Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-24

49, - ~ ~. ~
ton 2f the currency, and the enormous
| patronage Of the Government are con-
csrned, the Notilfis the gamer, and relief
to limited extent might be given in these
particulars; but the great error and mis-
take with our people is, the impress
sion that they can live ia the same
costly style they did before the war.
Into this fatal error they fell almost
unconsciously. 1t wiz be remembered
that at the close of the war cotton,
tobacco, sugar and rice, the great staples
of the South, commanded enormous
prices. AT the then ruling prices it was
an easy matter to pay fifteen or twenty
dollars per month for field hands, and
realize fifty; and so it came to be thought
by many men of intelligence, that the
South was entering upon new career of
prosperity; and that with her great sta
Piles, she would soon assert her CONNER
cial supremacy over the world. Planters
did not, as general rule, pay off their
old debts, but used their incomes to in
crease their business. Nor were their
profuse expenditures confined to their in
come. Many of them plunged deeper into
debt, arguing themselves into the belief that
with the ineficiency and scarcity of labor
the supply of cotton could never exceed
the demand. Unfortunately, however,
the high prices had stimulated production
in India and Egypt and other inter-tropi-
cal countries, and the natives for time
abandoned the cultivation of hemp, indi-
60, jute, and devoted almost their
entire agricultural strength to the
production of cotton. And 50 with the
stimulated production in all the cotton
growing countries, the prices fell lower
and lower, the planters hoping each year
almost against hope, that another year
would be better. And thus, to the neglect
of almost all the necessaries of life, they
have continued growing cotton until
poverty-stricken, in debt, without credit,
they stand before the world victims to an
inordinste and senseless passion for the
once great, but now fallen, skiing Cot
TOM
The same, to certain extent, may be
said of tobacco, with this difference,
however: Tobacco planters always made
their own supplies and relied only upon
tobacco for money to pay hands. We
see then this apparently anomalous condi-
ton of things: The greatest scarcity of
money and the severest agricultural dis
tress are TO be found among those farmers
who grew most largely of cotton and
tobacco; while ease, thrift and prosperity
are to be found in those portions of the
South where neither of these articles
were raised to any great extent. The
solution is easy. Farmers who raised
neither of those staples hired but few
hands and worked themselves, living all
the time strictly within their income. If
they made but one hundred dollars it was
theirs. Neither old debts nor obligations
for labor, nor artificial wants, nor the
means to keep up deceptive appearances
were to be provided for. No false no
tons of decency or responsibility deter
red them from the performance of their
plain duty. Acknowledging poverty and
accepting the Situation" they have gone
bravely to work, the old men and the
young men, the mothers and daughters,
and are obeying the divine injunction,
'.In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat |
bread" Like Jacob of old, they are now
receiving their blessing after long night
of wrestling. A pleasing contentment |
reigns in their homes. Their lands are
increasing In value; immigration is pour |
ing in; their houses are being repaired
and bea1tifed; churches and school |
houses, the highest evidences of civiliza-
ton, are springiDg up, and as their |
wealth increases, they develop more and
more the instincts of a higher and |
nobler manhood. Cotton and to-
bacco are the curses of our State and |
of the South, and their culture, to
great extent, must be abandoned. Only
such quantity of each should be raised
as can be conveniently manufactured and
not interfere with the production of the
prime necessaries. Then only four things
will be requisite to gain our former pros
perity, greatness and Independence:
l. Intelligent labor with small farms.
2. Diyersifcation of crops.
8. Economy and living strictly within
our income.
4. And to give effectiveness to the first
two, gradual improvement of our farms
by enriching the soil-nOt SO much by
using costly commercial manures as by a
proper and juiiciOus application of the
means at kand-such as subsoiling, col
lecting and saving OF manure, sowing
of green crops to be plowed under, and a
regular rotation of crops.
TOBACCO PLANTS.
To the Editors of the Union and American:
RUTHERFORD, March 81, 1e71.-I am
much pleased with the UNION AND AMERI-
CAN, especially since you devote so much
space to agricultural affairs. Can you
not induce correspondents to be little
certain of success before sending out
recipe as effectual that is not worth the
trying, and is calculated to lessen the
value of tried experiments The idea of
putting a trammelled hen and her brood
to catch tobacco fleas is certainly original,
but will not be resOrted to by any one
with feas-better unite the