Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-16

GRASS, STOCK AND PROSPERITY.
There are some things it is difficult for
our farmers to learn, and one of these is
that grass and stock pay better than cotton.
A few days since we CHANGED to pass
through Bowling Green, KY, and meeting
with some practical farmers, the converse
ton turned upon the most profitable crops
to cultivate. From time immemorial the
land about that thriving town has been de-
voted to the growing of tobacco. The last
year or two have shown the farmers
the folly of pursuing that course, and
they are now growing grasses and fine
stock, dispensing with a good deal
of labor and having more time to attend to
their social and public duties. Since the
Inauguration of this new system land has
advanced rapidly in value; new dwellings
are springing up all over the country; fence
rows are clean; neat shrubbery surround
every farmhouse, and the people, By ming
ling together, more frequently have caught
q spirit Of improvement, and are leading
the way in all these enterprises that mark
the progress Of civilized thought. They
are projecting new lines of railway, build
ing parks, establishing schools, lighting
their streets with gas. They have already
erected waterworks that supply their
city with water. They have already built
q Courthouse, which is the most elegant,
the most commodiOus and the best built to
be found in any country town in the West.
All these Improvements have been recent
" made, and taxes have been levied for
that purpose. Yet, notwithstanding the
taxes, land is worth within a radius of FIVE
miles from the Courthouse from sixty to
two hundred dollars per acre, and that, too,
wit put having timber enough to enclose it.
or every side from College Hill may
be seen rich fields of living green
through which flow some of the
finest water in America. Cattle, horses,
hogs and sheep of the most approved breeds
may be counted by the hundreds. Farm
ers have ceased to complain of hard times,
and feel that their complaints heretofore
have been due in some respects TO their i'm
proper management. Nor does Bowling
Green present the only evidence this truth.
The tobacco lands about Russellville, KY,
are comparatively cheap, but stock farms
sell high and are in demand. Messrs. Long
& Briggs, large stock raisers in that county,
recently sold a small portion of their stock
farm near the county seat for 500 per acre,
and were offered for two hundred
acres the sum of seventy thousand dollars.
Every year this land improves in fertility and
value while it would decrease in both il
used for the growing of tobacco.
And what has been said of tobacco may
be said Of cotton. The most profitable
farms and the most fertile soils in the Gen.
trail Basin of our own State are those upon
which no cotton is grown. The growing OF
grass and stock is the road to wealth fol-
the farmers of Middle and East
Tennessee. More time to the
improvement of the appearance OF
our farms should be given. Strangers
are impressed fayorably or otherwise with
a country, just in proportion to its degree
of improvement. No farmer who grows
tobacco or cotton extensively, can keep his
farm in good repair. The consequence is
that it yearly decreases in value, and
though his income may apparently
be greater at the expiration of each year
yet the stock grower with an equal amount
of land will be the wealthiest at the end Of
a decade, and bis estate may be
more readily sold. The most lordly
agriculturists in America are the stock
raisers about Lexington, and the average
price of land in that famous locality cannot