Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-12
PRACTICAL TALK WITH FARMERs.

To the Editor Of the Union and American:
In this communication feel like having
a little practical talk with our farmers OF
this section. tef rl
A ae1U departure must be effected in
farming as well as In politics. Automatic
principles as laid down In the books and as
sustained and enforced by science, are very
good in their places, but what do they
amount to in the absence of practical
teSt2 This is the one thing needful, and
that practical test must be brought to bear
upon the uneducated agricultural mind. It
should now be the policy of every farmer
to consider, not only-how much land he
can cultivate, but how much produce he
can make on given quantity of land.
A change must come if our people de-
sire permanent prosperity. Our Young
men must devote their time TO useful indus
try. Agriculture offers an Independence
and certainty of success which neither spec
ulation nor legitimate mercantile pursuits
can assure. The interests of this section
are the center and the source of the we'll
being Of those portions which surround her.
Her development is their growth; her pros
perity is their wealth; and when the hand
OF industry touches into life any dormant
element of power which nature has hidden
in her fields, or mines or rivers, they grow
by her activity and move under her impul-
sion..
Middle TENNESSEE The very name calls
up vision Of transcendent grandeur
mountains filed with ores; valleys instinct
with fecund life, and carpeted with the
most brilliant wild flowers and redolent of
the sweetest perfumes; lands generous with
wheat and corn and barley, ETC.; the snow
clad fields of the North shading into the dus-
ky yellow of The parched and thirsty South;
the freezing blasts of Canada, melted to
genial breezes in the warm embrace of the
fervent winds of Georgia. -....
Her soils are fertile; her mines are pro-
ductive; her forests are abundant; 'her
skies are bright; her climate heaIthful; God
has given to her every element of
wealth, every attribute of beauty, and
through her expanse winds that river whose
ceaseless flood rolls from the frozen regions
Of the arctic ices to the golden orange
groves of the sun-begotten tropics. ssT
Cheap lands and Astounding breadstuffs
will secure her future--ere long millions of
people will be here settled. They will till
her fertile soil, they viii work her fruitful
mines, they will manufacture her raw ma
terials, they will bring every force of ma
ture into cooperation with every appliance
of arts, and use both with every device of
human ingenuity and every effort of human
industry in the development of her unrival-
ed resources. F 49, --4-----,sr-
d They will be an active, enterprising, self
reliant people. They viii sweep away
every embarrassment caus ed by restrictive
or, if you prefer the word, protective
system; and they will demand every i'm
provement in the burden of taxation and
in the benefits of currency which the most
enlightened and sagacious civilization can
suggest. Ard would fam believe that in
the midst of this splendid mat erial ad-
vancement they will never forget that in
the eyes of God and humanity they are
charged with the preservation of free gov
ernment, and with the maintenance as its
best guarantee OF the confederate system
o., our fathers. '''''
Wealth is power, is truth so self evil
dent as TO admit of no demonstration; there
fore TO obtain power we must accumulate
wealth-not by few individuals, but as a
mass. These old fossils who talk about
our having obtained our growth deserve to
pass under the hands of the geologist and
be classed with the eocene of the tertiary
formation. Look for instance, at the
growth of some of our Western
towns? How do they accomplish it2 Why,
by simply giving away every other but to
actual settlers, who viii build and locate up
on them, and selling the remainder at prices
tn at make good investment for capital, and
when immigration begins to roll in upon
them they do not get excited and raise the
price of land 500 per cent. and drive away
capital to seek more profitable fields. Our
climate is inviting. We have pure air
and pure water, and soils that, with good
culture, viii prove remunerative to the nus
bandman; and there are thousands of per-
sons who, from choice, would rather locate
bere than in the West, and all we require
is to notify them that they can have our
lands and town lots at such prices that
when improved the owners can reap just