Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-06-05
GO SOUTH, YOUNG MAN.
The Scenes Have Changed, and Gree
ley's Advice Must Change
With Them.

Horace Greeley's famous advice to
young men has lost its efficacy in
great measure, says the New York
Star. The time has passed when
young men could get rich, smooth
and beautiful quarter-section of land
simply by "squatting" thereon. The
great English cattle companies and the
immense immigration OF homeseekers
from every country in Europe have
ended all that. So the old song that
"UncIe Sam is rich enough to buy us
all farm" is almost meaningless. The
fertile land of the prairie States have
all been taken by people from the East
and from Europe; while the partly
mountainous and partly desert lands
of the Rocky Mountain region have
been fenced in and absorbed by opu.
lent and powerful cattle companies,
mining companies and wheat kings,
until there is poor opportunity for
young men of small means to acquire
homes upon the public domain.
Even if it were possible still for poor
men to find vacant prairie land west
Of the Mississippi it would be almost
impossible for them to make homes
upon them. When the bleak winters
are considered, the lack Of fuel, the
difficulty of obtaining water, the dis
lance from market and the necessity of
expensive buildings and farm machin.
cry incident to prairie farming, these
make formidable total to a man with
small means and with perhaps young
and large family dependent upon him.
A habitable dwelling is absolutely
necessary on bleak prairies; coal or
wood, for fuel has to be bought at high
prices; while it is generally necessary
to dig well rs to 1e0 feet deep before
water can be obtained for the use of the
family and the cattle. In timbered
country all this is unneeded; material
for building is virtually costless; the
trees cut from the site of your log house
are generally sufficient to build it. As
for water, there are few places in a
timbered country where there are not
either springs or streams of pure, cold
water, while fuel lies going to waste on
every hand. For poor man, then,
the timbered lands of the Southern
States are vastly more desirable than
any in the treesless, waterless and ex-
posed plains of the far West.
Avoid the deadly blizzard in select>
ing home. Anybody who has ever
seen the thermometer drop down to
sixty below zero, and has heard the
sinister and terrible roar of the north
west wind, will concur with the person
who writes these lines in the opinion
that winter in the Sunny South is fal
too enticing contrast to be resisted
Then, too, the comfort to be extracted
from an open fireplace wood fire during
the long winter evenings is worth con-
sideration. If a poor man has team
of horses or oxen, a cow or two, and q
few pigs, he does not need to buy hay
in the South by the ton to keep then
alive. If he gives them a little corr
they will find such fodder as they neeC
in the timber, where the heavy coat O
fallen leaves covers an ample supply o
grass.
The Southern States are well water
ed with navigable streams. 1t is {
common remark in the South tina
wherever the ground is little dam!
they run a steamboat" And wherever
steamboat can sail, freight rates arr
inevitably low, while the farmer Cal
sell every available product of the
farm, and of the pasture and fores
even, to good advantage. The winter
months may proftably be passed il
the woods in getting out sawlogs
shingles, slaves, rails, wagon timber
fence posts, etc. SO an income is at al
times available to the man who settle
in timbered country, whether he ha
means to afford team, wagon and ex
pensive implements or not. On thu
contrary, the poor settler in a prairie
country is obliged to buy expensive
plows, reapers, corn planters and cul
tivators, threshing machines, etc.
entailing great OUTLAWS of money befor'
he can be ready to till his rich prairie
farm. Then, too, when there is nj
other employment save that of agricul
tural labor in any given region, Their
are sure to be times when money vii
be scarce and many men idle. 1t i
much better for poor men seeking
homes in new country, therefore, t
settle in timbered country.
In prairie State it seldom happen
that minerals are discovered near b,
fertile farming lands; in most of tn
mining regions Of the far West tn
adjoining lands are dry, sterile an
unsuitable for agriculture.
The mountain regions Of the South
ern States, however, are, on the cor
trary, suitable both for farmingand tn