The Republican journal., 1881-10-27
Farming in the South.

tributed an article to Scribner's Monthly
a year or more ago, in which he argued
that the old plantation system of ante
bellum days was gradually being aban-
doned in the South, and the plantations
themselves were being cut up into small
farms, to the great benefit of the agrcul-
tural interest. The statistics of the last
census confirm these views. By compar-
ing the census figures of 1860 and 1880
we find that the number of farms in Ala
bama has increased from 30, I2e to l35, :
S6l in Georgia, from g., DOB to I3S ,636 /;
in Florida from G,5GS to 2}, I3S; in South
Carolina from 33, III to o3,o64 This in
crease has mainly taken place since the
war closed, and indeed within the past
ten or twelve years. The figures here
given, aside from the very gratifying in
crease shown in the number of small
impression that such farms have not here
totore existed in the Southern States. In
point of fact there have always been small
farms in the South, and on the score Of
profit they would compare favorably with
those OF any other part Of the country.
The subject is one familiar to the writer,
who embodied the results of personal OBJ
servations and Investigations in an arti-
Gle published in De Bows Review for
April, 1865. In that article it was re
marked: at must not be thought that
small farms are altogether unknown
in the South, because Of late greater at
tentlon has been paid to them than for
merly. They We're seldom heard of in the
days Of great plantations, but they exist
ed for all that, and their owners prosper
ed after their fashion" The object Of
the article was to encourage the cultiva-
ton of small farms and the adoption Of
Northern methods New Orleans was at
that time filled with unemployed persons.
the other. Cotton was selling at ten
cents which cost twenty five cents per
pound to raise. No substitute had been
found for the slave labor which worked
the rice, cotton and sugar plantations be
fore the war, and thousands of acres of
fertile soil were tenantleSs and untitled
Even within the city limits were waste
places which With proper cultivation
would have given a living to many fani-
lies. LII the markets, vegetables, small
fruits, poultry, &C., commanded eXorb-
liant prices. To the Northern man the
proposition was Il simple one. Till these
waste places, market the products, and
the problem of making Il comfortable liN-
ing, if not OF securing IL competence, was
solved.
The Southern farmer has Il great vdiir-
" of crops from which to select those
best suited to his lands. He may also
raise crops the Year around, 50 that his
land is never idle. In fact, he only needs
the thrift and industry characteristic Of
the Northern people to make himself rich.
Many have become SO, no doubt, Judging
from facts and figures gathered by the
writer i'll lS6-. For example, Il white
in, - = IA.
help of his son, raised the following crop
from thirty acres in 1867: Two bales Of
cotton, two hogsheads Of sugar, forty bar
rcls of rice, one hundred and fifty two
barrels Of corn, twenty-five barrels of
sweet potatoes, six barrels of Irish pota-
toes, ten barrels of onions, five barrels Of
pccans (nUts), two barrels of peaches and
twenty-five carrots Of perque tobacco.
The net value Of these products in the
New Orleans market at that time would
he about two thousand dollars. Then Of
other products, not valued, because exact
We're not specified. We're a large
quantity of beans, lettuce and other veg
etables. He also cut twenty FIVE cords
OF wood He had two worn out horses to
drag the pillow, but no freedmen to assist
him. The butcher need never stop at his
door, for he had Il store of plump porkers
and calves His wife, from her poultry
yard and dairy, not only furnished the ia
Die abundantly but sold enough Of eggs,
chickens, turkeys and ducks TO pay all
the household expenses. Another Illus
tration is that of Il man who lived in Ten
nessce near the Mississippi line, and who
cleared in the season Of 1857, from six
acres of land, $1,000, after supporting
family of six persons, hay
ing a good home and Il plenty to eat and
Wear. The next year he expected IL
clear $4,000. He raised fruit, grapes.
and poultry and all the labor
was performed 10y himself and a son
about thirteen years Of age. Then we
hear of a young man who leased a farm
in Georgia, most Of which was well -Worn,
and who bought the place with the pro
cceds of his first crop. TO this may be
added, as Il concluding illustration, the
case of an Indiana farmer, who observing
that the climate Of Louisiana matured its
crops in a very short time, rented Il river
farm, brought down his labor saving i'm
Elements and hired five hands. The re
suit of this investment was the sale Of
> 1000 bushels of corn made in few
These are exceptional cases of course,
but what has been done may be done
Probably those who would investigate the
subject now might discover even greater
results as the outcome of improved meth
DDS of cultivation, the use Of labor saving
and an infusion Of the North