The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1877-09-14
For the Times.
An Old Farmer Answers Pacolet.

For the Times.
An Old Farmer Answers PacUlet.
EDITOR UNION TIMEs.-One of your cores
pondeRts has taken me to task for expressing
an opinion that not much good had come of Fairs,
Agricultural Societies and Oranges, and asks me
if am opposed to such organizations.
am not apposed to such organizations; but
am opposed to the manner in which they have
been generally conducted, and attribute their
want of success to that
An Agricultural Fair should be sdmething
more than raree show. People should be
drawn together by something moro than mere
curiosity, if much good is to come of it. l beg
leave to ask how many farmers go to Fair and
examine the ploughs, harrows and other Agri-
cultural implements, with q view to profit by il?
How many look at the varieties of seeds, speci-
mems of field crops, and inquire into the modus
operdndi by which large yields or superior
quality has been attained?
Take, for example, the late Grand Agricultu
raj and Grange Exhibition at Anderson what
good come of it? pleasant enough social
gathering, l have no doubt, and good enough
for that purpose, but for practical good. what
discussion of the usury lava shrewd effort of
capitalists to checkmate any popular movement
in that direction in the country-a few essays
upon thread. bare topics which had been dis
cusssd in the Oranges essayed upon in Agricul4
tura Societies, and published in the newspapers
over and over again for years past. And it was
impossible to keep more than q handful of men
together to listen to their Reports
An Agricultural Bureau is wanted by one, an
Immigration Bureau by another, and 80 on you
will always find somebody has on axe to grind
in these conventions.
Your correspondent objects to my charge that
the trouble is mainly owing to "lack Of intel
ligence." repeat the charge. Our rural popu-
latien is not reading population-I mean that
they take ne interest in that class of reading
bearing upon their avocation. Go ask your
Postmaster how many Agricultural Journals
are taken out at his Post Office, and how many
trashy, Northern sensational papers
| The State of South Carolina has 364 Oranges
| it is to be presumed, representing the most in
| teigent and progressive Agricultural element in
| the Statc-and yet they allowed one of the bost
Agricultural Journals in the country, published
in the State at the low price of 50 per annum,
edited by the Grand Cyclops of the order-n
successful and experienced planter, fully posted
upon Everything connected with Agriculture,
enthusiastically and fearlessly devoted to the
Agricultural interests of the State. die for
want of patronage. Call you this backing your
| friends.
Within the experience of the writer eight Ag-
ricultural Journals-some Of them marked by
great abiity-havc died for want of readers
| Docs this look like We were intelligent, q
progressive people-a people, too, almost exclu-
sivc!y Agricultural 1t argues either shame
ful indifference to improvement or q conceited
idea that we arc too wise to be taught.
! rha Gs..soeo I"r"er, in u. ", hos 'fourshod
| for half century, and has $4,000 subscribers.
The Imerjcan Ayricuhurist has very large cir
cu!ation; and there are many others. New Jer-
seq has her Agricultural papers, massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania. Maryland has her Far
mcr Plow and Loom and AnUR. The Agriculture
OF Virginia rcvolutionized, and millions ad
ded to her wealth, from the writings of Edmund
Ruilin, in the Farmers Register; North Carolina
has her Agricultural papers Georgia, for near
ly half n century, has supported the Southern
CUkiivator now the acknowledged exponent Of
practical and scientific Agriculture in the South.
You will find the Southern Cuitvator in almost
every farmers house in Georgia, and you will
find its columns filed with the experience of its
best planters and all scientific knowledge appli-
cable to Agriculture.
How many of your grangers take an Agricul
------ ~ - asa ~ ioal for
mers give the results of their failures and sue
cesses, for one is as important as the other
to tho public? How often do you see n commu-
nication on Agriculture in the Times? Our
greatest complaint, perhaps, is the want of labor.
How many put their brains to work to find out
some plan, some labor-saving implement, by
which they can make one man and mule do the
the work of two. There is something radically
wrong Our young men arc growing up with
| an aversion to farm life, and unless we can Gle
vatc its tone by II high culture and surrond it by
the fascination of intellect we may we'll give it
up. AN OLD FARMER
WHO NEVER GAVE LIEN.
81" The accounts from the seat Of war are
soc pfictinp hot we mt safe in DubliShinp