Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-08-29
Notes From the South.

Liz AhlSllCdh ASllCullullol VI
New York, has had staff correspon-
dent in the South for some months
past. We reproduce below one of
his letters, which shows the stamp of
honest conviction throughout, but
the correspondent makes Uncommon
mistake of all Northerners who come
South to write us up, i. e., visits one
or two sections and judges all the
balance Of the country by those visi-
ted. The reference made in the fol-
lowing letter to the plows used, shows
how much this correspondent has
yet to learn of the South. One can
get but meagre idea of the South as
whole by spending few months in
the mountainous regions of North
Carolina. If this correspondent will
make trip through Middle Tennes-
see he will doubtless be most agreea-
bly, surprised at the amount of i'm
proved farming machinery he will
find in use. Here is his letter:
The South is practically an I'M
known country to northern and west
ern farmers. The West has been so
much talked of and written about,
that everyone knows pretty much all
about it. But little has been said
about the South, and that little by
persons who have seen it from the
car windows, and have taken very
superficial views of what they have
seen. The southern country has
been represented as a barren wilder
ness, interspersed with here and
there cotton plantation, or tobac-
co patch, among which wretched
farmers, or their negro help, mean
dered behind a starved mule and a
bull-tOngue pillow. Such scenes may
be found, no doubt. Just as equally
repulsive ones may be found in any
part of the country, where poverty
and wretchedness exist, always in
combination with ignorance and lazi-
ness. The South has, moreover, been
held out to be country filled with
people, who spent their timeshOOting
and killing each other, and especial
ly lying wait for strangers from
the North, who are at once pounced
upon, and either driven out of the
country, or welcomed to hospitable
graves" as the saying goes. These
representations are utterly false and
misleading. No doubt, the southern
people are mostly poor, and some fal
from well educated, but they are rich
in land, and are especially DESTROYS o.
learning how to improve their condi
ton. They have been trained t.
grow cotton and tobacco for theil
chief crops, and to look upon gras!
as their greatest enemy; but they are
fast getting out of these old notions
They are the kindest, most hospita
BILE and friendly people one Cal
meet, vieing with the people of thu
far west in their good nature to stran
gers, and courteous and polite to {
degree and in this respect far aheaC
of what one finds generally in TIT
North. There are probably as many
homicides in the whole South in
year, as there are in New York o.
Chicago in month, and more pistol
are carried in those two cities thai
by all the Southern people, outside o
the frontier State of Texas, perhaps
/ have been invited-nay, gentl,
forced-into farmers house, whel
wet through with heavy rain in
ride of twenty miles, in which NJ
other habitation was met; my hors
stabbed and fed, and myself given tn
best bed in the house, with the mos
delicate and polite attention, and sup
per and breakfast, with no though
of any charge for theaccommodation
and a decided and polite refusal G
any pay. This is the common habi
of the native people.
THE RICH SOIL.
The soil everywhere produces tn
finest crops when adequate cultivs
ton is given. On June Is, corr
with broad, dark-green blades, stoo
four feet high in the fields here, an
single Boston curled lettuce wa
brought me by neighbor from hi
garden, which measured sixtee
inches in diameter, and forty-nin
inches around it. 1t was as tende
and succulent as if grown in a no
bed, and while it was the largest i
the bed, there were others coming o
that were nearly as large. Vegett
ton grows with amazing rapidly