Des Arc weekly citizen., 1867-03-16
Farmers Read This,

columns of the Memphis Avalanche, i full of interest to you, and it contains i'm portant truths that cannot be disputed. = Read and profit thereby:
 FooD FooD FooDl This is the frs pressing want of our Southern land. II many portions of Alabama, Georgia, anc the Carolinas, the widows and orphans O our Confederate dead are actually starv ingl Not from their misfortunes, as co temporary has it; nor from the acts O their friends. But first, ruthless, de mon soldiery marched through their fields destroying and burning as they went, as Edward the first, moved through unhappy Scotland, and devastated the land because the people loved 'the Bruce" Then, be fore widows and orphans could repair these damages, came such drouth (1S66) as has not been hefore seen for thirty years Want, and suffering, and death, in appall ing forms, have visited already our woe stricken people; and in fine, the whole country is arousing to the duty of succor or help.
 Societies are being formed in almost ev cry county of the South, for sending food and clothing to the hungry and naked widows and children of those gallant men whe bravely laid down their lives that the South might De free How commanding is this call for help. How pleasantly and cheeringly is it answered from every hill and valley of our own land, though abun- dance has not been among us for years.- And, even in the distant North--the coun. try ruled by faction which sets the obi. gations of the Constitution at defiance even Il ere, where we have been taught the sad lesson that our foes are in power and do not recognize us as Gin the union even their sympathy has warmed up the human heart, and our friends, at least, arc holding meetings to aid our suffering poor Could we do ought else than thank them for this? ? Surely not, and we do So hon. estly and sheer ely, in the name of sor- rowing people,
 But while the pressing ills of life are thus evoking the warm energies of nature $ better side, let us not forget here, at the South, that another important lesson is thus taught us. It is within ourselves to say this suffering shall never be repeated among us. In one year we can raise two or three times as much food as we can consume. Let us do so henceforth and forever. Give us full barns and hay stacks and we can defy want As long as we pitch our crops for cotton alone, trust ing to buy from the Northwest all the food we need, just so long shall we be liable to suffer tor food Every Northern farmer always has enough food on hand to last him year ahead, and if the season should fail him he never suffers, though he may not grow rich. He always has enough on hand to feed men and animals, and we can do so here
 We have never been so forcibly remind ed Of the value of having enough on hand Tor all our wants, as we were in perusing the following opinion of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, touching the advantages of Northern and Southern Agriculture, Who, among all of our readers, would have thought that the but. ter crop of New York, in 1860, was worth twice as much as the cotton crop of Geor- gia |? And yet Georgia has the decided advantage of being able to produce not on ly this cotton crop, which New York can not do, but she can also raise all the butter she needs, if she will but do it. New York can raise no cotton, while Georgia can but New York makes her butter crop twice as valuable as the cotton and butter ol Ueorgia.
 If New York has this amount of butter of course she has the cattle too; and thus her people live on the fat of the land - They know nothing of want, such as we are now experiencing, and such as we may always suffer if we are not true to ourselves.
 Again we say to our farmers and plant ers-"food. food. {" This first, then cot ton and manufactures. This year we can lay the foundations for an independence that may be as lasting and permanent as our soil is good, and our climate genial Let us do it, both in justice to ourselves and to the memory of the great dead, whose bones bleach land they died to make free.