The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-02-26
what Northern Aud Western DeIe.
gales rninG OF the Country and
People.


Your correspondent to-day inter
viewed several OF the leading dele
gates from tss Northwest, and found
all of them delighted with the coun-
try and the treatment they had re-
ceived. They displayed a freedom in
the expression OF their ideas which
could have come from nothing else
than an assured feeling that what
they had to say would be considered
dispassionately and without preju-
dice. In other words, they labored
under none Of that restraint which
would very probably have affected
them had they visited this section
five or six years sooner. The people
of Jackson, and those from the South
generally, who met them in the con-
vention are TO be congratulated upon
having given such true expression to
the generous hospitality for which the
South is famous, as to make the gen
tlemen from the far away and preju-
diced North and West feel at home
from the moment Of their arrival In
the dining room OF the hotel this
morning | was listener to
a conversation which illus
trates to what an extent my
remarks are true. Two West Tennes-
scans objected TO the speech made by
Col. Hilliard OF Louisiana last night,
on the ground that it pictured the
South in terms too glowing and were
weak enough to assert as their opin-
ion that the South was unfit for the
production Of anything else except its
present staples, that the farmers of
the West would starve to death with
their notions in the South, whose soil
was unfit for grain and grasses and
only good for cotton. They went on
at length to give their own and their
neighbors experiences, declaring that
every experiment had resulted in
financial loss. They persisted with
the tenacity Of agricultural crabs,
whose chief motion is backward, that
if grasses, grain, sheep, hogs, horses
and cattle had been profitable in the
South, cotton would have been aban-
doned long ago-that somebody would
have found it out. A couple OF tall
Wisconsin men, practical farmers and
educated, sensible men, who sat OPP
posite them, sat for few moments
with an expression Of amazement ON
their faces, and at hist unable to listen
any longer, opened their mouths
to defend the South from the as
sault two Southerners were max
ing upon it. They spoke warm
" and fortified their argument
with facts, making the Southern
detractors of the South heartily
ashamed of themselves before they
concluded.
/ had a short talk to-day with the
Hon. Clinton Babbitt, one of the vice.
presidents of the convention and
secretary Of the Wisconsin State
Agricultural Society. He occupies two
handsome apartments in the State
House at Madison, and is an important
figure in the State government. eyes,
we make business of this sort of
thing up our way" he said, "and have
got every thing down fine. The farmers
are learning the value of statistics and
how to apply them to more advantage
year after year. Deep interest is taken
in all agricultural assemblies. | have
just finished with one which was
largely attended, the deepest interest
being taken in the discussion, every
man hoping to get some new idea from
his neighbor, and striving to learn
rather than to set up his own precon-
ceived notions. 1t is a question of
money, not sentiment. Meetings like
the present will do the South a great
deal of good. / have been delighted
at the interest taken in the papers
read, especially those on grasses,
something OF which this country is
very much in need. am satisfied
variety OF grasses can be grown here
with profit, and with the result Of re.
storing the lands and preventing the
soil from wasting into gullies. The
South wants to plant grass first, and
then go ahead with other things.
This is my first visit South, and can
not tell you how pleasant my impress
sions have been of both people and
country. l freely acknowledge that,
like thousands in my part of the
country, have been laboring under a
cloud of misapprehensions. / am
Glad thew are removed"