Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-19
AGRICULTURAL LABOR IN THE
SOUTH.


iency of farm laborers in the South
can be benefited by drawing on the
large surplus of able bodied men and
women now out Of employment in the
Northern States? Good corn bread
and beef for the million are twice as
high in the valleys of the Hudson and
Connecticut as in the valleys OF the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. We
have many million acres of inviting
soil that now grows nothing betterthan
forest trees, weeds or sedges. Yester-
day two steamboats, left here which had
engagements to transport about eight
hundred tons of pig iron from furnaces
in the counties bordering on the river
below this city-from which points
large quantities are shipped-to Gin
cinnati and other places, showing that
iron continues to be one OF
our export staples, the same
as cotton, tobacco, corn and bacon
Our hills and mountains are full Of
iron and coal, and their extraction
would help our agriculture Immensely.
Honest, hard working people would be
invaluable TO Tennessee. The growth
and wealth of Pittsburg may be named
as indicating the value of coal and iron
industry TO build up farming inter-
est in very rough country. Such in
dustry makes land near Pittsburg
worth from $500 to $500 per acre for
farming and market gardening, that
would not sell for ten dollars an acre
with no city nor markets near it. Land
without industry and population IS val
ucless. Such as want laborcrs can find
them on this side of the Atlantic.
Our industrial resources shonld re-
ceiye more attention, with view to
increase the demand for all kinds Of
landed property. We should show to
all visitors from the North and Europe
more land handsomely seeded to grass,
and well stocked with cattle, mules,
horses and sheep. NoSouthern farmer
should hide his light under a bushel,
but do as the Dutch do in Holland and
Belgium, whree they estimate land by
the square yard to produce beef for the
London and Glasgow markets. Harlem
Lake was a part of the North
sea which was walled out by granite
rock, the waterpumped out by steam, and
some 81. 900 acres redeemed from salt
water, to raise crops for expectation as
well as for home consumption. This
agricultural enterprise has boon so sue
cessful that the Zuyderzee is to be
treated III the same way, redeemlng
from the ocean about one million two
hundred and fifty thousand acres of
land. Can the Dutch take tillable soil
| out of the North Sea by the million
acres and beat us in producing meat
for the people Of London on our cheap
lands where our climate will produce
fow pounds Of beef or mutton as easily
as their climate will produce three
Last year England imported over
thirty million bushels Of our
corn, mostly to feed stock.
But it takes five or six pounds of corn
to make one Of meat. Why not export
the meat instead of grain, and save
four-ffths of the cost of transportation?
The climate of Central Europe can no
more compete with ours in making
meat, cheese and wool, than it can In
raising cotton, provided we utilize our
natural advantages. To do this in the
production of wool, cheese and meat,
European immigrants familiar with
these branches of rural industry are
very desirable. They know what Eu-
rope wants, and how to produce it.