The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-05-15
HoYT s. CO., Proprietors ANDEt
condition, we require, comparatively, but little
rain
Machinery on the Farm-Its Adaptability to
Southern Labor and Products.
BY M. L. DONALDSON, OF eREENv1LLE.


Southern Labor and Products.
BYM.I. DONALDSON, OF aREENv1LLE.
There is perhaps no subject bearing upon
agriculture at this time which has stronger
claims upoR the earnest attention OF Southern
farmers shan that of the Comparative Advan-
tages of Iabor.saving Machinery and their
Adaptability to Southern Labor and Products"
Only few years back in the history of South
ern agriculture, this subject was one OF minor
importance, The necessity of substituting me-
charical for human labor was but little real
lied, because Of the abundance and suhciency
of the latter, under the old and established
system of labor which then existed and the
implements of Southern agriculture have ever
been charaeterized f,y their rudeness and sim
plicity. it being generally conceded the best
economy to construct upon each farm, and IN
the cheapest manner, all Che implements needed
for its cultivation, and with these inferior I'm,
plements, .snd labor SO abundant, the natural
tendency was to extensive superficial culture
rather than thorough high farming. But the
great political revolution which has recently
taken place in the United States, resulting IN
the complete disruption of the old labor system
in the South, has necessisated an entire change
in her agricultural economy. The old and
beaten track has been blockaded and must be
abandoned.
A new ena has dawned, portending steady
elevation in the scale of agricultural science
never before known in the South, and it shall
be our aim 70 offer some suggestions as to the
course to be adopted and the agency to be em-
ployed which would conduce most successfully
to the attainment of this desired end. There
are abundant evidences. manifest throughout
the Southern States of rapid reaction from
the paralyziug effects of the late war upon ag-
riculture, aad as the scarcity and inefficiency
of the present labor system becomes mere OBJ
vious, every channel through which relief may
be hoped for is eagerly explored. There is a
certain feyerishness and speculative tendency
apparent among Southern farmers coupled with
MANY changes Of both theory and practice, all
of which gives indubitable evidence of great
lack somewhere in the elements essential to a
stable and Increasing prosperity, and as nat
ural consequence deep interest is aroused on
the question of immigration, the importation
of laborers from the old countries to make up
the deficit il Southern labor. Whether that Is
the source from whence the needed help must
come or not time alone will reveal. We learn
that during The late war very similar state OF
things existed in the Northern States in point
of labor to taat existing in the South since the
II.
caused by so many laborers enlisting in the
federal armies, and since 'like causes produce
like Effects we may draw some conclusions
of profit from their experience. Did they ap-
ply to Irelsnd, Germany or China fox laborers
to supply the deficiency thus produced? 1t
seems not.
S. Edwards Todd, of New York, in an essay
on improved farm implements, in 1866, -(see
Agricultural Report, 1866, page 226,) says
sour late civil. war stimulated inventors to
bring out improved implements, to enable
farmers to do almost everything in the field
and IL the barn with horses, oxen or mules.
Had it not been for efficient farm implements
during that long and bloody war, our farmers
could not have moved their grass, gathered
their hay, or harvested and threshed their ex-
tensive fields of grain. AS thousands upon
thousands of our young men were called to the
field of mortal combat, it seemed almost like
an interposition of Divine Providence that in
yentors were endowed with sufficient mechani-
cal skill to construct implements with which
horses could perform the labor of the absent
son or father who had gone to defend his coun-
trv. and to fight for his wife and children. Now
the infirm and the invalid, the lame and the
law. who could never plough the fields, harvest
the grain, or make the hay of small farm,
can ride to plough the land, ride when putting
in the seed, ride when scattering their fertil-
izers, ride wien cultivating their growing crop,
ride when raowing or harvesting, ride when,
raking, and ride in an easy seat, and accom-
plish more hard work in one hour than could
be done in tea a few years ago, even by labor
ing with all the might of strong man.
These facts afford proof so conclusive OF the
Of labor-saying machinery COM
nared with The old method of human labor
70 hot firth
in this come ;tion would be superfuous. But
Che question arises, does the labor-saving ma
chinery whica has wrought such wonderful and
happy results in Northern agriculture, and
which so clearly foretells the ultimate glorious
triumph of mind over matter, apply to South
ern labor and products? Both reason and ex-
perience respond that it does, SO far as those
products are concerned which are common to
the South as we'll as the North, viz: the cereals,
grasses, fruits, &C., and even greater good is
destined to grow out from the general intro
duction of labor-saving machinery adapted to
these produces in the South than has already
been realized at the North. In the first place
her farms and fields are not so contracted, as ID
generally the case at the North, afording
broader area for their operation; secondly, they
will enable each farmer to produce sufhciency
of their indispensable products for home con-
SUMPTION m at least, which, unfortunately for the
general welfare of the country, is not the case
at present. The great "mania" for cotton
raising which is 50 prevalent everywhere, with
the scarcity of labor, has caused them to be
fhe leading and far-seeing agriculturists of
the South have repeatedly urged the people to
adopt the plaa of diversified husband!ry, as an
indispensable prerequisite to future indepen-
dence and prosperity, but as yet to little or no
avail. Labor-saving machinery is necessarily
bound to effect by actual facts and results that
Which S5sesp aps1ssd hs iuS S nh s ppop
tant reformation is to be brought about we pro-
nose now to consider. We find that the inven-
tive tive genius Of the present day has not ignored
the demands for improved implements bearing
mon the production of that most potent Of