The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-12-30
Land in the South.

The character of the soil in differ.
ent parts of the South is a matter of
great interest, on account of the
necessary relation between its quail.
ties and the industries and civiliza.
ton of the people of the country,
The usual Southern idea or estimate
of 'good land as expressed by
Southern men whom have met, diff.
fers somewhat from that which pre-
walls in the most fertile portions of
the Northern States. There ia of
course much rich land i'm the South,
but there is Il great deal which is
called good by Southern farmers that
would not be regarded as rich by
men acquainted with the soils Of
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, or of the
portions of Pennsylvania and New
York which are best adapted to agri.
culture. The "pine land" in the
Southern States is only moderately
fertile but, as the cotton plant will
grow upon it, and produce fibre of
marketable quality, it is always
spoken of by its cultivators as every
fair land"
l have rarely heard Southern men
say anything unfavorable or disparag.
ing regarding the soil of their region.
They seem usually to have an affec.
ton for it which sometimes appears
to make them blind to its defects.
Where the soil is poor, the people
often manifest a kind of good.natur.
ed, patient fatalism, submitting with.
ont complaint to the Inconvenience
resulting from the scantiness of the
return for their labor. as if poor CROPS
were a part of the order of the uni.
verse, divine ordainment not to be
criticised or remedied: though in
truth much of the sterility is in the
methods of the cultivators rather
than in the soil itself. But in many
places in the South the soil will not
yield what an average Northern
farmer would regard as "a living"
and many emigrants have gone
thither and begun farming only to
learn, too late, that they had made Q
ruinOus mistake in selecting land,
They often feel much resentment
because they imagine they have been
deceived by their Southern neighbors
in regard to the quality of the soil;
but of course there is, usually, no
Intentional misrepresentation In such
cases, the error arising from the
difference of standards just mention.
ed. but the statements made BY
railroad companies having lands for
sale in the South should commonly
be taken with large allowance, as
they frequently contain grossly exag.
gerated accounts of the productive.
ness of the land.) There is large
class of farmers or planters in the
South who do not require or expect
so much from the ground as North.
ern men demand. They are satisfied
with lower degree of fertility, and
their comparative estimate Of the
grade or quality of land differs from
that of most immigrants from the
North. An average Southern family
needs much less for "a living than
Northern people require, and on
much Of the land of the South North.
ern people are unable to live .by the
methods of agriculture to which they
have been accustomed in their old
homes; uor can they succeed by
those Of the Southern men around
them, unless they willadopt the scale
OF living and expenditure which salts.
fies their Southern neighbors. The
habits and tastes of the poorer white
people of the South are In q remark.
able degree adapted to their eircum.
stances and the conditions OF their
life, but Northern methods Of living
require very different environment.
--January Atlantic.