Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-08-15

The cry Of hard times is as loud IN
Georgia as elsewhere throughout the
South. Real estate is depreciating In
value and the productive capacity OF
the State shows a steady decrease. Ac-
cording TO the tax digest of Chatham
county, of which Savannah is the capt.
tai, there has been, during the past
year, falling off in the aggregate
value of property in the county OF
81, S90.O74. There are S222, 597 acres
of wild land in the county estimated as
worth only S46,798, or fraction over
AZ cents per acre. The whole number
of acres is 1913, 929. with an aggregate
value of S1,917,01s; aggregate value
of city and town property, sl2, 81 ,O99
number of shares in banks of the State,
%, 235; aggregate value of said shares,
S2,0ll 900; amount of money and SOL
vent debts, S9,735, $50; merchandise,
81, 922, 300; capital invested in shipping
and tonnage. s122,550; stocks and
bonds, S979,9OO; value of property not
enumerated, etc, $26l, ITO.
Aggregate value of property,
1915. 80; lo4,5oN
Aggregate value of property,
1S74...... .......... Z4,Zo4,oto
Decrease. 49,. $ I,s9O,O74
Considering the number of railroads
which center in Savannah, it is remark
able that only sl22, $50 should he IN
vested in shipping and tonnage. The
cause of this blight on commerce, trade,
manufactures, agriculture and all
planting and farming lands, deserves
careful study. 1t is due largely to the
fact that the people do not adapt their
industry and enterprise to the late re-
yolution In Southern labor. We
look in vain over the agricultural sta
tistics of Georgia for any increase Of
husbandTy since the extinction of
slavery. Let us take, as an illustration,
the official returns of Laurens county
for 1874 1t has 2S,009 acres in corn:
1906 in cotton, and 1906 in oats.
Epson county has D. lis acres in corn;
20,660 in cotton. $3.50 in wheat, and
1872 in oats. These are tilIage crops.
Pastures, meadows, stock-growing,
dairy-husbandry, sheep.husbandry and
all other husbandry, are too small to
mentioned. Underwater and river lands
in New York, similar to thosein Chatham
county, are worth 500 an acre to raise
hay for consumption in Savannah,
Macon and Augusta. Grass lands
quite as good or better in Georgia, can
not be sold for fifty cents an acre.
Husbandry does not exist in the plant
ing districts of the South; and, so far
as we can see, no city like Savannah
and Nashville tries to introduce it.
Wealth comes from production, and
production is, in its advanced state,
matter of science. Where Tennessee
and Georgia have two acres IN corn and
cotton they should have six in grass
which viii grow without blowing and
with very little labor. 1t is husbandry
that feeds and fattens northern cities;
and the want of husbandry that makes
Savannah poorer in.lS74 than she was
in 1873. Capital must be taken from
Southern soil with less labor, and
from vastly greater surface. To do
this, more knowledge of husbandry is
needed.
Unfortunately, farm economy is
neither taught nor studied in Southern
schools; it is not popular, and there
fore makes no progress from one dec
ade to another. AT the same time,
there is an increase of old fields, an
increase of emigration to the West,
and a decrease in the market value of
plantations. Savannah, one of the
oldest commercial cities on the Allan
tic, with many local advantages, feels
Enthusiastically some of the evils that
result from this defective system of
industry. a good husbandman hus-
bands fertility, and augments it in
every field to enrich his county and
State and steadily increase population.