The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-11-25
The Raising of Cotton as A
Speciality-ShO it Be
Abandoned!

system and the exhausted condition
of our farming lands, from the new
er-ceasing routine of cotton, year
after year, it is impossible for our
farmers to produce the maximum
yield per acre of this staple; and
when to this is added the present
low value, the chance for profit is
very thin. Southern agriculture is
in its transient state, and the intel
ligent farmer is looking for some
change, or the best plan to adopt, by
which his farm can be cultivated so
as TO bring more profit to the pro-
Queer. The first step to be taken,
in our humble judgement, towards
this most desirable end, is to aban-
don what is now most generally prac
ticed, and that is, making the culture
of cotton a speciality. We must SOW
clover and the various grasses, we
must plant more wheat and corn; we
must raise more stock to consume
this grass and grain and to furnish
manure, which should be put upon
our tired and impoverished soil
With mixed husbandry, or diversi
fed cultivation of crops, our lands
can be rested more, and not be sub
iected to the clean culture and fine
disintegrating process of the soil,
without which it is impossible TO
raise cotton with any certainty of
profit We must improve our stock
of cattle, hogs aud sheep, our horses
and mules, and by so doing can be
able to realize the highest market
prices for our beef, mutton and pork,
aud have for the use Of our farms,
and for the road horses and mules,
the equals of those brought from
Missouri and Illinois. When we
can compete with st. Louis and Gin
cinnati and attain the high standard
value of any product brought from
these points, then shall we begin to
realize liberal returns from every
branch of husbandry. We can also
make a far richer and increased sup
ply of manure for our farms, as it
has been often tested by chemists
that the excrement of a fat COW, or
horse, or sheep, is much richer in
all the elements of plant food than
that of those in poor condition
With portion of our lands in grass,
we can enrich the balance so that
half the number of acres now deyO-
ted to grain or cotton, would be
equal to the present production,
with far less labor and cost in Guilt
vation-for if we can make one acre
produce as much as two, it can be
seen ty the most obtuse minds, that
there is half the blowing, half the
hoeing; and generally a far better
article Of wheat is produced, and the
staple Of cotton is always large, and
invariably brings Il better price,
Instead of our lands being made
poor, and still poorer, year by year,
AS they are by making cotton a
specialty-they would be made rich,
and still richer, and increase in val
ne, should we desire to sell Mixed
husbandry is conducive of the best
results, both as to the land and the
social status Of the community
in which it is practiced. Our far
mers, by having some time to spare,
not having the never ceasing routine
of duty to perform, as in the culture
of cotton, have more opportuniti es
for reading and pleasant sociable
intercourse, they become more in
telligent and better acquainted with
the general principles ofagriculture
and its elevated condition. The
highest degree of success will be at
tanned by those who make agricul-
ture their diligent study. y better
knowledge of its general and fun
damental principles is more necess-
airy to the farmer who adopts diver
sified cropping, than the never ceas-
ing routine and plodding work of a
speciality s in the cotton crop. More
thought is required, more tact and
Judgment are to be exercised, but this
system gives him more leisure to
prepare his mind for the execution
of his varied emplOyments. Our
farmers should not be mere drudges
and machines, who need but power
full notices and strong will TO carry
the day, but they should have brains
in which their is active thought and
valuable knowledge. Intelligence
is as essential in farming as ia any
other occupation, and, with mixed
husbandry, our farmers have the
time and emporium ity to acquire it.
Then, grangers and brother farmers,
let us not make cotton and its Gull
ture the one absorbing question of
our life, but let us diversity our
crops, and let one leading idea per-
wade every the heart of farmer, and
that is, raise all you need at home
to eat, and then as much as possible
above this, for market and for profit.
Brownsville Democrat.
We heard q substantial farmer
say the other day that he had just
bought new wagon, and prefering
to keep the money In circulation at
home, ordered the woodwork of the
wagon to be put up by neighboring