducted under the direction of the Com missioner by one hundred and ten practical tanners in all sections of the Slate. As the result of this system of inspection and analysis, the farmers are not only protected from the impositions which were before practiced upon them, but as a result of the contrast of the . -.real composition and commercial values of the various brands, he secures his fertili zers nearly twenty-four percent, cheaper this year than last. Again, by scientific experi mental investigation, it has been found that the farmer can save seventy five per cent, of his former outlay for fertilizers by compost ing home material with acid phosphate. This information lias been disseminated through the publications of the State Department ol Agriculture, till nearly half the farmers in the Slate have adopted the compost system by which a million dollars are annually saved in the State. The increase in the oat crop of the State, as the result of information as to varteties and time of sowing, is worth halt a million dollars to the State this year. Statis tics have been collected which show the errors ol the past and point out remedies to be used in future. Stock-raising is being encouraged by tiie preparation and publication of manu als for the use of farmers. A Hand Bank of the State has been prepared for the purpose of making known the resources of the State, her advantages of soil and climate, and other facts for the information of intelligent capitalists in other sections of our own country, as w*dl as those of the old world. These are some of the results of the first two years labor of this Departmeut.which lias only reached the thresh old of its usefulness and profit to the State. With the aid of the State Geologist, Dr. George Little, .cf whoie work I wish to speak presently, samples of more than forty beds of marl have been analyzed, and a manual of its use is being prepared for the instruction of the farmers. At an annual cost of one cent to the inhabitant, a geological survey of Georgia, conducted by Dr. Geo. Little, shows unlimit ed mineral wealth, embracing 175 square miles of coal; iron ore of the best quality and almost without limit; copper era in abundance and of the best quality; immense quantities of iron pyrites, very pure, from which unlimited quantities of sulphuric acid, which we need to render bone phosphate soluble, may he man ufactured; vg.-t beds of wlxite, red and black marble: a bed of excellent roofing-slate one hundred feet thick; a solid mountain of gran ite seven irties in ciroomference and seven hundred feewhigh; lime and marl in inex haustible siqjply; manganese, barytes, etc., with as much gold as there is in California- It will be seen then, Mr President, that as individuals and a Slate, u are attempting re form. The State of Georgia has established an official head for the advancement of her agricultural interests. She is having her water power measured and her mineral deposits ex amined by a skilled geologist, for the infor mation of manufactaring and mining capital ists. She asks the co-operation of her sister States in her efforts at reform and progress in all that pertains to the elevation ol her citi zens in intelligence, prosperity and happiness. She has invoked the art of science in its ap plication to the development of her material resources, and recogniziug it in its true light, as nature’s interpreter, has made it tributary to the art of agriculture, from whicli it has been too long divorced by ignorance, prejudice and superstition. Agriculture being the lead ing interest in a large majority of the States of this Union, it should receive the fostering care of Stale Governments. Agriculture should be studied as a science as well as an art. Tiie art should be prac ticed under the lull glow ol the light of sci ence. There are many investigations to tie made in every State which cannot be conduct ed by individuals. Even if individuals have the means and the public spirit to experiment for the benefit of their fellow-man, the facts developed by individual investigators are not so readily received as those coming with the stamp of official authority. If each State in the Union had a State Department of Agricul ture, the field of usefulness of each would be much extended by tiie additional ue ins thus afforded for the collrction of information and its dieseminatiou alter its collection. A cordial interchange of information and improved seeds, between the different States, would engender more kindly feelings, vastly increase the general lurid ol agricultural infor mation, discover channels of profitable, recip rocal exchange of products, and increase the productive capacity of all by a mutual inter change of the results of practical and experi mental knowledge. We need in all the Stales a more practical statesmanship, one which looks more >- the advancement of the citizen in intelligence and material prosperity —one whicli regards the government of the State more as an instru mentality for the promotion of the general welfare of I lie citizen than as a system of machinery fur the collection of taxes and the punishment of offenders. We need to hear less of “ States rights” and more ol State development, in material wealth; lets of political reconstruction, and more of the reconstruction of individual and, by conse quence, ot State prosperity. Let our platform be the prosperity of the citizen and the development of the material resources of the State and of the nation. NATIONAL REFORM. Whilst the battle on the arena of national polities is being fought with the watchword reform, which meets with a hearty echo from the masses of the people, let us avail ourselves, as representatives of the grand army of pro ducers, constituting nearly half of the entire population of the nation, of the tidal wave of popular sentiment to demand certain measures of reform, by which twenty-two and a half million of agriculturists shall be represented in the government of the United States. We have n Department of War and the Navy. Let us now insist upon a Department of Fence, presided over by a representative of the great productive interest of our country— agriculturf. Let us demand, in the emphatic language of men who know their rights, that the Commissioner of Agriculture be made a cabinet officer- Let us iusist until we shall be heard upon the recognition of the existence bf NUMBER 2. twenty-two and a h- It million of agricultur ists, who feed and clothe the nation. For the want of a voice in the councils of the nation, the material interests of onr people are lan guishing, our commerce declining, our facto ries idle, and our furnaces and foundries are cold. t Our National Department of Agriculture has accomplished much good, hut there is still a wider field of usefulness awaiting it, when with a proper organization of the agricultural forces ot the country, its head shall take its legitimate position as one of the political i'am il -of the President. Eacli State should have a Department of Agriculture, whigli collects information either directly from individual farmers or from local organizations. The State Departments should labor together, co-operating with each other and the National Department, all reporting to the latter the re sults of the investigations, and supplying, an nually, samples Illustrative of tiie productive capacity of the various sections of the country. A perpetual fair of the agricultural and horticultural products of every section of the country should be on exhibition at the Nation al Department. When extraordinary results are attained in the production of any staple article, by im proved methods of cultivation or tertiiization, the means by which they are attained, should be published for the information of the masses. The workings of tiie National Department should bo of a practical Character, tree, from all partiality oraeciiSnai bias. * Its head should labor with an eye single to the material development of the whole coun try as the surest road to individual, State and National prosperity. He should study well the productive forces of the entire country, probe the secrets of suc cess in other natioi s, and with eclectic skill, appropriate such advances in science, or the art of agriculture, as are adap ed to our sur roundings. He should guard, with jealous eye, the rights and interests of the producers of the country, and as their representative head, defend them from encroachmen's or in fringements. Too long has the public mind been diverted from practical issues involving their vital in terest! to those of an ephemeral nature, born only of a fanatical brain. While we have been wrangling over quea tions, either of a purely political or sectional characteqour practical cousins over the waters have stolen our commerce, supplanted our monoply of the cotton supply, sought other sources tor their supply of bread-stuffs, and now cooly demand millions of gold in pay ment of her excess ot exports over imports. With the most magnificent country upon whicli the sun ever shone, with every variety of soil and climate, with a boast of our ability to feed and clothe the world, still vibrating in the air, the balance of trade is against us. It is vain, sir, to speak of a resumption of spec e payments while we are shipping coin from onr shores. It is vain to hope for national prosperity while the sources of all wealth are languishing. It is vain to expect relief from mere politi cal reform. There must be reform in the field as well as in the Cabinet. Means must he devised by which the farm er can pocket some of the profits of his labor, and these m ana must not involve a return to the primitive habits of our forefathers, but must involve the application of science, supe rior skill and judgment, the application of machinery to work now performed by human muscle, the introduction of improved methods of cultivation and fertilization, all resulting in increased production at reduced cost. We must re establish the balance of trade lu out faves .before there can be substantial prosperity in our cutiu,.; \V e must produce more than we consume —not ouly msi.-q, must sell more than we buy. While laboring for material development and reform in agriculture, let n* not forget her kindred creative industr.es milling Ml manufactures. These should have a joint head in the National Government, represent ed by a Commissioner of mining and manufac turing, churned with the duty of collecting and dissimulating information relating to these great interests. At the Capitol should be two Cabinets, one of specimens illustrative of the mineral resources of the whole union, for the instruction of our own peopfo, and that of those who may wish to cast their lot with us, and invest their money in the productive de velopment ofourresources. The other should contain specimens of the manufacturing skill of our country as well as those from oilier na tionalities. I have thus thrown out a few thoughts, Mr. President, in the hope that the ball already started may be rolled on until the prosperity of our people shall correspond with the gran deur ot otir country in richness and variety of resources. That our people are not blessed with peace, plenty und contentment, is not the fault of the Creator who has bestowed upon us a countiy vast iu extent, varied in soil, climate and natural resources, and abounding in all the elements which contribute to indi vidual, State or national prosperity. The fault seems to be more in the creative industries of our country which have failed to 1 CONCLUDED ON SOUtITH PAOK]