The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-08-25
government; 4cr its losses charged to
TIE REMEDY.

Without ignoring, OF think under
;:%;ti2g. The effect OF fnancla. Legislation,
&i:;,eH Ect,erai CT STATE, upon our ag1-
v,:..urt. an OF those WHO find that the
c.G"f cause ct its present depression IS
t:.a 5<;.;,!;;s:; aystem upon which it IS d.
rattci: Cf this system 1t li&s been said
that :: looks 10 sending abroad every
ting ti;gt We ,,rodpce, and bringing
back every y,l.ing that We consume. That
VIII il nome commerce IS nothing; eX-
ports and imports everything. That
wherever cur capital finds investment
o;;ts;t!c the :aln, It is IN railroads made
necessary by this system. and whose cb-
vious interest, iying in securing the
Longest haul OF tie largest freight, is TO
intensity it. ;:l,l finally that under it
Tic producer is given over 70 tie rule OF
that class OF business people vino are
occupied mere. %ith the distribution OF
the 1rolucts OF labor, adding value to
f. en- only 10y change OF place, and that
the merchant ant, the transporter have Il
all their own way in apportioninS the
avails. This may be too trenchant crltl-
cisn1, but we are compelled to admit that
there has been much force IN it IN the
past; that there is too much force il it
now: and, until It substantially ceases to
apply to our methods, l can see no add
ing prosperity for us. We are too ex-
clusively devoted to agriculture, and our
agriculture IS confined to too limited
range OF production. The standing in
junction OF the agricultural journals,
s'Neep the boys on the farm" IS based
upon fallacy. 1t should be, "Send a
ftlll proportion Of them from the farm.
Put them to developing the resources of
our forests and mines; send them to the
trades and occupations which will supply
ct home what we buy from abroad.
Build up manufactures of any and
everything for which there is demand.
Invite capital to embark upon these III
dustries By favoring legislation. Thus
increase the class of profitable consuE-
erS. and make fer the farmer that home
market. which IS for him the best Of all
markets, and without which he cannot
diversity to its most profitable extent the
products Of his farm. The markets
abroad, the farmer finds the circle of
competition widening as he goes, and he
is handicapped with frcights to On extent
that confines his shipments to special
AID not always his most profitable crops.
With us the LIST for expectation embraces
for the larger part of the State but a
single item, cotton. Rice takes the place
of cotton in small section, and there is
some talk OF introducing tobacco as an
additional so-called money crop. But
what we want are the consumers to take,
and the crops to be sold, in the home
market. Fresh meats, the products OF
the dairy, fruits, vegetables, live stock
ace transported with difficulty and at
an expense which limits the distance to
which they can be sent, yet it is in the
production Of the most perishable of
these that the farmeetinds the most re-
n,unerative resultsof his labor and the
largest increase in the value of his land.
An acre devoted to market gardening,
near a city, viii rent annually for what
will buy the fee simple to five acres de-
voted = this State to cotton; and when
live stock is The object (the least protita
bic Of tAe products enumerated, because
the least perishable and the easiest trans
ported to distant markets) a Kentucky
bluegrass farm viii rent or sell for three
times as much per acre as cotton plan
tation.
Without going further into these gen.
eral considerations 1t does seem to me
that the progress we have made since the
devastation OF the late war has been, not
because of, but despite the system upon
which we have worked; that the depres-
sion we are laboring under is the lesiti-
mate consequence of that system; and
that-as long as we adhere to it we will
continue to have our periods of elation
and free expenditure when the price Of
our single money crop, from causes
which we do not control, is up; and our
periods OF dependency over cramped
resources, when it IS down. We cannot,
it is true, escape The vicissitudes Of sea-
sons, nor evade the primal curse; but we
must no longer look so exclusively to
foreign markets, nor IN any any market
suspend our fate upon single hair. We
must, by diversifying the pursuits of
our people, enlarge the home market,
that alone fully repays the farmers
labor, and IN ordering that upon the
farn, we must recognize the law of
chances, which is as rigid as any other
imposed upon nature. Like the insur-
ance men, We must spread our ventures
over a broad surface to hope to realize a
reasonably certain profit.
AGRICULTURAL CAPABnITY OF THE STATE.
Circumstances sometimes forbid a
mixed husbandry and compel adherence
f. the one crop system, but in no section
of this State do such limitations exist.
In the coast region, beside the valuable
crops Of rice and sea island cotton, easy
access to large centres of population
make market gardening more or less
practicable on every farm, and the
natural perennial pasturage Of cheap,
unimproved highlands and swamp, COM
bined with d climate requiring no winter
shelter for stock, gives opportunities un-
surpassed even on the Western plains
for the addition OF pastoral farming. in
the middle section Of the State, between
tide-water and the falls of the rivers, and
in that part OF it which more especially
constitutes the cotton belt, on almost
any one plantation may be grown each
Southern staple that is planted, and all
of the cereals. The soil seems specially
adapted to root crops; garden vegeta-
bles and fruits Go well. The soil,
sandy Ioam, IS not SO well adapted to
the usually cultivated grasses, but valua-
be natural grasses are found, and the
Bermuda IS naturalized. For a pasture