The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-05-05
OUR NEGLECTED RESOURCES.
NUMBER SIX.

1t is written that man shall not
live by bread aion@ therefore he
must necessarily have meat. Either
fish, fowl, beef, or hog meat must be
eaten. All of them cost labor, for it
is also written that by the sweat of
your brow you shall earn bread.
Now, of all meat products to the
southeraer the hog is the most valua-
able for food, because he is easily
cured, and can be kept for long
while in an eatable state. Hogs grow
splendidly in that climate, and the
meat can be grown in a few months
on very cheap food, consequently, it
does seem that every man in the south
ought to have an ample supply, and
would have, were he not so careless
and Indifferent to his best interest.
He is paying, and has paid for years,
from twelve to twenty-five cents
pound for a crop that he can easily
raise for five. Where is the economy
or good business sense in any man do
ng such thing? Yet each one of you
see it constantly done. Now it is
fact that any man among you can
grow hogs without an ear of corn. 1t
is a fact that they will do better on
peas than they will on corn. 1t is
fact that pigs at five months old can be
made to weigh one hundred pounds
net and never have single grain of
corn. 1t is fact that much of your
land will raise elegant peas when it
is not good for any thing else on earth.
Then why not raise the peas, make
the meat and keep your money at
home? Why not? Peas are sure
crop every year. Pigs are sure crop
every year. Peas can be raised with
very little labor, the pigs with none.
Why then do you worship cotton?
But some one will tell me that the
hogs will die with cholera some years.
So will drought, the bowl>worm and
frost kill cotton. Only last year you
did not have half,stand of cotton.
You can control cholera in hogs if
you will only use scientific methods.
They are cured by your northern
brethren. Why can't they be by
you? But, you say, if everybody
raises hogs meat will be worth moth
ing False statement this. Forty
thousand hogs are slaughtered in Chi.
cago, alone, every month in the year.
How many can the West Tennessee
farmers raise? They are always a
good price in Chicago, Cincinnati, st.
Louis, Buffalo and other cities; and
why should they not be in Memphis,
jackson and New Orleans ? I In mod.
ern times it is no longer necessary to
have cold weather in which to save
meat. The Chicago pork packer
puts up just as good meat in Jnly and
August as he does in December and
January, and when you farmers will
raise the meat, they will do the same
thing in Memphis, Jackson and New
Orleans. If you are not dead to ar.
glment you will see that you can get
money from meat as we'll as from
cotton.
Hog meat is very profitable crop.
/ know a northern man who has
eighty acres of land in cultivation.
He and his two sous work it all. He
sells one thousand dollars worth of
meat in the Chicago market every
six months. This is clear profit. He
makes enough off his butter, chick.
ems, calves and app les 10 feed and
clothe his family and pay his taxes.
Is any cotton man with twenty five
hands and three hundred acres of cot.
ton land in West tennessee making
that sum of money? This farm er il
only one in thousand who is doing
the same thing. They aies al over
Iowa, Northern Missouri and the
states of Illinois. Indiana and Ohio.
They live in comfortable hemes, ride
in nice carriages and wear good clothes
They 60 to the theatre, pat theil
hor,a., M, OF Tic E,rnr,r cfnl,ln nnL 10