The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-02-07
Thoughts for the Month";.

ern farmers. It is not the gross income,
but the net profits, that decides the ques-
ton of success or failure. A merchant
may sell a large amount of goods, but i
he buys at high prices, sells at small
profits, makes bad debts, pays high rents
aud clerk hire, he is.pretty sure TO fail.
And 80 farmer may make very large
crops and yet clear no money, because
they may cost mere than they sell for.
Few of our farmers keep regular &C.
counts of receipts and expenditures, and
those who do not, fail to sec clearly at
the end of the year the matter of loss or
gain; but nearly every one in q series OF
years finds out whether he is any nearer
getting out of debt, or whether he is In
creasing his property or not. We are
compelled to believe that, as a general
rule, our farmers have cleared little
money since the war. Even the appa-
rently large crops they have made, as in
ferred from the size of the cotton crop
compared with ante -hellum times, is.de-
ceptive, because, whilst more cotton has
been made, that is more than Offset BY
the fact that 80 much less corn, wheat
and other food crops have been produced.
Almost our entire farming energy has
been expended upon cotton-hence the
apparent large crops.
The South has not rprospered since the
war. Why So? Is it because of exclu-
siye cotton raising7 Is it because her
smoke,houses and corn-cribs have been
in the West? New England and Old
England have had their granaries very
largely away from home, and yet have
thriyen.: What is the secret of our fail.
ure? We apprehend that they areimore
than one: " =. .
LIST. Speculative farming, Immediately
after the war-spending money laYishly
on extended cotton crops, blindly ex-
pectipg large yields and high prices,
which we're seldom,realized. The inabil-
ity to obtain credit of late years, has
pretty we'll stopped this, but the debts
Incurred by it, still hang like an incubus
about Southern. farmers necks. Could
these debts be discharged, We believe the
road to prosperity would now be open. .
ID: Connected with the first, and
greatly increased by IL, is the fact of the
steady, and of late. sudden, ahrinkage of
;values-a thing which always proves dis
astrous to people in debt. However
much property may depreciate, debt
never shsinks; with interest added on,
year after year, it grows with accelerated
velocity
Sd. fhe prejudicial effects upon sound
farm economy'of almost exclusive cotton
culture. These are: 1st. Employment
of;too much, labor. ID. Subjecting the
laborer to the high rates exacted by the
merchant for supplies, and thus render
ing labor dearer. Sd. An almost com.
plete abandonment of proper rotation of
crops.
lst. Employment Of too much labor.
Cotton is pre-eminently q labor-requiring
crop-not only continuous labor through.
out the whole year, but much more to
the area cultivated than. most other
crops-from two to three times the
amount required by corn, and very many
times that demanded by small grain and
grasses. With extended cotton culture
the demand for labor was great, wages
went up, and independence on the part
of the laborer. ran high, but efficiency
went down. The lab6rer instead of the
land-holder became master of the situa-
ton. Hence, extrayagant rates were
paid for labor, and with large amount
employed on q cotton crop, the loss was
correspondiDgly increased: Our frat point
then Is, that the cotton crop should be
reduced to the smallest proportions ccm-
patible with its legitimate function, as a
money or surplus crop.
I'd. Failure to raise provisions suffi-
cient for the farm and the laborers on it,
THEW the latter upon the merchants, who
exacted from him high rates. Dear liv-
ing drove the laborer to high wages, or
rendered him dissatisfied with fow-n
other words, demoralized the laborer.
The true policy of the farmer is to take
charge of the negro, who is incapable Of
taking csre of himself, and reduce the
cost.of his living to the lowest rate. He
will thereby undoubtedly secure cheaper
labor. If preferred, le. it take the
shape of his hands working provision
crop sufficient for themselves outside Of
his own crop, but under the same regu.
lations, and charge them reasonable rent
of land, teams and tools. In no other
way can they be so cheaply supplied
with provisions. !.
Sd: In no country is there so marked
an absence Of systematic rotation of
crops as in the Cotton States. And no
where could its absence produce more
disastrous results, because clean and pro.
tracted summer culture not only destroys
the stock of humus.in the soil, but rem.
ders it so terribly susceptive to washing
away BY rain. These two disadvantages
are, so to speak, peculiar to the cotton
crop, aud are spperadded to those which
in hll countries are found to attach 10
the continuous cultivation of the same
crop year after year on the same land.
We simply call attention TO, but do not
propose 10 discuss now, this great subject
of rotation of crops. Suffice it to say,
that in all countries where advanced hus-
bandry prevails, it is regarded as pat
ter of the very first importance.
Reverting now to the questions asked
in our last: What to raise? what to sell 7?
what: to buyf we answer, raise all the
provisions needed by the family, the
servants and the stock, aud in this way
reduce to a minimum what has to be
bought. The particular provision crops
which each should cultivate must be de-
termined by soil and climate, The more
varied they are, the less likelihood
of failure.
Sell the surplus of the provision crops,
as much as practicable, after it has been
converted into meat, O.. butter, or live
stock. By SO doing, nearly all the fertil-