The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-07-13
Pulaski as a Market.

Pulaski as a Market.
Pulaski has long had the reputa
tion of being one of the best cottol
markets in the country. Gle
county has paid dearly for it. On
farmers have been spurred by thi
fact TO planting more cotton and tn,
result is seen and felt in the de
creased fertility of our lands. Thii
fact came forcibly to our notice last
week in going through Maury
Marshall and Lincoln countless
Along the line of the new marrow
gauge the lands are fresh and strong
and the corn looks black and rank
Until recently those people did not
ship of their produce very largely
and the result is their lands are un-
impaired. Coming over upon the
line of the old railroad the least
practiced eye can detect the differ
ence. Our farmers search the soil
for its last element of strength and
ship it off in produce. Cotton is
the rule and cotton has done most
of the damage We found at Fay
etteville that the principal export is
wheat, and that town was alive and
swarming with wheat wagons and
eager buyers. -Four or five very
large grain houses do an immense
business and it is estimated that
Lincoln will furnish one million of
the twenty millions Of bushels pro
duced in Tennessee. Their lands
do not show it like ours. Their
farming system differs from ours
also. Men own the lands they work,
as a rule, and there are few of the
500, 800 and 1000 acre farms that
are common in Giles county,
Fayetteville is built very largely of
neat, small cottages owned by the
poorer men, and if they have to rent
they are not compelled to pay the
value of the house for the privilege
of living in it one year. The people
are in easier circumstances and the
lands in better trim and instead of
waxing weak in strength and wasted
by careless tenants, they are pre-
served and made to yield proftably
every year.
The people of Lincoln have better
roads and can get to market with
their produce more easily. In Giles
when man brings a heavy load to
market the chances are that the pro
ceeds will have to be spent in mend
ing his wagon. We believe that
we are about to be relieved as to
the roads, and we ought to find re-
lief as to our lands and crops. We
are not undertaking Giles, for she
more than makes up in other
matters for what she tails behind in
these; but she ought not to fall be-
hind here. Farmers must learn to
plant more grain and grasses, raise
more stock and pillow deeper, and let
cotton alone. 1t is a fact undis-
puted and apparent that our lands
are going to waste rapidly-not so
badly yet but that they may be re-
claimed, but the tendency is to
barrenness and if we do not change
our system we will wake up some
morning to find our once rich and
fertile country bald patches OF clay
streaked with yawning gullies. To
change the system and abolish
cotton will pay better now, besides
preserving and restoring our lands.
The condition of Lincoln county and
Fayetteville prove this assertion.
We believe that the change is
coming soon. The first step is good
roads, and they are coming in Giles.
The large wheat yield will also
stimulate the movement. The i'm
migration movement now in its
infancy is bound to cut up our large
farms and the poorer men are strug-
Cling hard to get homes of their
own. Besides these, the fact stares
us in the face in all it's CHASTITY re
atty that our lands are running
down and farmers realize the i'm
portance and absolute necessity of a
change. 1t can be easily made and
the metemorphosis could be equiva-
lent to opening rich mine in each
district. ..
QUIT CoTToNi
Then when farms are owned by
those who work them and deeper
blowing and horizontal culture are
understood and practiced, and better
roads afford shipping facilities, and
grasses and grain are substituted,
we will see our soil soon put back
in its original state when it was as
fine and deep and rich as there was
in the whole country. If these
thoughts, hurriedly written, operated
remotely to awaken the people and
inaugurate an agricultural reform
they will not be in vain. We know
we are hitting close about tremen
dOus truth.