The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-10-06
THE WANTS OF THE SOUTH.

lion. rrcuer1ck WAITS, COMMISSIONER vi
Agriculture, has written the following let
or to a Southern Agricultural Convention
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, !
WASHINGTON, ID. O.,
September %, 1871. }
TO tie President Of the agricultural Con-
gress, Nashcille, Tennessee
SIR: | congratulate you upon the as
sembling of your Convention. The meet |
ing of Northern farmers and Southern
planters in a Southern city, upon the invi-
tation of Southern gentlemen, for the pur-
pose of discussing mutual interests, is aus
picious of better understanding between
the people of both sections, and indicates o
disposition to bestow upon questions af-
fecting the material welfare of the country
some portion of that attention which has of
late been directed to questions chiefly polit-
ical. Surely there exists no good reason
why those who live upon the same soil,
speak the same language, and share the
same heritage of blessed privileges should
not agree to Join hands in the common
cause of material advancement, although
they may not be of one mind in the consid-
Grafton of other questions. Such conven-
tions as yours make such agreement possl-
BILE, and give assurance of its permanency.
Your meeting accords with the various in-
dustrial and agricultural meetings of the
wear which have had national scope and
purpose, and trust that it may be fol-
lowed by others of like character which
will bring in their train prosperity to all
sections and increased development Of our
national wealth. 1t is the South that to-
day most needs this prosperity, and it is in
the South that the sources of national
syealth have been most neglected. The
sittings of your convention may, therefore,
well Be devoted in large degree to an in
curry into the best means of fostering the
industries adapted to the South, especially
agriculture.
Official intercourse and correspondence
with Southern gentlemen and the tone OF
Southern journals convince me that the
whole people of the South fully realize that
their industrial methods have not heretofore
been conducive to their best interests, and
that enduring prosperity can only come with
the introduction of new methods. What
these new methods shall be is problem
which glance at the present wants of the
South may help to solve.
With the complete restoration of order
and tranquility in the South, which it Is the
hope Of all good men may not longer be de-
layed, an opportunity will be afforded for
capital to take fresh courage for labor to
assume more settled conditions and for en-
igrants from the Northern States and from
Europe to push into every Southern State
with the same sturdy enterprise that now
aeads them into the shadows of the Rocky
mountains and upon the far-of line of the
Northern Pacific railway. These are the
three great wants of the South to-day: cap
ital that shall be active, labor that shall be
iudiciously employed, and population that
shall possess the waste places and make
them vocal with the hum of busy industry.
The time is near at hand when all these ell
ements of material greatness may be pos
sessed by the South if it will but learn a
lesson from the example of those commu-
mites ands nations which have become rich
while it has become poor.
Undoubtedly, the first of the new
methods essential to the new life OF the
South is O diversiiication of industry. The
example of Germany conclusively shows
that the nation which utilizes all its forces,
and encourages the employment of every
human faculty, is the one which takes
deepest root and offers the greatest resist
.ance to storms, while the example of Per-
STA and Turkey and Portugal shows that
nations which engage in one pursuit, to the
comparative neglect of others, do not have
"a flourshing growth, and are not capable
of resisting adversely. The people of the
South should so direct their future that
success will not be contingent upon boun-
tiful harvest from single crop. They
should establish new manufactures, and
stimui late those already established; open
new mi.nes, and develop those already
opened build railroads, and spread wider
the wings of foreign commerce and, most
important of all, divide their thousands OF
exhausted acres into small farms and farm
them well.
The South has abundant water-poWer,
extensive coal fields, and cheap labor. Ii
it will but put forth its hand il can success
fully compete with either New England or
Old England in the manufacture OF many
articles to procure which it now seaoa lts
money abroad. Especially can itmanliac-
ture the coarser grades of cotton tabncs
and shoes for its working classes. In more
than half of the States lying south of the
Ohio may be found iron ore of tile best
quality. and other valuable minerals. The
example of Pennsylvania shows how pros
porous a people may become who will
manufacture iron. Tennessee may become
another Pennsylvania, if it will. BY en-
ploying its laboring population in manu-
featuring enterprises, the South will not
only retain within its own borders the
money of which it is now depleted, but 1t
will have more to sell to other countries.
And the more it has to sell, the more miles
of railroad will be built, the more certain
and remunerative will be the home markets
of its farmers, and the greater will be the
ability of all its people to possess them
selves of comforts and luxuries drawn from
every quarter of the globe.
But the South needs most to diversity its
agriculture. By devoting its capital and
energies mainly to the cultivation of cotton,
it has produced two disastrous results; its
soil has been exhausted, and it has been
compelled to rely upon the West for its
bread and meat. To remedy the first err
ror will require time and the exercise of the
best brain of the South; but the concentra-
ton upon small arrears of the efforts now
bestowed upon large plantations will be
necessary accompaniment of all remedial
agencies. The second error of looking to
the West for the necessaries of life can
easily be corrected by growing all those
food producing crops suited to the South.
There are few States in the South in which
wheat and corn will not do well fewer yet
in which some of the grasses and the va