The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-05-08
HAm TINES


To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette:
2 What .an@everlasting cry is '' Hard
Times Hard Times!' And who re-
members when hard times was not tier
ated and reiterated, till we were all
tired of hearing the doleful sound? ]
do. well remember the troubIous bus
mess years of 1S37-8-9-40-41-42. The
times then were hard, indeed-eggs two
cents per dozen pork TWO cents per
pound board and washing one dollar
per week, and next to no money in cir
eulatisn to buy with. But eft times"
came at last, and for years after 1913,
not so much as once heard the sound of
"hard times" till way off well into the
fifties. Times are out of joint now,
but hope soon to realize the better
time coming. If farmers have anything
to sell now they can get the cost for it.
But such prices say they. l know that
prices have touched bottom and are very
low, for farm produce so they are for
every other product. To-day, farmers
can buy clover seed for seven dollars per
bushel, while only year or two ago it
was everywhere sold for ten; now they
buy calico for seven cents, when form
erly it was from ten to fifteen cents !;
now they can hire help cheaper than
ever, and they ought to avail themselves
of it To put their lands in better condi-
ton for the years to come. Improve
ments In farm machinery are in favor of
the farmer, and the cheap laborer now,
with them, can do much more than for
merly. Every farm ought to be i'm
proved, year by year, so that the land of
the whole country shall appreciate in
value constantly. We ought to stop
cutting down the forests and cultivate
the cleared land better and better, so
that larger and still larger crops may be
obtained from the land. Let the forests
stand for future generations to use.
Thereby we shall have less drouths,
more abundant crops, and better livers,
for it is better to live in an old than a
new community.
l believe, despite the low prices, that
the really good farmers are making some
money now. If they do no more than
keep out of debt and improve their
lands, that is making money. But farms
cannot be permanently bettered except
by the use of manure or the growing of
clover. / prefer both, and would never
cultivate an acre out of clover, except /
first put manure upon the ground.
"Well, how would you get itg" asks the
first man l meet 1 answer, would
save what others waste, pile it up in
compost heap, mix with it sods, and
bogs, and peat, if could find it; if not,
leaves and straw, and the leavings oil
hay. With this would mix some lime
to kill the weed seeds and take the sour
| ness out of the whole heap, let it rot
thoroughly, even if had to turn it once
or twice. The best place for a compost
heap is under a shed, so that the sun
shall not evaporate it, nor the rains wash
the best part of it away. Spread this
on the ground, pillow to proper depth
two plowiDgs are better than one, all
the time-plow only when the soil Is in
proper condition, cultivate the ground
thoroughly, grow better crops, and good,
easy, % soft" times will come again, for
it is only by increased crops that the
farmer can be remunerated, and the
country resume its former prosperity,
which we all so much desire.
/ s. W