Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-18
FARMING IN MASSACHUSETTS, AND
TENNESSEE

Il
thing more than a bare subsistence
from their farms" If these remarks
express the truth, what do the farmers
of the most densely peOpled State in
the Union gain by a long cherished
protective tariff, by home manufactures
with village and city markets at their
very door?
The Bureau says: ''The general
tone of the returns we have received
has been that of encouragement rather
than of satisfaction apprehensive
rather than hopeful. The farmers are
the best judges whether any sufficient
reason for such a state of feeling ex-
lists" A practical farmer in Worces.
ter county writes: ''The expenses at
tending the cultivation of the soil alb
sorb all the profits. Railroad commu-
nication with the great grain and stock
raising sections of the West entirely
robs us of any control whatever of the
markets. Beef cattle raised on the
extensive ranches of Texas and fat
tened on the pasturage of the vast
prairies Of Illinois and other States
are shipped to our Eastern markets,
IN such quantities as TO control the
prices of our Eastern cattle. Hence
farmers here are at the mercy # those
of the West. And not only with re-
gard to neat stock, but all products of
the farm except dairy, which as yet is
most productive in the Eastern States.
My farming operations are not what 1
should wish to make them, for the
reason that I cannot obtain help
/ that is reliable. / have
most of the labor-saving machinery,
including mOwing-machines, hay.ted-
der, hOrse-rake and all the recognized
improvements. Still, my expenses, In
Gliding town taxes Of between
one and two hundred dollars, absorb
at the end of the year nearly all r1y
income. And such, think, Is the ex-
perience Of a large majority of the
farmers of my acquaintance. I will
close by giving this as my opinion, that
Massachusetts, farmers have had their
best days" A wealthy and energetic
man, living in Springfield, Improved a
three acre field at a cost of S3S365 for
stable manure and commercial fertil-
izers; and, while he raised large crops
of corn per acre, the grain cost him
two dollars a bushel. But the best
way to reach the truth in matters of
this kind is to study facts in the aggre-
gate, which we viii briefly present to
the reader:
According to the United States CEN
sus of 1860, with our currency gold and
its equivalent, the cash value of farms
in Massachusetts, was then Sl23. 255,-
94S. In 1870, with a deprecated paper
currency, the same farms had decreased
in value TO SI16, 49,, 7S4. This is what
home manufactures and a high tariff
did for agriculture in the old Bay
State in ten years. In those pregnant
ten years, the acres Of improved land
in Massachusetts decreased 20 per
cent; the number of horses II per cent;
mich COWS 20 per cent; oxen So per
cent; other cattle II per cent; sheep3O
per cent hogs 80 per cent; bushels of
wheat Il per cent; rye 50 per cent;
corn IS per cent; oats 80 per cent;
buckwheat 81 per cent; pounds of
wool Is per cent; potatoes per cent;
peas and beans As per cent; butter 90
per cent cheese 81 per cent; tons of
hay 10 per cent; clover seed so per
cent; grass seed 80 per cent; hops A
per cent; fax As per cent; maple sugar
so per cent; honey 81 per cent
By massing the above figures, we
present a condition of agriculture in
the central and weather. State Of New
England which, we doubt not, will sur
prise many Of our readers. Massachu-
sets tiIlage and husbandry have done
much to kill the goose that once laid
golden eggs. When Tennessee corn, |
cotton and wheat fields have been cul-
tivated two centuries, what is likely to
be their condition if We pursue our pres !
ent bad system of blowing and crop
ping? A large proportion of our lands !
are far better by nature than those of
massachusetts,; but can they stand bad
usage forever without ruin?
Tennessee farmers are rushing
blindly on the same concealed rocks
that shipwrecked Massachusetts agri-
culture. New England fallacies have
been transplanted into Western and
Southwestern soils to the consumption
and waste of all fertility unless these
errors can be seen and corrected. In
his agricultural report, made to Con-
gress in 1S49, the writer cited Massa-
chusetts statistics to demon
strate the disastrous loss of fruit
fulness in the farms of that
old Commonwealth. The present
able and elaborate report of the Bureau
of Statistics does not touch the true
cause of the decline of the agriculture
of the State. Reading, writing, itera-
~ accomplishments do not reach the
industrial disease as a remedy. 1t is
the duty Of all that eat the fruits Of
cultivated land to make full restitution
to the depleted soil for the same. This
great primary duty of man is not cec-
ognized nor enforced in Massachusetts,. |
It's population depend more upon man.
ufactures, trade, fishing and commerce
than on agriculture for a profitable re-
turn for labor and the use of capital.
The rocks, subsOils and soils of New