The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-05-27
she EARN.

The SOUTHERN LAND sly STEM. THE dis
e'ission raised by the negro exodus are now
turning on the question Of whether there
are not some radical defects in the present
land system Of the South. MIR. +. F. More
head President of the Mississippi Valley
Cotton Planters Associations, makes an
interesting contribution to the literature Of
the subject in a recent address, from which
we quote:
IA planter in olden time needed no CO.
operation of his %neighbors, his estate being
a community within itself, with its black
smith shop, carpenter shop, hospital, etc.,
our institutions and customs fostering moth
ing but agriculture. Then we raised our
corn and meat, and impertions were con-
fined nearly to manufactured articles. Now
we raise nothing comparatively but cotton,
and import everything. Then it was a
pleasure to behold the fine cultivation Of a
gentleman's estate, the deep blowing, fine
drainage, good bridges, we'll made and
kept fences, one to two bales of cotton,
and sixty to eighty bushels of corn produc-
ed On evety acre Of ground, respectively
planted, full cribs of corn and stacks OF
fodder laid by, fat mules, hogs and stock.
systematic work at the gin house and shops
everything in place. and a general air Of
thriftness pervading the atmosphere. Prop
erty was worth then any price a party chose
to ask. Now, on the same land, with dou.
ble the quantity Of labor to the acre, half
the quantity of cotton and corn is raised,
the mules are badly fed and half attended,
the bitches, fences, bridges, etc, are in
very ordinary if bad repair, and property
has no salable value. l claim that the sys-
tenn of making tenants and share partners
Of pauper laborers is the cause of this diff:
eren c between our former prosperity and
our present depressed condition. Take.
first, the case Of the tenant, who is sold a
team on time, and agrees to pay a rental ct
eight to ten dollars per acre for this he re-
ceives a house to live in, water, wood, gar
den and pasture for any amount Of stock, he
may have, and is then advanced by the
planter or some store food and clothing for
himself and family. In other words, the
planter sets an Ignorant pauper up for an
independent landlord, to work his crop as
he chooses. The consequence Of which is
that the planter ends b Y taking his mule
back at the end of one or two years, with a
heavy ditching and fencing bill to pay to
induce another thriftless pauler to take the
land the first one had nearly ruined.
The share system or partnership is
ground, implements, team and feed for
team, house, garden, watel, wood, and
pasture for any cows, hogs, or stock, and
the laborer for this agrees to give his en-.
tire labor for the year i would here state,
by way Of parenthesis, that laborsrs only
get one third of the crop against the land.
lords capital in the North and West), and
challenge the best managed place in the
South to show where it's labor has put in
the year, working on this half or tenant
system.
"We must come to a system of fair wages
and let intelligence direct cur farming
diversity our crops, and make US a self.
sustaining people. We must take the mi
tiative in this change, and a very short
time will elapse before the laberer is in
hearty sympathy with it. He can under
stand cash payments, but cannot compre-
bend accounts, interest credits.