The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-06-13
Grass Versus Cotton, Tobacco
and Grain.

condition Of the cotton planter in
Middle Tennessee with that of the
stock raiser in the following extract,
(Which applies with equal force to the
4 farmer who raises all grain and to
bacco in East Tennessee.
cit is at once a painful and pleas.
ing picture to contrast the cotton
planter with the stock raiser of this
basin. The one pinched, hard pres
sed, hard worked, always striving.
but never advancing, like an old
hack upon a tread-wheel, his course
is always up hill. but he never pro-
crosses. He is always poor, because
he draws the fertility from his soil.
and sells it at price that barely pays
for the labor employed. His style
of farming is such that each year
makes it more difficult for him to
live the next. The increasing width
Of the guIlies aud red rims that sur
round his lower lands, looks like in
evitable fate creeping upon him.
Year by year his yield is diminished,
and year by year his arabic land
grows more sterile His houses fall
to decay, with no means in prospect
sto repair them. The belt of briars
and bushes that envelopes his fences,
widens into greater proportions each
year. There is no time for him to
attend to the beautiful, for poverty
draws every year it's Gordon closer
and closer around him. And yet
with him cotton reigns supreme. 1t
intoxicates his brain. 1t holds out
visions of wealth, and is more allur-
ing than the mirage Of the desert,
and quite as deceitful. The visions
Of one year are replaced by those
of another, until prostration and
poverty seem inevitable to the soil
and to the planter. a ship, as it re
wolves in her diminishing circles
about the maelstrom, is not more
fated to destruction thar. the cotton
planter of Middle Tennessee. He
may look abroad al the alluring sun
light, he may feel the gentle airs of
heaven as they fan him in his circling
course; he may experience a glorious
exaltation with golden mirage be- /
fore him, but nothing except vortex
of bankruptcy and ruin.
Now, turn if you please, and look |
at the stock grower. His talk is of
grass, because to him grass is flesh,
and wealth, and ease and plenty.
With him stock raising is a fine art
as well as profession. His farm is
a model of beauty, and a picture of
contentment The beautiful in ma
ture warns his sympathies for the
beautiful in his vocation. lie studies
with the eye of a connoisseur the
picture of fine cattle, fine horses,
fine hogs and fine sheep: and his
ambition is not satisfied with any but
the best. If there is anything he
will 90 in debt far, it is improved
stock; because he knows from the
experience of others they will pay,
with proper attention and care.
When he has made his beginnings
then every sterile spot on his FARM
is an eyesOre. 1t must bring grass.
for every three acres of such land
reclaimed, will enable him TO keep
in addition TO his present stock, one
COW or four sheep. His sheep and
cattle are made instruments for
transplanting some Of the fairness Of
the bottoms of the leanDess Of the
hiIIsides. Every spot is turned to
account. Even the crevice between
the rocks is made to give out the
wealth of his soil, and to supply
tufts Of grass to be turned into fat
beeves aud fat sheep, The bushes
and briars and broomsedge and
trumpet vines and all hurtful weeds
and bushes are kept at q distance.
Grass or grain is always growing for
his benefit. Nature tolls for his COM
fort. Her very beauty, glowing
under the splendOr Of a more than
Italian sky, contributes TO his wealth
and TO his enjoyment. The foun-
tains and the woods are made to
Weld him rich returns. The very
air is melodious with the music OF
his wealth. He feels that placid en-
joyment which every one must feel
when he is growing in dignity, in
power, in wealth, in happiness and
in influence, His farm grows richer
withal, and thus his capital in trade
is increased. His barns assumes !
ampler proportions as his stock in :
crease in number, and at each an ,
nuaI sale he feels keener ambition ;
10 excel himself at the next He
feels less dependent upon labor than !
the cotton planter, because with the a,
after there can be no income with :
pat II, nor sometimes even with it. Z
He gets about him, first, his necessi- c
lies; then his comfort; then his E
Injuries. He feels that he grows /; c
MS mental faculties are sharpened, !;
md he is constantly animated with .
'resh hopes. But these hopes are +
lot so often Disappointed as with the +
cotton planter. Stock men are pro- j,
cheerful; often enthuslas: q
ic. Cotton men are harrassed by 4
many doubts and fears. The rains
u the drought, the caterpillar or the
ust, the labor CIR the E.arket-these >,
brings them more pains than plea. :.
ures. They grow morose, doubtful :
If the future, complain of hard -
lines, heavy taxes, and life with =
hem, at best, is but tangled skein, ~
where the black appears oftener than W
he white. +,
But, to leave off this style, what
an induce man with reflection and ae
easoning faculties, and common ec
ense, to grow cotton upon land that
7iIl bring one bale to five acres,
Then this same land devoted TO r
took raising. would buy one bale 10 -
NO acres? Where is the good sense -
! it? Some say it is the only way N
, secure ready money; the only way ~