Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-01-08
farmers 9spmtlrrert,
From tho Columbus ENQUIRER.
What we Need.
Eeonomy-Lips at Home-Increass the
Productions of our Lands.

x<tSNNHsy .@SYS -
Productions of our Lands.
These We conceive to be the great es-
sentials necessary to successful planting
in the South under the free labor system.
However We may have lived and planted,
under the slave labor system, we of the
South will have to act, in regard to these
things, as the whole free labor world has
and does still act, to succeed in making
mcney by farming.
First, then, economy is essential. We
mast no longer expect to have our thou
sands as the proceeds of our lands to
spend extravagantly in dress, fine equip
ages, travelling ut the North and in Eu-
rope, visiting watering places, &C.; to
raise our children luxuriously, in idleness,
and teach them, in too many instances,
practices and habits that will unfit them
for usefulness in society, in after life ;
but for years to come, we must expect
to husband our resources, buy but little,
and only what we are compelled to have,
and cannot raise or make. If we have
no money to buy fine clothes, and carri.
ages, and other like things, and nothing
to barter for them, that is our own, and
can be spared, go without, until We have
means to spare; do not 60 in debt, unless
It's to keep from actual suffering. Learn
economy in all things; it may be hard
lesson for many of US to learn, but one
we must learn, and that in its strictest
sense, if we ever rise from the low state
of prosperity in which the war has left
US. Humility is the royal road to exal-
tation-so surely is economy the first
certain step to plenty and independence.
Second, live at home on your planta-
ton. This every planter must do to sue
ceed well in planting.
How live st home? How is it posi-
Bile to live at home, and pay my debts,
unless plant large crops of cotton to
pay with, to the neglect Of the necessa-
ries of life answer, you will not make
money, nor pay your debts. if you do.
The day is past and gone, for years to
come atleast, for any planter to make
large sums of money by planting large
crops of cotton, as the experience of
planters in 1866 and 1867 fully demon
strates. What then will we do-how
pay our debts? asks every one. an.
swer, in the first place, by saving all you
make, over the real cost of living in a
plain manner. Secondly, by living at
home, instead of in towns and cities, and
spending part of each year in travel, &c.
Save all these sums, and they will go q
great way toward paying Jour honest
debts.
Liy. at home, by raising everything
that your family and stock need to sub
sist upon; raise full crops Of corn, fodder,
pess, oats. potatoes. turnips, vegetables,
&c. /; aud be sure to save all the grass
you can on your plantation, at the proper
time-to sell it for hay, or feed your
stock upon, as you may need. know a
planter near Columbus, who now has
baled and under shelter in good condition,
gathered on his farm, 10000 pounds or
IS tons of good hay. Raise and save
these things, and then you can raise well
your stock of all descriptions--cows to
give you plenty Of milk and butter, and
they will do it if fed plentifully on peas,
turnips, &c.
Raise your own meat, and some to
sell. Your peas and turnips, with some
little corn, will fstten your hogs well. |
know farmer in Russell county. who
fattened 103 head of hogs almost entirely
on turnips, in 1866. Have poultry, that
you may have plenty of eggs, &C., to eat
and sell. Get into the old-fashioned way
Of raising your own horses, mules, &C.,
and then when sure that you are raising
everything you will need, and plenty Of
it to support on, raise what cotton you
may be able, over and above living, to
pay debts with. In this way you viii! be
able to gradually and certainly reduce
your Indebtedness yearly, and soon will
become free man again, owing no man
anything, and having an abundance of all
needed things at home.
Live at home, then, by raising all the
supplies you need. Live at home by
staying home, and attending with dill
gence your farm; just as the merchant,
the mechanic, the manufacturer does,
from Monday morning to Saturday night
gives his earnest and undivided atten-
tion to his business. This the farmer
must also do, if he succeeds and lives
well under the free labor system.
Third, increase the productions Of your
lands. This you must do-but how can
this be done?
First, by planting a smaller number of
acres. AS long as we follow the old sys-
tenn of cultivation, laboring with all our
might and main to see how many acres
we cen cultivate, we shall fail of success.
Plant few acres, select your best land,
and apply all your manure to these few
acres; and, if necessary, purchase some
other fertilizers, guano, bone dust, &C..
to enrich still more these few acres, CON-
paratively; cultivate them we'll, plough
deep, thoroughly prepare your ground,
put in your seed properly and at the
right time, and your labor and expense
will be we'll remunerated. By this sys-
tenn you will improve your lands by en-
riching those you cultivate, and those you
do not by resting them. You will by
this system produce more with five hands
than with fifteen under the old system.
A penny saved is penny earned, is an
old and true maxim.
There can be no doubt whatever that
with proper cultivation and manuring
we'll, that the lands generally of this sec.
+;on will nro5uce three times more than