The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-07-26


so large 1 share Of what little v
have left In the South h Ia land, that
devote both time and study to the arts
andscieDcee.Which tend tojmake farming
lands more productive and valuable.
II memory is not In fault, the entire
farming lands Of GeoFgis are estimated
- worth, on an average, about i've dol
lars an acre by the last census. the
census Of 1850, the average value of all
the farms In New York was $18 50
an acre. These figures show that an
acre of land in New York h worth, ap-
pa1ently, sixteen times more in grass,
tn make chcese and butter for con-
sumption in Europe (mainly in Eng
land, than it is in cotton for the eawe
markets In the State Of Georgia. II
cotton culture, rs now generally man.
aged, tends to denude the virgin soil,
and reduce it in . few years to thin,
quilted and half barren old fields, grass
culture tends to clOthe the earth in rich
vendure, prevents washing, and add
steadily to the fruitfulness-of all s'im-
proved land" it should not surprise
any intelligent man to lind that, while
the one system takes virgin soil al
eighty dollars in value (fOur.fold), the
other system take, virgin soil at the
same quality and price and reduces its
value, by raising cotton and corn and
killing grass, to an average Of five dol
lars and. acre-just one-fourth of the
sum the land was worth when tillage
commenced.
/ In 1870 New York had 1852, 2O6
acres of improved land. The amount
paid for wages on this land, including
board, was $34, 451 1862 being an aver
age Of 81 20 per acre. Reader, please
study closely the problem how q far
mer can pay high wages and pay for
the board of all laEorers, expend only
two dollars and twenty cents on an
acre of land, and at same time get so
much money out of it as to make his
little farm woodland inclldedl Of one
hundred acres worth $3.50! This is
not an exceptional case, but The fair
average of large farming State.
Southern farmers, these facts teach 3
lesson which, apparently you do not
understand. So long ago as when
General Jackson was President the
writer and other friends of agriculture
got the acres Of improved land in the
State of New York returned 10 the
State census (the first i'm the world for
close study. This was five years before
any agricultural or other industrial sta-
tistics were collected by Congress. So
early ~ 1877, the writer attended agri-
cultural fairs and exhibitions in the
State of New -fifty-five years
ago, when the iliustrious Dewitt Clin-
ton was Governor of the State
Does the reader ask how So 20 can
put much value in an acre of New
York land? That sum will cut, cure
and bale ton Ofhay from half acre
of ground, which is general Y worth
twenty dollars to send into the cotton
States and feed mules that wear out the
soil of the South. A common upland
meadow that yields a clearpIofit Of on
ly ten dollars per acre, pays ten per
cent. interest ON q valuation of 500.
But two tons Of hay, sold for 500 u ton,
return $40 from an acre; while so pay
all expenses, including fertilizers,
leaving $50 to pay ten per cent. on
land at $500 per acre. The farms in
New York are returned rs worth ST.
272, S57, 766-an advance of over sixty
per cent. in ten years.
Live stock shows an increase of sew
enty per ceut., and bushels of wheat
nearly fifty per cent. ..-......
Agricultural machinery indicates the
largest increase OF all, and Is perhaps
the most extraordinary in power.-L.
IN Plantation. -G aH