The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-04-26
The Secret of Yankee Pros.
perity.
From the Mobile Register


A Southem man, after having made
States, comes back filed with astOnish-
ment at what he has seen, and perfectly
discouraged with his own section Of
country. There he saw little villages
sticking in the midst of barren and un-
inhabitable mountains, with no sur
rOundings to support them, evincing
spirit OF life and prosperity unknown
to even our large townsville recognized
trade-centres of our best agricultural
regions. And in the country he saw
little farms producing like first-class
English gardens, though on soil origi-
nally too poor to have grown bear grass,
and in situations that Southern man
never would have thought capable of
being converted into a goat pasture.
The people all, as general thing, SEEM
ed cOntented and prosperous and if he
had enquired into their circumstances
he would have found, strange as it may
appear, everybody in these little villges
we'll Oft and making money, and the
little farms, with their stone piles here
and there, and their 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 dollars per acre, actually
clearing their owners from two to three
hundred dollars on every acre enclosed.
No wonder that he is discouraged when
ne looks from this picture upon our fa-
vOrably-lOcated towns and notes their
inactivity, their poverty and general
dlIapldatiOn, and upon our broad and
fertile acres, and reflects that they are
really, in very many instances, not paw
ing 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 station the close observer would
notice piles of cotton bales, circum-
stance calculated to create no particu-
lar interest in the South, but there,
thousands of miles away from where
cotton could be grown, it would take
the form of a mystery. Stepping out
upon the platform in quest of a solution,
his ears would be greeted by a sound as
of a waterfall having a peculiar hum
ming accompaniment - spindles. The
| case would be made plain-the strange
little village would be recognized as a
manufacturing point, and then he would
know that ace, in far off section, were
digging its prosperity from our soil
feeding it into q vigorous life upon the
were starving; and asking it nothing in
return. Actually shipping it our cotton
at our 0ern eTpense, and then, in order
that it might grow fat on its business.
buying its fabrics at its own profitable
figures and paying transportation on
them to our homes. What a kind
hearted people we Southerners must be
Then for the secret of success among
the farmers Passing through the coun-
try with his eyes open, the close observer
would at the proper season soon have
his attention arrested by an improved
| mower sweeping over the meadow I'M
der the exclusive management of a
youth Of, say, sixteen and accomplish
ing more in q day than could in that
| time be wormed out of a dozen freed
men with their scythes. A little later
and he would see the younger brother
of the youth driving through the field
on "tedder,", turning the hay; and
then in due time would come still
smaller boy with horse rake, followed
by 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
to. II the soil must be prepared, in
| obS10 "a oCC2A1S h uUACII 14tCuUl6H sbG II
with their mules and plows, to sweat
through week, as we would do. out
comes a machine managed by boy on
two, and in an incredibly short space OF
time the job is done, and 1ueU done. A
lot OF seed is to beSsOwn that would give
our hands long, tedious task, but then
a STRIPPING with seed sower puts il
down exactly right and in very short
order. And when the crop is ready to
be hoed, instead of charging it with a
black army to play for pay, boy har-
nesses his nag to horse hoe, takes his
seat as in sulky, and rides about over
the field h0eing several rows at time
In short, New England works by ma.
chinery, and therein lies the secret OF
| Yankee prosperity. She has simply
changed places with us-she 0tCns he1
labor. If it were otherwise; or. in diff.
ferent words, did she have to work on
our plan, and depend on our kind of la
! Dor, and did we not, in the goodness OIL
our hearts, give her the profits on oul
products, a few years would find he1
entirely depopulated-a happy hunting
ground, upon which the red man might
pitch his wigwam, never to be disturbed
by any encrOachment of civilization.
| There is no reason why we in the
South should not own oar labor in the
same way, and set our spindles going
thus giving prosperity to our own towns
and villages. We can never be sue.
cess till we do it. Let us think the
matter over, .'.~
I