Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-02-11
farmer's department
WHAT THE SOUTH MOST NEEDS.

WHAT THE SOUTH MOST NEEDS.
1t requires no uncommon sagaclty to dis
cover that the wealth and strength of the
South lie in its agricultural resources. So
far as these remain in state Of nature, or
are developed in way seriousl| to impair
the productiveEess of the land Gu AWAITED, the
public either gains nothing thercfrom, or
reaps benefits of the most ephemeral char
actcr. a plain statement of facts will set
this matter in a clear light before the reader.
1st. The Southern States contain over SIX
hundred million acres of land, which, for
agricultural purposes, is not surpassed, and
probably not equalled, all things considered
by any other equal area on the habltablc
globe.
I'd. All the enclosed land in the South,
according to the census of 1850, is ffty-fve
million three hundred and eighty four thou
sand seven hundred and six acres, or less
than one acre in ten.
8. Experience has abundantly proved that
negro labor, as employed in the planting
States, is best adapted to the production OF
those tropical and semi-tropical plants which
are the staple crops oft the South.
! 4th. Experience has also shown that we
cannot rely on immigrants from Europe to
supply labor for the cultivation Of cotton,
rice and sugar in this country.
5th. In consequence of the supply of Ia
borers from Africa having been wholly cut
off since 1903, and thH great demand fol
negro labor in all cotton, sugar and rice
growing districts, with the unavoidable high
price of slaves, planters have been placed in
that unnatural and unwise position which
renders it more profitable to wear out the
very cheap lands of the sunny South than to
maintain their virgin fertility. Had labor,
during the last fifty years, been approx
mately as cheap as farming lands, or were
slaves nowas cheap as plantations, they could
be bought at prices that would enable every
enterprising man to improve his sol, and
thus soon double the wealth and every kind
ofbusiness connected Herewith, in the slave.
holding States. At the present perfectly alb
normal, not to say extravagant price OF
good field hands, no one can afford to use
slave labor for the production Of manure,
unless it be in purely exceptional cases.
AS system of planting applicable to all cot
ton and corn fields, ours is emphatically in a
false position.
No thoughtful, intelligent man can sur.
vey the old fields from the Chesapeake to
the Mississippi, and not bear witness to the
fact that there is something fundamentally
wrong in Southern agriculture. To right
this wrong is what the South most needs,
and it can never enjoy lasting prosperity un-
til its citizens have the good sense to find
out wherein the wrong lies, and remove it.
The wise and good men who framed the
Federal Constitution did not, could not,
foresee the importance that was soon to at
tach to cotton culture in part of the Uni
ted States; nor how indispensable more la
borers from Africa would become in the
course of time, to meet the growing wants of
the civilized world, in reference to our pre-
sent great agricultural and commercial sta
pie. Could they have looked into the un-
known future, and in place of prohibiting
the importation of slaves after the lapse Of
twenty years from the adoption of the Con-
stitution, provided for the suppression of all
the cruelties of "the middle passage" and
given to this class of immi grants into the
New World, every needful protection that
good laws rigidly enforced can afford the
South would to-day be worth three times
more than it is. Land and labor would then
have borne relative prices, based on equal
availability and sound agricultural ccono-
my SO that the soil, rapidly apprcciatiug
in value, because Of the abundance of la
Dor to improve it, would have been too use
full to society to permit its destruction. Now,
the great misfortune lies in the fact that
Southern public sentiment fails to see, as
the people equally fail to feel the popular
error of consuming the natural fruitfulness
of the fields which both feed and clothe them.
Without laborers to cultivate and improve
the indefinite millions of acres of impoycr-
ished lands, our present practice of skinning
and bleeding the soil will not be abandoned
for many years. The public interest de-
mands more laborers in the planting Ssates;
and this interest sheuld be respected by all
parties. The highest statistical authorities
at the North estimate each able-bodied adult
immigrant from Europe in into the free
States, as worth one thousand dollars to the
public there. At this rate, two hundred
thousand immi igrants year, give the North,
every twelve months, two hundred million
dollars worth of imported laborers. Will the
planters and business men of the South fold
their arms in idleness, and dsay that the large
area of farming lands in this quarter Of a
common confederacy, shall have no benefit
whatever from the introduction of human
muscles from abroad?
EDUCATION OF THE AGRIcULTURIsT.-
No man is so high as to be independent of
the success of this great interest; no man is
so low as not to be effected by its prosperity
or decline. Agriculture feeds US; to a great