The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-03-22

A correspondent OF the new YORK Cun, VINO
thinks thereis too much attention paidto raising
Gotten in the South, says;
What the white people Of the South need 10
= little more sense. They ought 10 quit raising
cotton and raise what they want 10 eat, and then
eat Il, and not Toll twelve months to make coston
70 buy the meat and bread which they themselves
can produce The farmers of the South have,
for the last fifteen years. made cotton to purchase
all that they use untlit has brought them to the
verge of ruin. While II has enriched the mer-
chant aud those who live in cities, il has made
them poor indeed. To giveyour readers an idea
Of how farming is conducted down South, will
make q comparison Of the profits Of cotton and
corn raising, taking the river bottom OF the Mis-
sissippi The labor of q first-rate working man
who win put in all shiss time in making cotton
will be 1000 pounds Of cotton (the Average OF
the South d less than 1900 poundsA worth now
say $50, leaving him as his profits for his cotton
$3.50, and 200 bushels of corn, yielding profit
Of 500, in all e450 for the years work. To do
this will require his whole time, leaving no time
to produce what be eats The same labor APP
piled to raising corn with the improved tools
now in use viii produce on an average 1000
bushels Of corn, worth here now seventy-nve
cents per bushel, and If shipped to Orleans will
net to the producer fifty cents per bushel or
81 ,000 Besides the corn can be sown peas at
the last blowing, which will pay to fatten hogs
same farmer can take care of and feed 200 head
of sheep, which will pay $500 more. The trouble
with the South is disease called cotton on the
BRAIN If they will quit that then all will be
lovely and quiet along the South"
There is, says the Courier JouraI, great deal
of truth in these observations. Sheep husbaudry
in the Southern States will pay as well as cotton,
and 1t will not take as much capital as cotton.
There are better grasses for sheep in the South
than in the North, and in many of the States
there is little winter feeding to be done, as
Bermuda grass furnishes pasturage the entire
year. Wire grass also furnishes pasturags
throughout the year, which fully sustains the
sheep and keeps them in good condition. In the
| States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor-
| gia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas Ten
nessee and Mississippi there is an area of 1852,
| 269 440 acres OF land, and the number of
sheep is reported TO be only about 5000 1000, or
about one sheep to every ninety acres. In Ohio
there is sheep for every seven acres of land
These figures show the vast field for sheep hus-
bandry in the South outside the State of Texas,
and emitting Kentucky, recognized as first
class sheep-husbandry State. Testimony re-
ceived at the Agricultural Bureau from sheep
|
pays from ninety to 100 per cent and more on
the investment. Sheep-husbandry, united with
cotton and corn growing, will undoubtedly prove
far more remuncrative than exclusive cotton
culture.
Immigrants should be made acquainted with
such facts as these. In Kentucky farmers make
from 800 to $400 an acre planting The Burlcy
tobacco, and our climate is infinitely preferable
TO that of the Northwest, whittier so many for
eigners go TO contend with billiards. and grass
hoppers
We are satisfied that in a few years the attrac
lions OF the South, climatic, agricultural ant
pastoral, will divert a large percentage of the
immigration thither
The Townsville Times in an excellent arti
Gle upon the folly of the cotton growers in pro
ducing cotton exclusively, reproduces the follow
ing from the New York Ecening Post concerning
the over-product of the present season:
We were enabled to state on the 7th of Feb
ruarv that the crop might reach g. $50 900 bales
This estimate was considered ex,ravagant; nev
ertheless recent developments point TO still
higher figure. Present indications should pre-
pare all interested in the article for the proba
bity of a final yield of $500 to $4,000
bales. On the 7th of February W
showed that even crop of 100000 bales woul
leave a surplus everywhere of 1000 bales {
actual weight, or 670, 900 bales of 400 pounds
"Everywhere" is to be understood as referring +
this country and to Europe, visible and invisible
and "sprnlns as mean inn excess of aupn1y Rgf
back but may it not be fairly assumed that III
surplus will grow TO 10000 10 100000 bales"
! And the Times APPLY says: Think of farmer
e madly producing surplus of six or eight hur
l., dred thousand bales, thereby breaking down til
! price Of the staple which cost them so much tim
! and labor TO produce. And what is worse is III
fact that the whole country is treading in tn
same pathway this year. If the season is favol
, able it would not be surprising to see seven mil
lion bales of cotton produced this year. Wher
do you suppose prices would then go2 Dewr
down, down 1t is not too late for the farmer
of Southern Georgia to pause; they have no
wholly pitched their crops for this year. w
appeal to the sensible farmers of Southern Geor
gia to look well to full provision crop w
learn from good authority that not less thai
tscenty.fUe thousand dollars was paid out b.
Thomas county farmers alone for corn last year
, This course, il persisted in, will bankrupt an,
} people on earth. To people who are not sell
supporting q large, low priced cotton crop and
small and high priced provision crop mean ruin
Will the farmers study these facts2"
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