The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-07-21

cities pF4cGaCe the same I0Aly. towns
increase their population rapidly
boast loud and long Of their trade.
industry. wealth and infuence; but
somehow they never show that Titles
hard common sense which honestly
and wisely feeds the soil that must
ever feed the people, To maintain
and increase the natural fruitfuIness
of the fields that support forty mill
lion persons, scattered over q wide
territory, and give them their daily
food and necessary clothing at the
least attainable cost in labor to all,
is eminently social and . political
pFoblem.e System there must be,
but whose System? The best far
nlers see the value Of concentrated
Fertilizers that may be cheaply trans
ported long distances. They see,
also, the necessity of wide co-opera-
ton among the owners and tiIlers of
the soil !; but they do not yet fully
realize the important fact. that the
inhabitants of all cities are silent
partners in all their farming opera
tions. Cities can make plant-food
cheap and plenty or dear and scarce.
to the farmer. They know that when
cotton, is high, cotton goods go up to
the consumer but they have yet to
learn that to waste tue elements Of
crops in cities is : to ruin alike the
producers and consumers of bread
and meat, wool aud cotton. The in
habitants of ancient Nineveh waxed
fat while consuming the soils natur-
al resources but when at last a des-
ert was formed, what became Of the
great city Nineveh? A hundred
other cities have shared the same
fate, many whose names are forgot
ten. The primitive man knew no
better than to rob his mother earth,
as he often robbed or killed his broth
er Abel. To understand the true
condition OF American Agriculture we
must ponder the fact that our sys-
TEN OF land7killing has fourished
1875 years Of the Christian era, and
will try hard to follow on in the old
footprints as many years longer.
Popular education, agricultural
books, papers, societies, boards of
distinguished men, agricultural coll
legcs, have not saved agriculture.
Il is very doubtful whether q clear
majority Of the American people
could save. it against resolute work.
ling minority, determined to kill and
cat the public goose which lays eggs
OF gold. With territory as large
as the United. States, guns and gun.
powder would be powerless to exter-
minate The traditional practice Of
living at the expense of the ea-th's
virgin fertility.saIf the duty of mains
tanning fraitfdlness for the common
and equal benefit OF all classes can.
not be carried in the forum Of con-
science and reason as q high moral
question, it can hardly be carried in
any other way. Thirty years ago
the writer argued this question elab.
oratelyi before agricultural societies
in. Massachusetts and New York ;
and he fails to discover any advance
in public opinion or practice since.
Producers ia the country, and con-
sumers in cities do not work harmo-
niously together Like speRdthrift
heirs, they appear TO believe their
landed estates are not only large. but
inexhaEstible. Were all yankeedom
to come South, it's energy would be
expended in making the cost OF rais-
ing corn here as il is near Springfield,
in the far.famed Connecticut valley,
about two dollars bushel. Hitherto
in his career, man has been q shadow
OF yapor. chasing the ms this called
wealth and honor through sunshine
and cloud. never seeing, never sus
pecting that the greater his labor the
greater the harm done to mankind,
if the labor be misappIied. How can
man be brought out OF this land ol
clouds. myth and dreams, of palaces,
ending like Jay Cooke. in bankrupt
(. cy and the ruin of thousands?
4 y9guls@s.ssf y ID. LEE.
what il I'm NoVvep-Whot Aacs