The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-09-08
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
From the Rural, Carolinia" for September
Improved Implements. a.


From the Rural Carolsaian for September.
Improved Implements. 49,.
To perfect Southern husbandry, our popnla-
tion should be trebled, a result not likely to be
effected during the present generation. AS
substitute, it behooyes those of US who are now
upon the industrial arena, to utilize most ad-
yantageously the labor that is amongst us,
resting assured we have the very best possible
laborers the South could desire, if properly
disciplined and edited. The colored laborer
knows nothing of improved implements. The
old-fashioned wooden pillow, the hoe, and the
grain cradle are his most effective arms for
plantation work These will sooner or later be
all superseded, and our cardinal aim should be
to teach the negro to use successfully all the
latest and most improved implements.
Yankee ingenuity is ever endeavoring to
make hard work easy, and in many instances
they have succeeded by substituting machinery
for manual labor. But one vital hindrance to
the introduction of such machinery into the
South, is the enormous cost of the implements.
Every agricultural tool or implement that is
patented, is sold for at least one hundred per
cent more than the cost of making. But so
credulous are our Southern people, that they
have only to see patented stamped upon an
implement, to be induced to buy; and after
the investment is made, the implement is used
Just so long as it is novel and then thrown
aside, because it does not relieve the laborer of
all work, and like an automaton perform its
duties without assistance. How many South
ern farmers have, since the war, invested in
patent churns, washing machines, clothes
wringers dough grinders and the like, used
them awhile, and then turned them over to the
colored women, who being unaccustomed to
such implements, for want of instruction, laid
them aside as useless?
In many instances the intelligence of white
women have prevented such losses; for in
stance, how many sewing machines are bought
and not made to pay for themselves? And
yetthese very valuable and useful machines
cost three times their intrinsic worth. Will
cox machine, for instance, costing sixty dollars
delivered, can be built for less than twenty.
The Inventions or rather manufacturers of
such machines, are in some respects public
benefactors, but do they not become miserable
spectators when protected by Congressional
patents in their prices? have often thought
it would be. no arbitrary legislation for Con-
gress to limit the percentage of selling price
over prime cost, before patenting any imple-
ment of daily use amongst the laborers OF the
country not that inventive genius should be
deprived of its Just rights, but that extortion
should be prevented.
Southern patents are no less subject to the
same objections; for instance, what planter
upon an examination of the Dow Law Cotton
Planter could guess within one hundred per
cent. of what he would have TO pay for it? Or
who. knowing the cost of castings and of wood
work, would price Rrinly, q :Murfee, or any
patent plow, at more than half the price asked
for them?
These implements are bought by Southern
y. L l.,1<a md
hence economical; but, if the purchasers
would only keep correct balance sheet for
and against themselves, they would find the
economy of such investments matter of ques-
tion A subsoil or turning plow is bought at
an extravagant price, used in a certain field in
the spring, and in all probability left where
the last furrow is ruiz until the fall plowing.
It receives the same treatment in the fall and,
by the following spring, rust and decay neces-
state the purchase of new pillow. True, these
things are made to wear out; and, if they were
not, the manufacturer would soon find his oc-
cupation gone. But how much longer would
they last were they properly cared for?
Throughout the entire South not one planter in
twenty is prepared for sheltering from the
weather such implements as the requirements
of his plantation demand; much less is he
prepared for housing those that economy sug-
upon the alluvial plantations of Louisiana,
Arkansas and Mississippi from fifteen to thirty
two-horse plows, and four or five heavy wagons
ON a single plantation, and not shed room
enough on the place to ride under out of a
shower of rain. On such plantations it would
of course be foolish extravaganza to increase
the number of improved implements. Natures
generosity in manner supersedes their neces-
sity.
Not so in the older Southern States. On the
Atlantic slope, where the white race should
increase annually very perceptibly, and where
the colored race will ever find their happiest
homes, less fertile lands demand more energy
and more skilled labor to produce remunera-
tive crops; and the most valuable adjuncts to
these essentials is the introduction of all kinds
of improved implements. These, however,
would be useless without previous preparation
of the land. Stumps, roots and rocks, and all
kinds of Instructions must be removed; and
the labor expended in removing them is profit
ably spent.
A case in point In the fall of 1867, pre-
pared my wheat land, as 1 supposed, thorough
", by good, deep, close plowing. The winters
rains seemed to beat down the surface perfectly
smooth. The promising prospect in the spring
of 1868, induced the investment of Buckeye,
Jr.,. Reaper When began running the ma
that most of the wheat was jolted off the
''dfopper," and the blades were rapidly dam
aged by the irregularitie;s, OF the surface;
rave the next crop the additional work of har-
rowing and cross-harrowing, brushing and
Dragging. (Rolling would have been better,)
In the spring of 1869, it was cut beautifully,
ut the average of seven acres daily. In one
day cut ten acres, and, though this labor
saving machine made the work comparatively
light, it was quite heavy enough to prevent in
digestion during the day, or wakefulness at
night. That season I taught an intelligent
freedman to use this complicated machine tol-
erably well; and this season (1S7O) he has cut
five acres of good wheat in . forenoon. In
June last, myself cut, with an Excelsior Reap
er, three acres of wheat, measuring forty-six