Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-02-10
! quit cotton, or asking advances yearly,
though our cotton brought thirty-three
million dollars instead of twenty-seven
IN REcApirtLArtNo THE FACTS,

million dollars instead OF twenty-seven
millions fTaFHE gaEfF q 1a "a
IN RECAPiTULATtNG THE FACTS,
we see that the farmers around Mem
phis are paying annually S6,0OO,O00 to
the dry goods and grocery trade; 81
925, 900 TO the cotton factors; S202, 500 to
the insurance companies; S400, 900 to
the different sheds; making in all So
527, 500. Now, nearly all of which we
ought to, and can save, IL we were
properly organized in farmers rings of
TWENTY-FIVE to one hundred, and those
again in circles Of five hundred to one
thousand, with one man to do the SELL
ing and buying for the circle of one
thousand, and trade alone with the
foundry, factory and packer. TIE ques-
ton IS, how can we staft2 As we
have NEITHER money nor supplies,
let us look the question squarely
in the face, and determine to do or die; |
that Is, plant what you can tend your
selves, and let the balance go, or rent 1t
for whatever you can get. Eat less,
dress less, and pay as you can, and at
the end of the year all that you have
made is yours, and continue doing the
same thing,and the day will not be far in
the distant future when we will be able
not only to control capital, but the cap
italist of the South, and when we con-
troll the capital of the country we will
control everything. In, view of the
foregoing facts, we are forced to the
CONCLUSION
that at least s., 100000 of greenbaek
wealth is added annually to the country
and city merchants in Memphis and her |
radius Of trade, and Sc, 600, 600 Of debt to |
the producers. Mr.. Wright says the |
true policy is to raise clover, small grain, |
corn and cotton, and rotate-all of
which appears nice on paper, but in |
practice il is not worth the paper that it |
is written upon. Many of the reasons
have been given in analyzing the labor |
system. We can not keep up the out |
side fences, even when we have plenty |
of timber, in half repair-much less |
build cross-fences; besides, a large ma
jority of the best places are scarce of
timber for firewOod, much less rail tim |
Der.
Mr.. Wright further says, twenty !
five acres well set in clover |
and orchard-grass will feed ten
cows and twenty-five hogs, and that the |
profits Of which would be S1440; then |
why not put one hundred acres in clover |
and orchard-grass, and have forty COWS
and one hundred hogs, and make S1760 |
with four hands-for, if his reason and |
judgment is good as to twenty-five acres,
it is so for any number of acres. But if |
all should engage in the butter and pork |
business, what would become of the |
West? Yes, what would become of the |
toiling millions employed in the carry
ing and manufacturing well as the |
shed men, insurance men, and cotton /
factors in the cotton business. There is
as much
DIVERSITY
in the appearance and capacity of the
farms all over the country as
there is in the features and qualitiea-
tions Of the human species; that is, the
fat of fate has given as independent a
stamp to our hOmesteads and farms as
it has to the children of men; and as a
of men are poor in thoughts
and ability to make living, so are the
of farms in the products of the
various crops; therefore, as each man
has his peculiar sphere of action, SO has
each farIa its peculiar adaptations for
certain plant food; and as men fail in
business which they have no busi-
ness qualifications by nature to fill,
90 do the farms when planted
10 things not suited to the soil or eli
mate, and, as all men have, by nature,
heir proper sphere of action, where
hey will prosper if they continue in it,
70 have the farms, geologically and
a basis for particular plants,
md as all men are not qualified by ma
ure for lawyers and merchants, neither
Ire all farms by nature qualified for (
,lover or herd-gTass and small grain;
hence, in view of all the facts as above
Mr.. Wright's plan of relief
would fall short, reaching our relief, but
would end in further bank supply and
confusion. As class, we the farmers
ire ignorant as to mathematical and
chemical knowledge, and in its present
condition of majority of its farms, the
hings most needed is knowledge and
abOr. " m Il
LABOR WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE.
line times out of ten, will result in
nothing but debt, or at best a bare sup
port; hence, my notion is this, for each
county to employ an engineer and an
agricultural chemist, whose duty should
be TO visit each farm in the county to-
yether, and there analyze the soil in the
fields, and in different parts of
the same fields, as well as to level the
farm, stake out bitches, mark the places
for stopping wastes, and each have
plat with full directions how and where
to level and drain, as well as the sort of
crop to plant on such and such lands,
and the sort of fertilizing such and such
lands require for such and such crops
once a year; and start an Agricultural
College in each county, and the ex-
penses of the college, county engineer
and chemist to be paid by levying
A TAX ON COTTON.
That is, if we levy the one-fourth of one
per cent. that we are now paying the in
company, and one and one
fourth per cent, the half Of what We are
paying the cotton-factor, that would be
two per cent. upon the cotton, which
would not only build and endow the col
leges, and employ our county chemist
aud engineer, but would in the course of
. few years double the crops in the cOun-
ty, and restore all of the waste places.
We can do it and never feel it as bur-
den, for we are now doing it without
any hope of any benefits accruing; that
is, let us drop tile insurance, and pay
only one and one-fourth per cent. to
have our cotton sold. Now, two per
cent. on the cotton of this county-say
25, 600 bales-at S75 per bale, would be
81 ,875, 900, and two per cent. of that
would be S37, ,500-and $1,000 each would
pay the chemist and engineer, leaving
S35, 500 for college in each county. -