The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-06-30
TOBACCO CULTURE.

and practical agrlculturallsts nave peen
urging upon our people the Importance
l.of diversified industries upon the farm,
aud as part thereof the production of
| variety of crops, in order that their
years operations might not be depen-
dent upon the success of any one staple,
and also in order that the time of the
laborer might be more uniformly en-
p1oyed, thereby rendering the profits of
that labor more remunerative, and giving
to the country greater prosperity by
raising, as far ss possible, the necessaries
of life at home, so that as little of the
income from Che marketable crops as
possible shall be sent..out of the country
to pay labor which should be encour-
aged in our midst. We are satisfied
that this is wise in theory, and wiser
still in practice. Our people have since
the war been cotton.crazy, and as con-
sequence have produced immense crops
of the Aeecy staple, which have annually
given to the South an enormous income,
but unfortunately this income has in
large part not belonged to us. As soon
as made, and in many instances before
it is made, it has to be spent in the West
for -four, corn, bacon, and even of late
for hay, upon which to subsist our peo-
pie and their stock. In addition to
these expenditures, we have to buy our
clothes, furniture, stock, wagons, bug
gies and farming implements, &c, &C.,
from the North and West, when these
things could be made as we'll in our own
midst as elsewhere. In this article, how
ever, we will con6ne our observations to
field crops entirely, and hope our plan
ters will think Of the immense gratuity
they are bestowing upon foreigners by
their course. We are paying the West
ern producers of provisions q profit
upon their labor, we pay the long
lines of railroad over which we haul
these things a profit for their trans
portation, and we pay two or three sets
of merchants profit for buying and
selling these supplies, besides warehouse
and drayage charges. All of these items
should be made at home, and the profit
divided between the landlord and the
laborer. The country can never attain
true and full prosperity while our grana-
ries are kept from six hundred to two
thousand miles away from home: We
may continue to make large cotton crops,
but as long as we have to buy everything
we use, our people will be but little
better than hewsrs of wood and drawers
of water for the food-producing sections
of the Union. The best proof that this
is true is the rapid development and very
great prosperity Of these regions. They
are filling up with population, and build
ing cities and great railroads upon the
money which they constantly draw from
our cotton crops. 1t has long been time
for our planters to see this, and remedy
the evil by 9 well-diversi6ed system of
planting, by which at least all of our
breadstufs and provender, and the
greater portion of our meats, shall be
raised at home.
In this diversi6cation of agriculture
we are anxious for the culture of tobacco
to become prominent feature, not only
to the extent of producing suficiency
to supply the consumption of our county,
but also for export. Until recent
visit to portions of the tobacco region of
North Carolina, we had no idea of the
possibilities of this crop, which is more
valuable than cotton to its producers,
and which may, to considerable extent,
be produced in connection with the cot
ton crop, the difficulty in its production
being principally curing after maturity.
The cultivation is easier than cotton, be-
cause the hoeing is not so difficult or
frequent, and hence one hand can culti-
yate more land in tobacco than in cotton.
The crop in this county could easily be
made worth from fifty to seventy dollars
per acre, at an expense of not more than
twenty dollars for labor, fertilizing and
marketing, giving net income of from
thirty TO fifty dollars to the acre, which