Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-11-06

the same acre are almost without limit as to
variety, and the quantity and quality will
equal or surpass that Of any other land. Is
there any other country, outside of the lati.
tude designated, where this can be done! II
one acre will yield thus, ten or twenty or one
hundred may be made to do likewise.
You remember, Mr.. President, it was said
of New Jersey, that when the Creator had
completed his work in making this continent,
He had cart-load of sand left, and dumped
it out and made New Jersey. Her lands
were notoriously poor and sterile. And in
reply to an enquiry made by me to one of
her Senators as to what the lands IN New
Jersey were worth per acre, he said, zone dol,
lar in the native state but there is little that
you can now buy for less than one hundred
dollars per acre." I enquired how that was,
aud he explained that he had one hundred
acres upon which he had put one hundred
dollars worth of manure to the acre, and that
now it was worth one hundred dollars per
acre. New Jersey had, in 1870, an area Of
only 5000 square miles and population of
something less than million, and yet the
value of her farms was then S257 $685. 6,
against s44, ,SO8, ,763, the value of South Caro-
lima farms but they farm in New Jersey,
whilst we plant in South Carolina
In this connection am met by the sugges-
ton that we cannot fertilize so highly in South
Carolina, because we have not as much capl-
tai as they have in New Jersey. There is
much force in the suggestion; but this, even,
may be overcome by proper management.
Abandon the ruinous system Of attempting to
keep up the plantation system of agriculture
of the days of slavery; concentrate both en-.
ergy and improved culture and manure only
a few acres. Get down into the bowels OF the
earth and release the elements bound up there;
put into operation the forces of nature her.
metically sealed in halfplowed land,'s that
they may act directly upon the crops planted.
Divide your lands into smaller parcels-cul'
tivate less. Follow cotton with small grain,
and small grain with peas, and turn under
the vines, to be followed with cotton or corn.
Keep the voracious cattle off your titled lands,
and before you are conscious of it, your hills
and valleys will rival New Jersey in produc-
tiveness and value.
Why, Mr.. President, the people of the
North do not get rich so much from the pro
ducts of their farms, as by annually enhanc-
ing the value of their lands by fertilization
and high cultivation. There must have been
a time in New Jersey when they were as
scarce of capital as we are. They must have
had beginning. New Jersey has an area
one-fourth less than ours; yet she had more
than half as many arms-30,652. Her soil /,
originally, was not so good as ours; her geo.
,,o~bsoo1 1ooof;op 10 hoffor hor aIlm n tp
is more capricious and not so favorable to
farming operations. Yet her agricultural de-.
velopment is greater than ours. Her farms
and farm implements are more valuable than
ours, and her material wealth greater.
But it may be said in our behalf that New
Jersey has never been afflicted with the
blighting curse of 100000 slaves emancipated
within her borders or the overwhelming ca
lamity of reconstruction under hostile aus
pices; nor the domination of organized vice
operated in the name ofgovernment nor the
destructive forces of insatiate rapacity, i'm
PEELED by the hand Of the robber and guided
by the trained intellect of accomplished crimi:
nails. When we present the advantages Of our
country and point out its attractions, we are
met by the sneering enquiry, "Why, then,
does she not improve more rapidly and fill up
her vacant places ?" This enquiry is often
made, too, by those in power, who sustained
and encouraged the colossal monster just de-
scribed, and pro6ted by their enormities and
crimes.
The reasons have given, are some of those
assignable for our desultory progress, but
they are not all The assessed value of the
real and personal property in South Carolina,
in 1860, was $4S9,319,l28. The assessed
value of the same in 1870, was 1888 ,913, ,337,
showing loss, by that estimate, of S3O5,319,-
12S. But placing the assessment of 1870 at
its proper estimate, of about $l34 100000, we
have suffered a loss in property of $345,3l9,-
12S. How we have kept soul and body to-
gether and survived the reign of the robber, is
almost past comprehension. In less favored
land, and with less courageous and deter
mined people, universal bankruptcy
able ruin, expatriation and Aight-would
have surely resulted. Under all these adj
verse and discouraging considerations, that we
have been able to advance and make progress
is something almost marvellous. But we have
done 80 and the fact affords great encour-
agement for the future. We have only to be
true to ourselves, to bound forward, in the
next decade, along the highway Of wealth
and unparalleled prosperity. Nor is this all
Our agricultural and mechanical interests
were deprecated and deteriorated at least
one third, and the value of our products in
the same proportion.
Since our resurrection and redemption, in
1876, these evil conditions to which we have
adverted, have, Of course, been vastly changed
for the better, and as have remarked, the
evidences of progress and improvement are
apparent on all sides. Our agricultural pro-
ducts have increased, and we are increasing
in quantity and quality. Our live stock, as
shown by your exhibition day, has increas-
ed and improved to most gratifying extent.
The mechanic arts and manufactures are be-
coming slowly, but healthfully, profitable, and
surely pressed forward. The future of the
State is full of hope and promise, and if we
will keep step with the march of events of the
last three years, the statistics of the present
decade will unfold unexpected advancement.
In the value and variety Of our agricultu'
raj products, in the profits on our manufac-
tured articles, and in the value Of our min
eral and phosphate deposits, we need fear
competition with no State in the American
Union.
The social and vital statistics of our
State bear most favorable comparison with
any other State and the advantage is large
ly with US, compared with many of those
States that delude themselves into the belief
that all the sanctimony and purity in gov.
ernment, morals and religion is with them,
and all the diabolisms and shortcomings in
the same are with US.
Take, for instance, the criminal statistics of