Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-07-10
From the Charlotte Democrat.
To the Farmers and Planters OF MeckIen-
burg-Immigra:ion sc.

committee was appointed to request your
earnest cooperation in a movement which
has for its object the speedy and thorough
development of the great agricultural re
sources Of this section of our State AS will
be seen by reference to the published pro-
ceedings Of their meeting they propose to
organize society for the promotion of i'm
migration, both foreign and domestic, to
this county. and ultimately, if successful
to the State generally.
The vital necessity of the movement is
too apparent to require extended consider
ton at our hands 1t is painful and no.
torlous fact that the negro, from variety
of causes, has fallen far short of the eXpec-
tatlOn of his friends here and elsewhere as
laborer, and has demonstrated to us that
for the present, at least, he cannot be relied
upon to meet the demands for labor here.
We cannot afford to wait until our fields,
wasted with the ceaseless and improvident
eXactlons of past years, can be restored to
fertility by reOrganlzed system of colored
labor. Indeed, the improvement and frl-
ture capacity of the negro is a problem so
uncertain that it would be hazardous in
the extreme to permit the agricultural fu-
ture of the country to depend upon his eff
forts. We must have the patient, hopeful,
intelligent white man here whose life has
has disciplined and experience has instruc-
ted him we must have such labor Or our
progress, if progress we make, must be
slow, unsteady and uncertain. It is an ad-
mittel fact that even in those palmy days
before the war, our farming was not remu-
nerative employment of capital, and hence
we saw many sagaclous meu cOnvertln 6
their land and slaves into money, and in
vesting it more proftably elsewhere, while
those who retained this species relied for
their profits upon the increase lin value Of
their slaves and not upon the products of
the soil. We had and have a soil of great
natural fertility and susceptible, in high
degree of improvement. We had a climate
adapted to a very large variety of agricul-
tural products, and we had, too, cheap
system of labor. Yet with all these advan-
tages we did not grow rapidly rich indeed,
beyond the increase of slaves, we can
hardly be said to have prospered at all, and
even this profit from slaves may be fairly
offset by the continued dlminution in the
value and productiveness of much Of our
best land. So, in sober truth, we were not
st the commencement of the war great
deal richer than we were fifty years ago.
less favored sections made such giant
those almost fabulous instances of pro-
gress, that we were almost stagnant
Our enemies imputed it to what they
called the demoralizing influences of sla-
very. Such was not the fact in the sense
in which they used the term demoraliza-
ton" but in another sense it was true
Those who had land and slaves here found
it SO easy to realize handsome support,
and to procure all the appliances of luxury
without personal effort, that they became
and thriItless, and if they
ever noticed the constant deterioration OF
their land they consoled themselves with
the reflection that other land as good could
be procured elsewhere. In fact our farm
ers were many of them but sojourners here,
who made haste to wear out their lands
and then to transfer themselves, or at all
eve nts their slaves, to the Southwest
The result was that we lad here no such
thing as scientific or experimental farming,
but followed CORE, wheat and cotton IN one
endless round. with the same crude, prlml-
tive and imperfect system of culture from
year to year. Intellect, which has pushed
this department of human knowledge so
far in other countries, was not employed
upon it here. We did not attempt to fer
ti!ize we did not study the problem, ''the
largest yield with the least amount of
labor" but our ambition was "the largest
number of slaves and tho largest number
of acres" We did not experiment with
vegetable fertilizers we did not experiment
with improved agricultural implements !;
we did not experiment with many of the
products to which our soil and climate are
adapted we ploughed with the old plough
in the old way, cultivating corn and cotton
blindly, and left nature. unassisted, to sup
ply the drain upon the Soil. Such sys-
tenn has been abundantly disastrous to US
in the past such a system we now propose
to abandon.
Necessity is driving our farmers to en-
ploy their brains as we'll as their muscles
IN the work, and their efforts must, in order
to be successful, be seconded by Intelligent
laborers by men who will execute thor
oughly their allotted work, and who can be
relied on to discharge their contracts with
answering fidelity. Such laborers, it is
proposed to introduce. and along with this
labor we propose to bring class Of men
whose long experience in experimental ag-
riculture will enable them to give us many
a valuable lesson of which we now stand in
need.
We are aware that many persons regard
all efforts ia this direction as doomed to
failure and that they point to the lll-suc-
cess that has attended similar efforts In
other portions of the South. But we must
remember that most of these schemes have
been ill-devised and feebly prose cuted the
immigration Societies merely contenting
themselves with inviting immigrants, and
then quietly sitting down to await their
coming. In every instance which we have
heard of where agents have been sent to
Europe to explain the advantages of the
South, and to make terms with the immi
grant, their efforts have been successful.
1t will not do to wait until the immi-
grants have arrived in this country, be-
cause they have in nostinstances lett their
homes under engagements with Western
agents to take lands on the border. SO II
we would speedily turn the current IN this
direction we must enter into active compe-
tition with those Western agents in Eu-
rope 1t is great mistake to suppose the
advantages OF a Western location are at
this time so vastly superior to those we can
offer the emigrant, OR more likely to attract
him. In order to obtain desirable land at
reasonable rate, he must go far out on
the frontier and begin a secluded life OF
n n oars and eynOsureS not at all COngGnlal