The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-11-11
ii,

'OLUMBIA. s. O.. FRIDAY NJ
high farming will be praoticed as the
cheapness of our lands and the defioien-
cy OF our cash capital will often warrant.
oeventy-hve acres of land, with the
usual and necessary buildings and fences,
Will cost $3.50, and the mule added will
make 1T $500. About $50 per mule must
De added for wagons, ploughs and other
iarm tools, and this sum will admit of
using all the improved implements
which, SO far, experience has shown can
DC used successfully with our unskilled
labor and half cleared lands Twenty
dollars moro will supply few milch
COWS and the hogs necessary to consume
the waste of tho barn yard Wo have
now 81, ,OO0 per mule as the amount of
permanent investment necessary under
the highest farming, and with the most
ilDeral trentment of the land in practice
among us. How much money, having
reference again to the mule as the stand
ard' Is necessary to make the crop?
ror manures (not valuing tho compost
heap we have $3.50. For hand labor,
inclnulng nn Its board, there is needed
S25o. This includes the manager, and
puts the held-workers at fifty cents for
tne oId slave task-nn amount Of work
readily accomplished before Q D. m.
FOR iced OF mules until the years crop is
available there is needed sS7. Tn this
however, is included the proportion per
mule of the feed of the:mnnager's saddle
horse Seeds of all kinds will cost Sl3:
the blacksmith and wheelwright SIG:
State and County taxes about $l4; wear
ana tear of I'M Elements, about $40; and
other miscellaneous expenses ut least $50.
lhis foots up the sum of S646 that the
crop Will cost; of which about three
iourths-say S500-should be in the
farmer's hands at the outset, unless he
expects to be reduced to the miserable
shitt OF making partners of his laborers
ID the culture of his crop, aud when it is
harvested, both he and they become
mere tenants at will, in tho product of
their labor, to the factor or merchant
from whom they have received advances.
These figures are drawn from the expe
rience of 1868 and 1869, and are correct
Tor the locality from which they are
taken. They are believed to approx
mate accuracy for the State. The price
Mt which cotton was made under them
was twelve and third (121sI cents per
pound, delivered at the railroad for
transportation to market. The average
price Mt which it was sold, clear of
freight and factorage, was twenty-five
(22) cents per pound, aud the profit ON
the Investment in farming was twenty
(2O) per cent; but no charge is made for
the superintendent of the farmer him
sell. This profit looks we'll, aud pro-
badly compares fnvorably with farming
elsewhere. 1t is to be observed, how
ever that 1T does not exceed the rate of
interest upon money loaned upon good
security during these two years in the
south; aud to reach it no dead capital is
Invested In waste land, no usurious in
terest upon cash borrowed for current
purposes is allowed, and n large use is
made OF animal force, to the exclusion of
the Unreliable manual labor at our COM
mand. How many land-holders among
us are not burdening themselves with all
Investment In lands in excess of $3.50 to
the mule an investment dead for oil prac-
tlcal purposes-and are making no effort
to vitallze it by tho importation of the
purchasers and tenants which, as a class,
have no existence in the community.
AND how few of us, in the anxiety to re-
store our broken fortunes, are content to
Dring our enterprise within the safe
HieS VI tue capital at our command.
In the spirit of the gamester against
whom luck has been running, we put
our all upon the hazard of n single cast.
and if, by reason of favoring seasons and
good markets, success attends the issue.
We complacently pocket the profits, as
forgetful as the old slave e-holder of the
capital i'll land sunk by tho slovenly cul-
tivntion of large acres. 1t appears to me
that there is in oil this matter for pro.
found reflection. It is, however, q aucs-
ton OF dollars and cents, aud ea.h Que
must and will decide for himself upon
the arrangement OF his capital according
to his own ideas of profit.
Passing on from the preliminary order.
ing OF our means of success, let us
hastily and in conclusion glance OF our
system of farming-the tactics of the
field of effort. With the prices of '6S
aud 90, not more than the ordinary
profit of successful industry was secured
by the cotton planter. TO day, the
price of the staple leaves him no profit
and III many cases insures loss The
causes producing this state of things
Y,,,xt l,0