The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-05-03
NUMBER 4 "a.
The Secret Of Yankee HrogpoGaty.
(From the Mobile Registsf.l


ASoutbern man, utter having made
q flying trip through the New Eng
land States, comes hack filed with
astonishment at what he has scen,
and perfectly discouraged with his
own section Of cotAtfy. There be ssw
little Villages sticking in the midst Of
barren and uninhabitatie mOuntaina,
with no surroundings to, support them,
evincing spirit oflife and prosperity
unknown to even our large towns
the recognized trade-centres Of our
best agricultural regions. And in the
country he saw little farms producing
like first-class English gardenA,
though ON soil originally too poor to
have grown bear grass, and in situa-
tiODs that . Southern man never would
have thought capable Of being con-
verted into goat pasture. The people
all, as general thing, seemed con-
tented and prosperous; and 1t he
had erqaired into their circumstances
he would have found, strange - it
may appear, every bsdy in these little
villages well off and making money,
and the little farms, with their stone
piles here and there, and their stones
constantly working to the surface 70
be carried off into other Iiles, and
their annual calls for fertilizers to the
extent Of one hundned and fifty d0l-
lars per acre, actaally elsarisg their
owners from two to three hundred
dollars OH every acre enclosed. No
wonder that he is discouraged when
he looks from this picture spon our
favorably-locatcd towns sand notes
their inactivity, their poverty and
general dilapidation, and upon our
broad and fertile acres, and reflects
that they are really, in very many
instances, not paying 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, q
circumstance calculated to create No
particular interest in the South, but
there, thousands Of miles away from
where cotton could be grewn, it wonld
take the form Of a mystery. Stepping
out upon the platform in quest Of \
solution, his ears would be greeted by
q sound as Of q water-f fall having .
peculiar humming accomplishment
spindles. The cass would Be made
plain-the strange little village would
be recognized as q manufacturing
point, and then lie would know that
ace, in q far off section, were digging
its prosperity from our soil-feeding
it into a vigorous life upon the very
food for which our own towns were
starving; and asking it nothing in
return. Actually shipping it our cot
ton at oar oacH expense, aud then, in
order that it might grow 1T on its
business, buying its fabrjea at its avn
profitable figures aud psyiDg tsss-
sportati0ls ON them 10 our h0mes.
What kind hearted people We South
erners must be
Then for the secret Of success among
the farmers: Passing through the
country with his eyes open, the clsso
observer would at the proper season
soon have his attention arrested by
an improved mower sweeping over
the meadow under the exclusive
management of q yonth Of, say, six-
teeE and accomplishing more in =
day than could in that time be wosmed
out Of q dozen freedmen with their
scy thes. A little later and No wosld
see the younger brother Of the yeath
driving through the field Old = ''teddcr," !"
turning the hay !; and then in dse
time would come q still smaller boy
With a horse rake, followed by = trio
Of little fellows having all soras u 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. If the soil must be prepared, in
stead Of setting dozen freedmen at
it with their mules and plows, to
sweat through a week, as we wonld
do, out comes machine managed by
boy or two, and in an incredibly
short space Of time the job is done,
and welI done. A lot Of seed ID to be
sOwn that would give our hands long,
tedious task, but then stripping with
u scCO cO"SA pAIS ~ tAO"A CAO1V1y
right and in very short order. And
when the crop is ready to be hoed, in
stead of charging it with . black
army to play for pay, boy harnesses
his nag to a horse hoe, takes his seat
as in a sulky, and rides about over
the field hoeing several rows At q
time. In short, New England works
by machinery, and therein lies the
secret Of Yankee prosperity. She has
simply changed places with us-shc
ouns her labor. If it were otherwise !;
or, in different word< did she have to
work on our plan, aud depend On our
kind Of labor, and did We not, in the
goodness Of our hearts, give her the,
profits on our products, few years
| would find her entirely depOpulae1d-
happy hunting ground, upon which
the red man might pitch his wigwam.
never to be disturbed by any encrosch-
ment Of civilization.
There is no reason why We in the
South should not own our lal,s,r in the
same way, and set our spindles going,