The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-17
SOUTHERN vs.. NORTHERN FARMING.

Rut the Northern farmers make me money
than we do, say those who know nothing
sbout il: but it is all mistake. They make
less and handle less money than we do; and
il they lived the lives We do, they would be
far more poverty-stricken. The Northe- y
farm that will sell for one hundred dollars pei
acre, will produce, perhaps, an average of
thirty bushels of wheat, or its marketable
equivalent in grass, worth probably thirty
dollars. Out of this must come ten dollars
as interest on investment, half as much more
for taxes and labor, and when the subsistence
of the family is deducted there is precious
little left. True, employees are less numerous
constantly, but day labor is doubly valuable
and all Northern farms require double the
amount of pillow stock we do at the South,
and everywhere the annual expense OF
horse is aim ost equal to that OF an average
hand.
The net income from first class Northern
farm is not five PER cent, and l consider SIM
liar Southern farm as a failure that does not
double that income. / have repeatedly seen
farms in South Carolina of from one to five
hundred acres, sell for from five to twenty
five hundred dollars, and no sooner had they
changed hands than they were leased to negro
farmers for twenty-five per cent on the in
vestment And Just here is where We of the
South have great advantage over Northern
farmers, if we could only so accommodate
ourselves to the times as to utilize our advan-
tage Lands are cheap and labor is abundan',
and we must learn to control it. Concessions
must be made, and if properly made, must In
variably rebound to our profit. II, as owners
of the soil, possessors Of what little capital
there is in the South, and with superior in
telligence, we do not control the labor OF the
land, the fault is at our own doors.
We have no system, no concert OF action.
To the contrary We are constantly pulling
against each other. We are the employers,
but every farmer has his own notion OF things,
and cares nothing for his neighbor's plans.
II hire hands ter wages, one OF them may
at any time conclude to leave. 1t SO, he only
goes across my line fence and my neighbor
hires him. Ii give my employees portion
Of the crop, everybody says they will steal
more than their share. You may as well kill
q dog as to give him bad name. So, as q
practical farmer. l have never adopted this
policy, nor did hire for wsges longer than
found had to become day laborer myself
to enable me to control the labor to suit me.
Hence since 1869 have simply tenanted my
lands and have yet to see reason for not
doing SO.
alIot the land, the laborer furnishes every
thing else, and pays all expenses except the
taxes. If he il unable 10 carry on the farm
he will be able the next year. II he makes
nothing, and think he is to blame, l dis
charge him, and have no difficulty in secur-
ing others. My rents are reasonable, and
have never failed to be forthcoming, except
in two instanc zee. where two men contracted
store accounts without my knowledge, and
being threatened by the merchant with law
suit, they htole my cotton to pay the ac-
counts I blamed the merchant more than 1
did the negroes. +. / have never had hand.
but in these two instances, to fail to make
more than the rent and the expenses of his
portion Of the farm.
To my mind no people ever had fairer OPP
portrnity OF becoming lordly land owners, or
of establishing q system of agricultural ten
antry, unsurpassed in the history of the
world, than have the Southern farmers at this
present time. Whether as racs We will ever
see it in practice, is another thing.--Rural
/nrnt;n;nn