The Hickman courier., 1874-03-28
VOL. X. NO. II.
DisproportiOn of Manufacturers.

DisprOpOrtiOn of Manufacturers.
Among tho various schemes that are
proposed for the advancement of the
material interests of the state, we know
of none so practical or SO efficacious for
the accomplishment of that desirable
pu pose as the establishment OF manu-
factures for the working up of our
rough wealth. The amount Of raw ma
terial IS simply incalculable.
Ii we begin with the timber, we shall
find oaks and walnut, cypress and cedar,
ash and poplar, the beautifully curled
maple, and the tough, elastic hickory,
linn and gum, the lordly pine aud the
Iowly dogwood, all growing in abund-
ance on our hills and in our valleys, on
mountain tops and in the broad plains,
ready and waiting for the hand of the
artizan TO fashion them into spokes,
felloes and hubs. plow stocks, harrows
and helves, houses, furniture and cars,
boats, bridges and railroad ties. tele-
graph poles and Nicholson Aavements,
for which cur cedar forests supply the
very best aud most durable timber
buckets, baskets and chairs barrels
b6aIf6, coliufs eEivu- fs1t59J r>->s-,--l =
wooden bowls, cogs, broom ssiclls, tan
bark, ETC., etc. q
Surely here is a wide field of itself,
but we proceed to iron, and find ore III
fortS- four counties sufficiently abund-
ant to justify the erection OF from one
to forty furnaces in each. But the pro-
duct of the furnace may itself be con
sidered a raw material to be wrought
up into valuable articles, such rs plows,
hoes, axes, mattocks, harrow teeth,
scythes, briar hooks, rakes, forks, spades,
shovels, chains, wagons, carts, wheel
barrows, and other implements for the
farmer sheet iron, car wheels, axles,
castings, CRATES, stoves, horse shoes,
nails. railroad iron, sp kes, and the al
most infinite uses to which iron may be
applied, which opens another large field.
Then there is copper and marble which
open an extensive field for manufac-
turing.
Our cotton fields, growing the staple
for the most useful fabrics OF domestic
wear, furnish the material for factories
to make drillings, domestics, calicos,
batting, ETC., and in connection with
wool, for the growing of which we have
natural facilities unequaled in the world
there could be made jeans, Inns V, fan
nels, blankets, and other textile fabrics,
all in daily and increasing demand, and
the manufacture of them would give
rise to establishments for the manufac-
ture of ready-made clothing, mattresses,
etc, and thus each establishment would
necessitate the building of others,
which, like the main limbs of tree,
would run out into infinite branches,
each one bearing its fruit and all sup
ported by the generous soll, and the
soil in its turn protected and shaded by
the branching limbs which it feeds.
AS for power, the vast number OF
streams that rage aud fret against their
rocky banks in two divisions of the
state, invite the industrious to put them
to work. For ages this wealth of powi
er. equal to the combined strong arms
of millions, has been wasted. For gen.
erations they lave been looked at but
to be admired for the sparkling brillian-
cy of their waters, which with plated
currents glide in untamed beauty 10 the
sea. All along these every few miles
dams might be constructed, and the
hood-gates opened upon thousands of
wheels which could be made busy IN the
service of man.
; BIT tie vast ,dea0sitory--Qf latent en-
locked up, RESERVOIR OF fereethat could
sensibly move the world. This area
covers $500 square miles, and the coal
which it contains would make bar J.,
14O feet wide and 81 feet thick, which
would pass through the earth from east
to west, at the equator. Now there are
2. $40 pounds in one ton or cubic yard
OF coal. the reserved force in which is
equal to lifting l, ,729, 200 pounds one
foot. Now multiply the ~, 127, 800, 900
cubic wards, the amount of coal that
the state of Tennessee can furnish, by
] .729. 200 and we will have the number
of pounds that our block of coal can
raise one foot in height. But we for
bear. The human mind stands appalled,
at the mere mention of so much power.
The numbers become SO great that the
intellect fails almost as much to have
any conception of them as 1T does to
have any conception of infinite space.
Enough may be learned to know that
our unexpended forces are sufficient
TO keen a million of men eng ged in
for a thousand years.
Now with all this raw material and all
this sleeping power, there are but five
per cent. of our people engaged IN
while seventy-two- per
cent. are engaged in agriculture. What
is the inevitable consequence Simply
this the farmers are poor, not because
they have sterile soils, or bad climate :
the reverse it the case; nor is 1t owing
70 ineficient labor or high taxes, for
the first is cheaper than at the north,
and the latter are lighter on the farm
ers than in any of the states of the I'M
ion. except three or four. Their pow
erty arises from the want of a sufficient
ouantity of consumers tor their pro-
ducts. They do not diversity their
crops. and this they are prevented
from doing because only two or three
products command ready sale. But
suppose there were thousand man.
nfaeturino establishments IN the
state, the farmer could sell at a high
price. every bean, pea, potato, onion,
tomato, apple, peach, cherry, every
pound Of hay, bushel OF corn and sheat
of oats, every pound of butter, beef
and bacon. beside cotton, tobacco, etc,
while he could buy his hoes, axes,
rakes, plows. calico, dom@tic and in
deed everything he CONSUMES, at re-
,Iuoed rases. Right bese and no where
else is the point upon which our pros
peritv hinges, and the savieg in the one
place and the increased earnings IN the
other put together, will make the diff
ference between prosperity and adveisi-
tv. We shall recur to this subject
again. Rural Su'1.
Postal Decision.