Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-01-19
KxoxvsrtE Posr.orPrCE HOURS
Let us Look to Our Interests.

EDITORS CHRONICLE: Last week | cali
cd your attention, and that of the farmers,
to the fact that raw bones were being sold
at S. ton, and sent to Virginia to fertilize
that State, while our farmers and garden
ers will pay, for q much less pure article to
use in their crops, from $50 to $50 ton.
For the same amount of fertiliZing matter,
they pay from 500 to $3.50 per ton. What
folly!
Let me point out another folly. Every
summer or fall we have in our midst
agents for the sale of fruit trees. They
particularly abound in the out counties.
Their impostions almost exceed belief.
Last fall met one of them, and asked him
what he sold Wilson'S strawberry plants
at. He anewered, "S5 hundred. The
Concord grape vines he sold at fifty cents
each. Now, at that very time, the straw
berries could have been had at s. q thou
sand. and the Concord grape vines in
countless thousands at from ten to fifteen
cents. Two seasons ago, these vines were
sold in Maryville at even the price of 81
each.
Another instance. 4 few days ago a
gentleman at Heiskell's Station told me he
had purchased a lot of apple and peach
trees from one of these agents, and had
paid him thirty-five cents each. At that
very time there were exposed, on Gay
street, for sale, as fine lot of young fruit
trees as were ever seen, raised by Gaines S
ward, IN Monroe county, at twenty cents
by retail, in second hands. At the nursery
they can be had for fifteen cents probably.
At any rate, q gentleman i'll our town pur-
chased q lot in New Jersey at eight cents.
apple trees can be had at nearly any first
class nursery by the quantity at from fif-
teen to twenty cents. Pear trees are sold
all over the country at 81, when they only
cost from fifty to sixty cents. The COM
mon price for grape vines that cost from
ten to twenty cents, is from fifty cents to
81 each. ,IIE sfgksF FEFEes FE
Now, this is base imposition on the ig-
norance of our people. In the first place, |
they have no assurance that they are get
ting the kind Of fruit it is represented to
be. Often, very often they do not. In the !
next place, apples brought from the North
are not the same here they were at home.
\ winter apple there becomes fall apple
here. Ifyou want reliable fruit, get trees
raised in the same climate, or South of
YOU.
In the third place, the price charged is
generally double, but often fourfold, as
much as it should be- But this is not ALL
instead OF encouraging our own nursery
men and thereby keeping the money at
nome, we are in this way sending out of
our State from $50, 900 to Sl00, GOA annually.
Gaines d Ward, at Philadelphia Tennessee.
Hr. ], Bell, at Loudon, and Captain Sam
uel n. Bell,n this county all have the best
varieties of fruit trees, and as they are all
entirely honest and reliable, there need
be no fear of being imposed on, either as to
kind or price.
If our farmers, who have been "sold" as
10 the price of trees or vines, land possibly
as to the kind also) had taken and read
one good, reliable agricultural paper, such
as the Agriculatrdkst, or Country Gentle
man, costing from SIPS to S2.00 year,
they would have known better. Nosmooth
tongued agent could have imposed on
them. Besides learning prices, they would
have learned many, many other things
worth fifty times the cost Of the paper.
When will our farmers learn that ignor- /
ance is an impeachment, drawback, q bur-
den too great to be endured? That it re-
tards us all the days of our life :? When will |
they subscribe for and read apricuIturaI |
papers and books, form clubs. and ne SI,rne |
their true position in the economy of life |
FARMER. |
Farmer is one of our practical
thinking farmers. and We hope to hear |
from him often.