The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-08-06
Facts for the Agriculturists.

Very few, perhaps, of our intelligent farm
ers are aware that vast rs are the productions
of the United States, less than third of the
area of the States and less than a .ffh of the
territory of the whole country, has been sur
veyed and laid off in farms, while of this or
ganizcd space only One Jou7M is actually under
; cultivation
1t is curious fact also that the whole amount
! of surface devoted to wheat is less than the
area of South Carolina, and the corn crop from
Maine to Florida in the South and to Oregon in
: the West is exceeded by the number of acres
contained in the single State Of Virginia.
Delaware would cover the potatoe crop, half
dozen counties the area of barley, and all the
tobacco of the nation might be reared in a
! plantation twenty miles square.
With these facts before lis, and the knowl-
edge that the diminutive Island Of England
produces from one-sirteenM of its area in a
single favorable season 100, ,000, 900 bushels of
wheat, who can assign any limit to the amount
of food and population which may yet be de-
veloped in this Heaven-blcssed country Mr..
Say, the great political economist, quantity re-
marks, that the increase of population depends
wholly upon the supply Of food in any nation.
Children are natural sequences the knotty
problem is how to support them. Judged by
this standard America in q century more will
be one vast bee hive.
But it is contended very justly that even ag-
riculture can be carried 10 excess and there
should be proper distribution of other indus
tries in every community to assure real pros
perity. This is exemplifed in the instance of
Minnesota. In that State sirty.fre per cent, of
the people are tilers of the soil, and the enor-
nous amount of serenity per cent Of the
whole area under cultivation is devoted to the
wheat crop alone. It's II per cent ofmechanics
also, who are mostly wheelwrights, may be
said to be dependent upon this cereal for a liy-
ing, and the 81 per cent of professional men
expect much of their income from the same
source.
No wonder then that grain is drug and the
Grangers rampant against middle men and
railroad monopolies.
Diversity of pursuits a variety Of crops and
the multiplication of values through manufac-
turing agencies and mechanical skill, can alone
set in motion all the productive energies of 4
peopleand create wealth and real independence
And this lesson we of the South especially
should not be slow to learn. With untold mil
lions of revenue from cotton we are yet poverty
stricken and we'll nigh bankrupt, because corn,
meat, hats, clothing, and almost everything
else must be bought and paid for out of this
fund, though no country OH earth has superior
water power, richer soil, Or more varied pro-
ductions.
Even the article of rice which, planted in
any wet spot recently cleared, almost makes it.
self without labor, is now selling at our doors
for t,ciee the cost of the best -four, and thou
sands of pounds are even imported from Asia.
shame on our people that this should be
Let us hear then the conclusion of the whole
matter. To be really self-sustaining and indie
pendent our people should turn their attention
to the rearing of grapes for wine; early fruits
and vegetables for Northern markets; sugar
cane, rice, olives, tobacco and the cereals every
one of which flourish in this climate, and may
be made largely remunerative. Why toll, and
delve, and sell ourselves to heartess usurers for
the privilege of raising cotton alone when the
God of nature has so munificently endowed us
with country richer and lairer than Eden Of
DID, and which, like the ore deep buried be-
meath our mountains, is still undeveloped, and
almost in its primeval condition. Let the
South be up and doing, and she will be the
master of her own destinies.-7tiegraph aad
Messenger.