Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1886-03-20
diversity OF Crops.

Mr.. ED1ToR:-Will you give me the
space In your valuable paper to talk ALT
tie with our farmers on the Importance
of Il "diversity Of crops. !" There was Il
time with our farmers, that the want OF
a broal and general means of tranSpor-
tation, justified tile notion of making
the sweet potato crop Il specially, and l
might say an entirety of the money max
ing power of this peninsula, but now
that we have the great blessing and adj
vantages of railroad transportation,
ought we not to begin to look around
ourselves, and ask if agreater diversity
of crops will not yield to honest labor
moro money? Much indeed can be SAID
in regard to all The sections of Our coun-
try. rs well us the people living more re-
mote from us, that have met with ruin
GUS depression in their agricultural i'll
terests, 10y clinging too tenaciously to the
one crop idea. The vast md wealthy
island of Cuba, for instance, thirty years
AGO had almosta monopoly i'll sugar and
syrups, which was then thought. could
not by possibility be taken from her,
and their production excluded almost
every other industry, but to-day we find,
that The great nations ofwestern Europe
are not only producing from the beef
enough sugar for their own consump-
ton but are exporting their surplus by
the thousands of tons Ill over the world.
Their present, aud the prospect OF III
creased production, must III a very few
Years. demonstrate to the people of Gu
ba the fallacy of the "but one crop sys-
tem." Coming nearer home, let us con-
slider the ruinous consequences OF the
one crop system Of the cotton States be-
fore the war. Cotton WAS their main
and almost only crop, depending upon
other sections TO produce their corn,
wheat. bacon, besides innumcrable 9th
erarticles of subsistence and OF comfort
tile consequence of which was that The
great Northwestern States were built
ND. which afterwards became the
most powerful factors III the destruction
of their liberties and institutions. Nun
beers upon numbers of like lamentabe
consequences might be recounted, that
have befallen those people who have de-
pended specially, as an agricultural peo-
pie, upon one crop alone as a means Of
revenue.
Viewing the matterat our own homes
has not the fallacy Of the one crop-thc
sweet potato been proven of late years |
by the small returns and is not the query
pertinent, when willour farmers seek te
better their condition bya greater di-
Yersity OF crops? If we are to cling to
old ideas, what profit may we expect to
derive from the great blessing of certain
and speedy means of transportation,
that has been given us? What the need
Of IA r;lilrual if we are not to seek the
advantages to bederived from it2 Why
should we plant five acres i'll sweet po-
tatoes il they will not yield us as much
money as five acres OF Rutabaga turlllps,
when their cultivation will cost lis five
times as much? Let us plant sweet po-
tatoes, but much fewer of them. butt
us plant turnips. cabbage, kale. spinase,
musk-melons, in fact all the field and
garden trucks, and as large quantities
as we do sweet potatoes, and this being
done and equal attention being given to
them as las been TO the sweet potato, in
my opinion our farmers would have
more money for their labors. Let us
reason this matter together on amathe-
NAUTICAL basis in word let us use fig
urcs.
5 acres insweels 50 ,oOohills c.; each
S50000
< acrcs in Irish $50 per acre $4,000