The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-06-17
Hard Times in Mississippi.

We are permitted to make some extracts
from a private letter lately received by rela-
tive from Col. J. E. Welborn, of Clarke Coun-
ty. Miss, in which he represents that section
as undergoing severe ordeal from the scarcity
of money and provisions. Col. Welborn is
native of Anderson County, and went to Mis-
sissippi more than thirty years ago. lie is an
energetic, practical farmer, and is prominent
citizen of his section of the country. He says:
1--WE have for the last eight months had the
severest times I ever experienced. l have seen
times when money was as scarce as now, out
then the country abounded with provisions.
Now, both are scarce and high. Corn on
credit is worth $175; bacon, 20 cents; -four,
livery commouA $1,000; money worth from 8
to 5 per cent. per month. This is all the peo-
ple's fault The country people here as gen.
eral thing have been gradually going down for
the past ten years. and it has all grown out OF
speculative farming. That is, trying to make
cotton with free negro labor to buy their sup
dies of corn, meat, molasses, &c. There were
a few old-fogyish enough all the time to make
their supplies at home and some cotton, which
was their surplus, and this class Of farmers
have been easy all the time. Some would even
buy hay made and shipped from Maine to feed
to their work horses and mules, in place of
making oats and fodder at home. The result
was that half of them broke down Hat, and
the rest are badly crippled" %
He reports q revolution in sentiment, how
ever, and that this year affairs have assumed q
different phase. A great many oats were sown
last fall twenty-five per cent. less cotton has
been planted; two hundred per cent. more
sugar cane and sorghum than ever before; one
hundred per cent. less trading at the stores,
and a determination to economize in every
thing. The former condition broke many Of
the merchants, who were supplying provisions
upon the promise of so to 100 per cent. profit,
70 be paid in the fall out of the cotton crop,
which was often failure, and q considerable
number of broken merchants have gone to
farming. The price of land has been extreme
~ low, as this kind of property was undesira-
BILE, in consequence of the exorbitant rate of
taxation under Radical rule. Thirty dollars
per thousand is the present rate of taxation !!
The hard times are bringing the negro to his
senses, and he is now much more dependent
upon the white man than he was twelve months
ago. a change of the farming system will
dispense with one-third Of the labor and pro-
duce competition among the laborers for pla-
ces. Heretofore, the greedy anxiety to make
cotton demanded all the labor there was in the
country, and as natural result the laborers
controlled everything.
In addition to these extracts, which might
be extended, we have received printed copy
of a valuable and instructive report submitted
by Col. Welborn to the Clarke County Grange,
on the subject of labor, embracing estimates
on the value of labor as generally employed,
and suggestions as to the beneficial effects of a
change in the system Of farming usually prac-
ticed. This report will prove interesting to
MANY of our readers, and we propose to give it
an insertion next week. Labor is the most
costly element in farming operations, and
much instruction may be derived from the
interesting facts and figures contained in the
report.
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