Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-04-12
MINERALS.

"
MINERALS.
In coal, the great Appalachian field covers
about I'VE thousand one hundred square
miles, aud in iron tina State Is riDOed
with vast belts Of bnest ore, In mau y
cases in close proximity TO both COAL wood
and sandstone. For these, or all other pro-
duets transportation is rendered easy by one
thousand six hundred and thin Ity-fouT miles
OF railways and one thousand three hundred
and fifty-fOur miles of nRyigable rivers, CIV
iCg transportation TO every thirteen square
miles OF the States area.
TO sum up then, in brief: The average tenn
perHfnre OF one year is s. the annual rain
iet y fOrtg six inches; the death rate is one.
tb<lM per cent; we have q population OF 3l.4
tJtft squsre mile, composed OF twenty-thTee
whites and eight blacks; our soil is fertile and
diversified, our minerals abundant, and we
8re-alone in the Ubitsd SIates-where the
lines OF past greatest social and material Ce-
velOpment approach each other,
But with al Of this to warrant the most en-
thuslastic hopes, we see the state reduced TO
an agony OF taxation, sickened in it, progress
and bankrupt in it- credit
Now There must be reason for
this; all natural prosperity is de.
nature and man. The first furnishes the
soil, the rock, the forest and the climate.
Man furnishes the labor required to utilize
these 90 the needs of human progress. We
have seen nature has done more Than her
pat. The fault, therefore, must fail upon
man.
1t necessarily follows, therefore, that under
a system OF government such as ours the Of
tense must rest either with the citizen or the
leg stature; the blame must be cast either up
on bad customs or unwfss laws.
FARMERS AND FARM PR0DUC CTIoNS.
In reference to the first there is much empty
defamation about our farmers raising corn
instead Of cotton, and the necessity OF turn
ing our attention" to manufactures.
These are equally absurd. IN the first place,
while II Is safer to avoid rtsking all upon one
thing IN any business yet it is not necessarily
Again, as the raising of farm products is q
matter of investment, 70 Will necessarily Te-
spOEd only TO the touch of interest, and the
experience Of individuals is worth more than
ali the theorylng in the World-that rs, the
custom proves it to be the best. To suppose
any man of ordinary intelligence would not
be able to know whether he made or lost on
the crop is absurd; 10 declare he would con-
tlnue to lose year after year in the same man
ner is an OUTRAGE on common understanding.
The native system of agriculture OF any
country is absolutely the best. The instinct
of self teaches during the practice of centuries
the methods best adapted 20 the situation
and products.
Along the Amazon, owing to the greathea
the nauves cut down the undergrowth ana
plant maize with O small hoe among the tIash
OF leaves and branches. The foreign farmers
Whointroduced improved systems and plOwed
up the soil only made an ash-bank, and raised
nothing but dust,
In the deserts of Arizona the PInos plant
corn in holes two or three feet deep, made by
driving stakes into the naked sand. But at
that depth they find moisture sufficient to
make a crop. In Colorado eggs set to hatch
have 10 be mOistenei, or they will often dry
too much to produce. And on its high ridges
1t is impossi bic 10 cook vegetables by boiling
the decline of atmospheric pressure lowers
the boiling point OF water below that neces-
cary 10 COOK food.
Superficial travellers always complain of the
natives of the tropics that they do not raise
wheat and corn, and abuse them as lazy and
hDldt
single acre of plantains "to equal the crop of
one hundred and thirty-three acres OF wheat
and forty four acres CT potatoes"
The history OF the cultivation of the peanut
in Tennessee shows how quickly the people
viii grasp at anything that pays: Introduced
to market by a farmer in Hickman county
since the war, the production in 1872 reached
SIX hundred and eighty thousand bushels.
(KlllebIew, Il. Tenn
And although it may pay for few to raise
corn, While every body else raises cotton, yet
If all raised corn it would be worth nothing,
In the great western corn growing States it
often sells ior fifteen cents per bushel, or is
used as fuel.
Hence the southern farmer who finds it to
pay him TO raise cotton and buycOrn should do
so ;and like the traveller in the arabian Nights
go steadily forward toward the prize without
being disturbed by the Eenselegs voices around
bin. Further comfOrted by the assurance OF
the census of 1870 that he is ealiZing thirty
seven per cent per annum gross on his lnVe>t-
mentS for farm, implements and wages, while
in Massachusetts, the ideal of the opposite sys-
tenn, they make only twenty-seven per cent.
Census lo709
MANUFACTURES.
Still more senseIess is the talk about manu-
factures. 1t is only what may be called the
excess of agricultural labor which goes into
manufactures. II is often said if we had more
capital we would have factories. But this is
not a question of capital at ali. five had all
the capita! in the world here, it would not in
vest in factories, when farm wages are SO
high, and the low price of land offers such re-
markshIe facilities to laborers for obtaining
and cultivating their own land
In no country in the world Is factory labor
not paid better than farm labor, and until our
farm wages are reduced by the number OF Ia
bOrers it is useless to expect manufactures to
succeed. When this is once done they Will
spring up themselves.
The following figures are taken from the
special report of the bureau statistics of 1871 4:
In Massachusetts, the great manufacturing g
State, the average annual wages OF factory la
bor for 1863, was seven hundred and thirty.
eight dollars and ninety two cents. The aver
agemOnthty wages of farm labor was thirty
two dollars and five cents; only employed from
April to Hovember-making the annual wages
for eight months two hundred and ntty-s1X dol
lars and forty cents. The four winter months
they are out Of work in the hardest part Of the
year; but supposing they made as much as
during the summer, then for year OF twelve
months the wages amounts TO three hundred
and eighty-four dollars and sixty cents, IeaV-
ing an excess of factory over farm wages per
annum OF three hundred and hfty-four dollars
and thirty. two cents.
Here the difference between the two exactly
represents the bounty required to induce a
farm labOrer in Mass 9cbuSettS to engage In
factory work; and this bounty in round NUM-
bers is just double, or an increase of one hun
dred per cent.
WAGES.
Now in Tennessee CRfGibrelU's Resources Of
TeRlesse) the factory wage per amman Is
two hundred and seventy-seven dollars, while
q white laborer can easily get on farm tWen-
ty-five dollals per month, with board, the year
round; which, reckoning board at the same
price as in Massachusetts-or fifteen dollars
per months equal to four hundred and
eighty dollars per annum, leaving an excess
of farm over factory wages Of two hundred
and three dollars, or the reverse Of the posi-
tion in Massachusetts, There the factory
hand required a bounty of three hundred and
hfty-four dollars per annum, while here he
has TO suffer a loss of two hundred and three
dollars. To suppose the white laborer will
work for this, as class, is absurd. Individu-
ais may, but the operatives in Tennessee will
bs found to consist largely of uncertain negro
labor, TOO unreliable to be valuable for facto-
~ purposes; and outside the large cities, of
men wandering about without fixed aims and
willing to drift along as operatives as well as
anything else. or course, here operatives OF
factory labor must not be confounded with
m echanics,
TO enumerate, then, our natural advantages
for fsctories-our water power, coal, cotton
wood, or irOn-iS absurd uuieSS the natural
advantage will amount to a higher money
value than the difference in the price of la
Dor. In some cases now-aS notably our coal
aad irOn-the articles being scarce, UranspOr-
tation heavy and labor q comparatively small
item. 1t pays to work them. But with cotton
or wool, when transportation is light and Ia
Dor the largest item, 1t pays rather TO carry
the staple to where the laborer and mis- food
are located together, and both are cheapest.
Capital only engages i'll businesses which
pay, and II always will engage in business
which will pay. No opportunity of success
ful undertaking ever remains long untaken
at this day.
SMALL FARMS.
Again, in Tennessee the average value pc
acre of small improved farms, in 1865, OF Oul
first counties. was twenty-three dollars. o.
lands half or less cleared and fenced, eigh
dollars per acre. lSep. b. sta. lS7I) This IS ;
high valuation. Yet, at this, q man with 1V'
hundred dollars capital can buy twenty-five
acres Of improved land, pay one-third cash
on the place, pay cash down for everything
live well and pay for the whole place the frs
year; clearing on his labor nine hundred enC
seventy dollars. In Massachusetts there arr
no small farms for sale. The average Vaiu
for all lands is sixty-seven dollars. Nor
capital is required 10 commence with, anC
the farmer gets less for his product. Surely
these facts show why we are not and cannot b,
a manufacturing State, until We have
greater population. Here we have only
thirty.ons to the square mile; in MaSsachu
When we get an addition Of one hundred anC
n-ty-hve per square mile TO our population
then We also may expect to rival Ma>sachu
sets factories.
TWO SONGS.
SO much for the two sing songs OF theoreti
cal advice TO southern farmers: To quit cotton
raise corn, and pursue manufactures
lations, like Colonel Sellers" speculation
in eye-Water. without the least exacyneS5 II