The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-05-16

DltSStu III SUI JAN
ue of product, poor, when the prop
to It's property was suddenly torn
away. with no traces Of that fertIl-
izing stream of national bounty
which had enriched the North, and
which might have been the vital
principle to recuperate a shattered
fortune.
But that unhappy influence OIL a
past doctrine Is slowly
diving out under the realization OF
new duties, new necessities, new
destinies.
Old theories, become obsolete by
the ruin of the conditions which up
held them, give place to fresh ideas,
the offspring of altered relations
to human obligations. 1t Is not
permitted to the South to stand
still, since the return of the past IS
impossible, and the demands OF the
future are imperative. She must
go forward if she would flourish.
And she will go forward. She
is going forward. In the whole
range of human history there IS no
example of a people rising SO erect
out of a ruin SO apparently lrretrlv-
able; from fortunes annlhllated,
from institutions overturned, from
a labor system utterly destroyed,
from military subjugation com
plete and ruinous, from political
oppression CALLING, degrading and
w~asteful. Standing upright under
the weight of such a combination
of calamity. Verify the southern
people show their adaptation for
the foundation Of new fortunes,
and their capacities to shape out
new and brilliant destinies. Nor
having entered upon their new ex-
istence will they be wanting in adap-
tation to the new demands made
upon their energies and their IN
telligence.
And the material upon which
these energies are to be exercised
lay spread in limitless variety and
abundance. 1t appears strange
now that the South was so long
known to the world only through its
great staples, when in reality it
epitomizes the vegetable and min
eral products of the whole world:
at least such as are essential to the
comfort and maintenance of the
human family. There is not a
textile fiber that does not find a
congenial soil and climate, the i'm
perial cotton, the luxurious silk,
the domestic flax, the plebeian
hemp, the humble iute, the dainty
ramie, not to speak Of the patri-
archal wool, c~ontesting for exis-
tence, not with climate, but only
with the too much priced dog.
There is not a cereal hat does not
yield not only abundantly, but in
surprising excellence; the wheat Of
Virginia, North Carolina and Geor-
gia having no equal for foreign ex-
portation, and the rice of North and
South Carolina and Georgia recog-
nized as the best in the world.
There is not a fruit in the temper
ate zones which does not attain a
superiority in size, in flavor, and
in beauty which distance all rival
ry. These are the artificial pro-
ducts of industry; and to these ma
ture has added a forest wealth
which has long remained the I'M
bought reward of untutered labor,
beneath the soil she has laid up her
stores of mineral wealth, Of that
which inhames the dreams of insa-
tiate avarice, and of that which
stimulates the operations of patient
enterprise: she has laid up her
treasures of gold to be drawn out at
the demands of luxury or of COM
merce, and she has heaped up her
magazines Of iron, of topper and of
coal, to come forth in their sturdy
worth, the true c~onservators of civ
ilized existence. She has filled her
waters with fish, a substantial ele-