The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1872-08-02
FACTORIES.
land and now ~ Impressed N>m-
SECRET OF PROSPERITY.

States, comes back filed with astonish-
ment at what he has seen, and perfectly
discouraged with bis own section of coun-
try. There he saw little villages stick
ing in the midst of barren and uninhab-
liable mountains, with no surroundings
to support them, eyincing spirit Of life
and prosperity unknown even to our
large towns--the recognized trade centers
of our best agricultural regions. And
ip the country he saw little farms pro-
ducing like frst-class English gardens,
though on soil originally too poor to
have grown bear grass, and in situations
Southern man never would havethought
capable of being converted into a goat
pasture. The people all, as a general
thing, secmsd 'ontented and prosperous;
if he had inquired into their circumstan-
ces he would have found, strange as it
may appear, everybody in these little
villages well off and making money, and
the little farms, with their stono piles
here and there, and the stones constantly
working to the surface to be carried off
into other piles, and their annual calls
for fertilizers to the extent Of one hun
dred and fifty dollar per acre, actually
clearing their owners from two to three
hundred dollars on every acre incloscd.
No wonder that he is discouraged when
he looks from his picture upon our fla
vorably located towns and notes their in
activity, their poverty, and dilapidation,
and upon our broad and fertile acres,
and reflects that they are really, in very
many instances, not paying the expense
of culture.
One would naturally conclude that
there must be some secret connected with
all this, and SO there is. AT the village
section the close observer would see piles
of cotton, a circumstance calculated to
create noparticular interest in the South,
but there, thousands Of miles away from
where cotton cenla -hsl--s.n u. would
take the form Of mystery. Stepping
out upon the platform in quest of a solu-
ton, his ears would be greeted by sound
as of waterfall having a peculiar hum
ing accompaniment-spindles. The
case would he made plsin-the strange
little village would be recognized as
manufacturing point, and then he would
know that we, in far of section, wero
digging its prosperity from our soil
feeding it into vigorous life upon the
very food for which our towns are starv-
ing, and asking it nothing in return.
Actually shipping it, our cotton, at our
own expense, and then, in order that it
might grow fat onits business, buying its
fabrics at its own profitable figures. and
paying transportation on them to our
homes. What kind-hearted people we
Southerners must be.
Then for the secret Of success among
farmers Passing through the country
with his eye open, the close observer
would at the proper season soon have his
attention arrested by an improved now
er, sweeping over the meadow under the
exclusive management Of youth Of six
teen, and accomplishing more in n day
than could in that time be wormed out
of dozen freedmen with their scythes.
A little later and he would see younger
brother of the youth driving in the field
on "tedder.' turning the hay, and then
in due time would come a still smaller
boy with ''horse-rake," followed by a
trio of little fellows having all sorts Of
, fun as they with hay-fork, stored away
the crop in the hay-loft.
In everything done on the farm in
New England, this same plan is resorted
10. If the soil mustbeprepared, instead
Of setting dozen freedmen at it-~9th
their mules and plows, to sweat through
a week, as we would do, out comes a
machine, managed by boy or two, and
in an incredibly short space of time the
Job was done, and well done. A lot Of
seeds to be sown that would give ouI
q hands long, tedious task, but then 4
/ STRIPPING with seed-sower puts ii dowr
, exactly right, andvery short order. Anc
!, when the crop is to be hoed, instead o.
I charging ii with black amy to play fol
pay, a boy harnesses his nag to a hors'
hoe, takes his seat as in asulky, and ride
!. about over the field. hoeing several row
at time. In short, New Englan'
a works by machinery, ami therein lies tn
secret of Yankee prosperity. She ha
!. simply changed places with us-she own
| her labor. II ii were otherwise, or il
g different words, did she have to work he
A own plan, and depend on our kind of Ia
Dor, and did We not, in the goodness .
!. our hearts. give her the profits on ou'
!. products, few years would find herd'
- populated, a happy hunting ground, upo'
4, which the red man might pitch his wig
"a wan, never to be disturbed by any e'
I. croachment of civilization.
a There Is no reason Why We IN tn
South should not own our labor IN III
, same way, aud set our spindIes going
be thus giving prosperity te our own '9"n
n aud Villages. We can never be ss' saess'