The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1879-03-21
AN ENCOURAGING, SUGGESTIVE AND SEN
SIBLE LETTER.

oAoLE
l have written so much on agricultural
subjects that these is but little left for me
to say yet in the depressed feeling in ag
riculturc in our State, in fact all over the
country, beg leave to express the opinion
III this communication that all is not lost
nor is our case desperate but if we will
do our part, with q will that knows not how
to fail, the future is exceedingly hopeful.
Agriculture is the foundation Of all other
Industries, and no one can believe that
this great country can be held down
long under this depression. Our young
men who have gone earnestly to work, with
n determination to stick and succeed, are
hopeful aud doing well. 1t is the old men
who were raised in other days in afhucncc,
and the tdtc young men and those who
seek an easy life through politics, who, DIES.
cant and groan most over the hard times,
and hope for relief through some amend
mcnts or destruction of law, both moral aud
State, instead of their own strong arms,
who arc trying to give tone to public opin-
ion for their own selfish ends, who arc dam
aging society and the dearest interests of the
State. The brave, the honest, the indus
trious man should not look back and gricve
over the past that, with all its pleasures
and errors, is gone aud can't be recalled !;
but as the God Of Nature sends his genial
sun-rays to warm and gladden. the earth
and start the young plants to bud aud grow,
so let the vital forces of our human nature
work us new energies and new industries,
and casting behind them all tho past, with
its depression and gloom, look only to the
future with determination to 60 to work
and succeed, and nothing will prevent sue.
cess. L know it is hard, very hard, to get
into the habit of work, but with the habit
once formed, every man is the happier for
it. Aud, first, let us begin from to-day to
prepare for crop, both Of tobacco and corn,
according to our means and ability. Now
is the time to bcgu. Every man with one
horse or one OK, can do something. If he
has neither and not the means to get either,
hire to, or get into copartnership with some
one who has, and so to work. Don't uu-
dcrtakc too much Of any one crop, bat
make little Of all and whatever you do
undertake, oo mcH. Plow thoroughly and
work it we'll save all the ashes made in
cleaning up your ground or in any other
way, if only gallon in a place, and crop
it in your corn hills, and save and put on
all other manurcs Of every kind, but don't
90 az dcJt for manipulated fertilizers, they
will not pay on corn ut presents prices, and
on tobacco only if you have the money in
hand to buy them and | repeat, work
thoroughly chaty undcrtukc. | know the
prices of both staples are very low, but |
think they are now at bottom, and if there
is any change, it will be for the better
They will pay, however, at present prices,
if made with the strictcst economy. 1t
will pay in the sweet sleep produced by the
to do something for yourself ana your State,
and have not been sitting down in idIcncss,
perhaps at crossroad store or gtog shop,
grooming over the hard times supcrinduced
by idlcncss and political hcrcsies. 1t will
pay in the example you set to your broth
crs and children, even if the baancc-shcc
ut the end Of the year shows only your
bread for your labor. After you rcrop and
garden is planted (don't neglect the garden,
for out of that alone you .you can Hcc),
prepare from one to five acres Of land for
turnips for your sheep the following winter
they will grow on most any wcll.prcparcd
light ground, and will feed forty sheep to
the acre of turnips, in all the weather in
winter that they usually require feed ia
this climate; and there is no industry or
.':ock that pays as well in the South as fifty
TO 4 hundred sheep well cared for they will
invariably, from wool and lambs, pay first
cost or 100 per cent. in year, if well man.
aged and protected from dogs, and every
man can and should make his own dog law
with a phial Of strychninc. Our wise leg
islators are afraid to do it. These suggcs.
tions arc addressed to every man who owns
one hundred acres Of land or more, who is
willing to work. and who can command cap
ital enough to rent one hundred acres or
more, and it Is more applicable to the man
that owns or can rent and stock larger
farm but my advice to a renter with small
capital is, not to undertakc too much, and
to a large land owner, with small ability
to work it, to rent out what he cant work
well. Believing that we are ut bottom pri-
ccs for all agricultural products, the chan
ccs are that the future will pay all who will
practice judicous economy in that calling.
Free trade, my friend Major Il. says, is what
we want, Some oft may be good thing
for the South and agricultural sections, but
whether is it better to raise revenues by a
protective tariff Gor our Federal govern
mcnt is heavily i'll debt and must have rev.
rnucS\ or nv direct toyntion If tnb.rcn