Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-15

| 1neI0 are uO HluuIo neu 10 lake paIIly
from the farmer aud partly from the me-
chanic or common laborer half of the value
of a barrel of -four and half the value of
fat hog before these products of the soil
can enter the house of the consumer. This
is great saving to both industries. One
or two dollars added to the price of 100
pounds of meat or to barrel of -four, may
double, and often more than double, the
farmers profits, and more than double the
value of his land for farming purposes.
The fair value of land is fixed by what one
eau make by cultivating it, not on the land
killing system of tillage, but by maintain
ing its natural resources unimpaired. If
there is no adequate home consumption of
agricultural staples, including fruits and
vegetables, and no adequ ate facilities for
sending produce to distant markets, then
farms are undesirable property. And even
if the farmer has a satisfactory demand for
cotton, tobacco or corn, but no reliable Ia
Dor for plantation service, his land is al
most unavoidably deprecated in value.
He must pay all taxes, and his miles of
fences will rot down in Jew years, wheth-
er his fields are in sedge or in cotton.
The destruction of our old system of
farm labor struck out Of existence at one
tremendous stroke of imperial power, more
than thousand million dollars capital in
Southern soil. There are exceptional
counties and districts, where the market
price of lands is as high now as it probably
would have been had our old system of La
Der continued. But even that supposition
is doubtful. On the other hand, we have
intelligent and impartial Government re-
turns from every Southern State, which
show, not fair and healthy progress in the
rise of Southern farms. but sad, and in
some places, where the colored population
is largest, sickeniAg decline in the value
of plantations. Lands in Alabama that
sold for SIS an acre in 1860, can now be
bought for s. an acre; and those worth $50,
now sell at S., with few purchasers. A cor
respondent writing from Richlsnd, La,
says: 81 attended force sale of a planta.
ton few weeks ago; the property was
worth 100000; it sold for $4,000. Farms
that would readily have brought $40 per
acre in 1869, can now be purchased for
| So"
10 Florida, notwithstanding the great la
Dor and expense incurred to secure full
tide of immigration into that State, the de-
crease ofvalue in farms is described as "as-
tonishing." One reporter says "a man will
pay for the rent of an acre one year more
than he will agree to give per acre
for the whole farm" Another
affirms that q "farm valued at $4,000 in 1860
will not now sell for $780," Thousands of
Northern philanthropists and statesmen
honestly believed that farm and planting
lands in the South would increase in value
enough by reason of emancipation to pay
all shareholders the full market value of
their property confscated. But where the
freedmen are unavailable as operatives, and
there are no substitutes, as in Florida, what
is there to prevent the depreciation of plan
tations to one tenth of their former value?
This is question for real statesmen to
consider. Our industrial force has been
mutilated and emasculated.
We do not blame Mr.. ]. r. Dodge, the
able editor of this Monthly Agricultural |
Report, for handling the question of the |
price of cotton, sugar and rice lands rather |
gingerly. Too many of bis Northern
readers have written books, sermons and |
editorials on the pecuniary advantages of |
the new order of labor and of constitutions. |
A few sanguine northern farmers have tried |
to harvest the fortunes they expected from |
the employment of freedmen in planting |
operations; but not one in ten has achieved |
success. If the thing were as easy as it |
looks on paper, all our planting lands would |
soon be in the hands of energetic Northern
men, if for sale. We see no reason why |
the colored race, educated in the South, |
should make any better farm hands than
the same race educated in the rural dis |
tricts of New York; and if they do not, they |
will certainly be supplsnted by a mora in.
dustrious people from Europe. In the
battle of life, it is knowledge and untiring
industry that win the day. The rapid null
tiplication of the white race in the Northern |
States imparts comparatively high value
to their grass and arabic lands. The same
race must build up the prosperity of the
South, or it will become a country much
poorer than it now is. The depreciation in
the value of farms is an evidence of decay
and approaching dissolution-not of growth
and vigorous life.