Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-10-16
FARK AND GARDEN.
DIVERSIFIED PLANTING.


farmers of West Tennessee are not
doing as well as they did in 1860, be-
cause then they produced corn, pork,
wheat and oats sufficient for home con-
sumption, and great many counties
had surplus above home demands.
Why they should raise less grain, meat
and other provisions now than before
the war, it is difficult TO understand,
unless they make more money by con-
centrating all their capital and strength
on cotton, and purchasing all needful
supplies for the plantation. These pur-
chases are generally made on credit,
and the farmer takes a great risk.
Instead # getting tie price expect
ed for cotton, it nowitakes, according
to the AUdlaHche, more than a pound Of
middIing cotton to pay for pound of
bacon; whereas, it is easier, On a we'll
managed farm, to produce two pounds
of meat than one of the article sold TO
buy it. Our contemporary says:
We know one farmer in Shelby
county, who, during twenty-five years,
has never bought bushel OF corn or
pound of bacon. He has always made
both at home. He produces cotton,
also, but it Is a surplus crop. This
farmer never asks for credit for one
dollars worth of goods or supplies, but
has money to lend to those neighbors
who buy corn and bacon. He is the
owner Of one thousand acres of land,
but his sons are farmers, and know
how 30 work and do work,
They pursue system of diversified
tillage and nusbandry tremendously
combined. 1t utilizes the powers Of
growth not in one tender and frail
plant alone, but in many plants ard
many animals. Exclusive cotton cul-
ture is like paying a high price for
tickets in lottery where one has nine
ty-nine chances Of drawing a blank or
a triHing sum, to one of receiving a
high prize. 1t is gambling with par
ties who have every advantage over the
indebted planter he is required to
insure the crop from drouth. frost,
worms, and the price in the markets of
the world to pay for all supplies. The
farmer insures the profit Of the mer-
chant and trader, but no one is bound
t. him that his agriculture shall
return ten or twenty per cent,
on the investment. The plain general
result Is, that capital in land and plant
ing is not gaining, but diminishing.
Nor is the annual industry of freed
men improving, or likely to improve in
the future 1t is perfectly natural
that it should go back to the condition
of negro progeniUors in Africa. Blood
will tell in the colOred race precisely IS
1T does in all others, whether hiped or
quadruped. Farmers have yet to dis
criminate between things as they are
and as they seem to be- The world is
full of shams and deception to cheat the
soil and its owntrs out of
living, if not fortune,
with very little compensation in
return. Farmers should put stop to
this great wrong. They should build
their prosperity not on supplies OF
goods of any kind bought on credit,
but on self-denial, industry, and the
close study of agricultural problems,
loss and gain. Plant and animal lite
is available to them in at least on,
hundred different forms beside that il
cotton. At present prices, it will pay
better to produce bacon for Liverpool
than cotton in the cotton States
Horses and mules should be raised tc
export to England, where farming lane
is selling 1T from $500 to $1,000 al
acre. We should compete with thu
high-price soil, and pale sunshine fal
north of us.