Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-02
Southern Farmers.

In the course Of a speech IN the Senate
. last Friday. on the proposition 10 appro'
priptA $500. 600 to the Central and south
American mail service, Senator Brown
took occasion to call attention to the fact
: that Southern farmers were paying too
much attention to the production Of cot
ton. and too little to the production Of
f,od crops. The position OF the Senator
relative TO this important mat
ter is the same as that
which has been occupied by the press of
the South tor several years. the MORN
ING NEWS especially has made II a point
TO urae upon the farmers the Importance
Of planting less cotton and more corn.
oats. potatoes and other food crops. They
ought 10 give particular attention to
/ grasses and to the raising Of stock.
! 1t is impossible for Southern farmers TO
{ get ahead in the world as long as they buy
all that is needed for their stock, the n
/ field hands and their families. There are
very few of them who follow the all-cot-
ton system OF farming who do not find
/ themselves in debt at the end OF the year
| On last Thursday great convention Of
/ farmers met at Columbia, S. c. The pur-
/ pose OF the convention was to give the
! farmers of that State an opportunity to
! consult together With the view OF seeing
it it we're not possible to find some way
/ by which they could secure greater
prosperity. They are struggling under
load OF debt and they do not
see any prospect OF improving their con.
diti0n that is at all encOura Sing. When
they have good cotton crops the price OF
cutton is not remunerative, and when the
price Of cotton is good the crop ia gener-
ally short. AS rule, when their fertl-
izers are paid for and their farm and
family expenses settled there isn't any
surplus-in fact, there is generally
deficit.
o. course this sort of thing cannot con-
tinue. Disaster must come eventually.
Debts increase rapidly and the interest
which farmers have to pay on mortgages
quickly eats up the farms. Farmers who
pay almost exclusive attention to
c Itton do not seem to real
lie that they pay 90 per cent.
more for their corn, hay and bacon than
it would cost them to produce thes
things at home, even though they
cannot produce them as cheaply as the
farmers Of the West can. The continued
production of cotton exhausts the land,
and itrequires all the profit on the cotton
to purchase fertilizers, leaving little, or
nothing, for other expenses.
Cotton farmers, like truck farmers,
think every year that the failure of the
special crops the previous year to
prove remInerative will drive many
farmers into diversified farming, and that
it is wise thing for them, therefore. to
stick to the special crops, and thus reap
a harvest from big prices. The fact that
they always meet with disappointment
does not appear to discourage them.
1t is. doubtless, true that many farmers
continue the-one crop system from a want
of knowledge OF any other method of
farming. They have lost their slaves
but stick to the slave system becau Sc
they don't know how to get rid OF it. Mr..
Tilman, in his opening address at the
Columbia convention, said something of
this sort, and limited that good agrlcul-
tural college in South Carolina would dis
seminate in formation that would be vastly
beneficial to farmers.
There Is no DOUBT that an agricultural
college, under the right kind of manage
ment, is a good thing. Ii sets farmers to
thinking, and men who think are apt to
get out of the ruts.
Senator Brown points ont that the
South is entering upon great industrial
period. Tue time Is not distant when the
South will spin large part Of the cotton
which her fields produce, and her mines
and mills will supply the iron and steel
needed for her railroads. Busy popula-
tions will cluster about mills, mines and
factories, and the Southern farmers
ought TO be ready to meet the demand Tor
food supplies which will be made upon
them. Southern farmers have no occasion
to feel discouraged. Let them produce
what they eat and what their stock eats
and they will at once stop the mortgages
from eating up their farms.