Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-11-05
agricultural department.
[Original.l
WHY IS IT,

It is we'll nigh universally admitted that
the South is poor when compared with the
North. By the South is meant the cotton.
growing States and by the North is meant all
the States more especially engaged in raising
stock and grain, and in manufacturing. 1t is
humbling to ones pride to confess that the
spot that gave him birth is not in every re-
spect the best place on which the sun shines.
The EsquimauN thinks there is place like
his frozen region and the man born in Ec-
uador, beneath vertical sun, thinks his is the
best country in the world. Evidently the
temperate zones, and especially the north
temperate zone, possesses advantages which
cannot be claimed for extreme latitudes.
The location of South Carolina, North Caro-
lima and northern Georgia is as favorable for
the accumulation of wealth as any section on
the globe. The soil is fertile and we'll water
ed the climate is healthy and adapted to a
variety of staple products Now such being
the facts in the case, it may be asked, "why
have not the people Of the territory embraced
in the States mentioned increased in wealth in
the same ratio as some other sections Of the
country" For this state Of things-that is,
for the general poverty of the South or cot
ton-growing States-there are many reasons.
For a period of seventy-6ve or eighty years
the results of the labor of the cotton-growng
States were invested in kind of property
which never was profitable. 1t had a nomi'
nal value only. The accumulations of near
a century were swept away in one moment.
The stroke ola pen Cancelled it forever. We
mean the institution Of slavery. Every South
ern man knows that the mass Of the property
of the South consisted mainly in slaves No
other kind of property was regarded as OF
much Importance. The abolition of the insti-
tuition of slavery, whilst it did not make the
slaves rich, made the masters poor. This,
in part, accounts for the fact that there are SO
many men in the South really poor
Another reason why the southern people
are so poor is, that for the last seventy-ive
years very little Improvement has been made,
compared with what has been made at the
North and in the Northwest. The soil in
those sections has grown richer yearly, whilst
the fields of the South have been so neglected
that many of them are irredeemably ruined.
The improvements on land in the South, until
very recently, were regarded as nothing. A
plantation in the woods would sell for more
than one that had been settled for number
of years.
Another reason why the southern people
are poorer than those in the northern and
north western sections Of the United States is,
because the southern people do not work as
hard, nor to as good advantage as the people
Of those sections do. Time drags heavily on
the hands of more than half Of the inhabit
ants of our sunny South. Statistics show
that more than one.half Of those who are
able to labor, are really nothing but gentle
men loafers, without any visible means Of.
making living They secure a living from
the laboring class as tick gets living off a
COW. 1t may safely be set down in round
numbers that one-half of the southern people
do nothing. They loaf with a vengeance,
and the other half do not work like the people
of some other sections. A northern man is
always busy, and always in hurry. He
drives from day light to dark and the tools
with which he works are Of the best kind.
There is another reason for the comparative
poverty of the southern people. The exceed
ing fertility of our soil has a tendency to make
our people prodigal-prodigal not only of
time, but also of the productions of the soil.
We depend far more upon the spontaneous
productions of the soil than the inhabitants
of almost any other civilized section of the
globe.
The last, but by no means the least, reason
for southern poverty is found in the fact that
the South is exclusively an agricultural coun-
try; that is, the people of the South are de-
voted exclusively to agricultural pursuits.
This simple fact, of itself, will keep the South
poor for all time. A people engaged in agri-
culture, and in nothing else, never can keep
pace with people who are engaged both in
agriculture and manufacturing. Such peo-
pie will always be rowing against both wind
and tide.