The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-08-26
culture, and our agriculture is confined
to too limited range of production.

farm" is based upon fallacy. It should
be, "send full 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 at home what we buy from
abroad. Build up manufactures of any
and everything for which there is demand.
Invite capital to embark upon these in.
dustries by favoring legislation. Thus
increase the class of profitable consumers,
and make for 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. In markets abroad,
the farmer finds the circle of competition
widening as he goes, and he is haudi.
capped with freights to an extent that
confines his shipments to special and
not always his most profitable crops.
With US The list for expectation embraces
for the larger part of the State but sim
gle item, cotton. Rice takes the place Of
cotton in small section, and there is
some talk of introducing tobacco as IN
additional so.called money crop. But
what we want are the consumers to take,
aud the crops to be sold in the. home
market. Fresh meats, the products Of
the dairy, fruits, vegetables, live stock
are transported with difficulty and at
an expense which limits the distance 10
which they can be sent, yet it is in the
production of the most perishable Of
these that the farmer finds the most
remunerative results of his labor aud the
largest in the value of his land. An acre
devoted to market gardening, near city,
will rent annually for what will buy the
fee simple to five acres devoted in this
State to cotton; and when live stock lis
the object the least profitable of the
products enumerated, because the least
perishable and the easiest transported to-
distant markets Kentucky blue grass
farm will rent or sell for three times all
much per acre rs cotton plantation.
Without going further into these gen.
eral considerations it 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 legiti.
mate consequence of that system and
that as long as we adhere 10 tive 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 despondency over cramped resources,
when it is down. We cannot, it is true,
escape the vicissitudes of seasons, nor
evadc the primal curse; but we must no
longer look SO exclusively to foreign.
markets, nor in any market suspend our
fate upon single hair. We must. by
the pursuits of our people,
enlarge the home market, that alone
fully repays the farmers labor, and in
ordering that labor upon the farm We
must recognize the law of chances, which:
is as rigid as any other imposed upon
nature. Like the insurance men, we
must spread our ventures over a broad
surface to hope to realize reasonably
certain profit.
AGRICULTURAL cAPABILITY OF THE
STATE.
Circumstances sometimes forbid q
mixed husbandry aud compel adherence
to 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 natu-
raj perennial pasturage of cheap unim.
proved highlands and swamp, combined
with climate requiring no Winter shell
ter for stock, gives opportunities unsur.
passed 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 he grown each
Southern staple that is planted, and all
of the cereals. The soil seems specially
adapted to root crops, garden vegetables,
and fruits do we'll. The soil, a sandy
loan, is not.so we'll adaptad to the usual.
ly cultivated grasses, but valuable natural
grasses are found, and the Bermuda is
naturalized. For pasture grass the
latter is unequalled on such lands, and
DR.. Ravenels experiments have shown
that, highly fertilized, it may also be cut
for hay with extraordinary results. There
is no question of the success of the
Means grass for hay under similar cir.
cumstances. The various soiling crops
are, however, grown with such facility in
this region that, under the system of
preserving by ensilage, the necessity of
hay from meadows for home use is done
away with. Going above the falls of the
rivers, from thence to the mountains,
everywhere are to be found plantations
with bottom land enough for hay and
corn,- level land enough for small grain
and cotfon,- broken hillsides, once
fertile but now less fe1nHseeeTatiye under
the plough, yet producing good natural
pasturage and capable of being brought,
under the hoof Of the sheep, to the high
est condition of grass production. The
soil and climate of this part Of the State
are naturally adapted to all the grasses
that are cultivated. In situations away
from water courses, land they are few
where aluvial lands sufficient for meadow
are not found, the general character of
the country remains the same, and, as in
the middle region, ensilage may supple
meut any deficiency in hay product.
Such arc the varied agricultural capa.
bilities Of our State, and the exhibit is
under rather than overstated. 1t is only
because of the exclusive attention given
to cotton that the impression ever could
have obtained that the cereals and grasses
were not suited to our surroundings.
The crop of corn grown by Dr. Parker,
near Columbia, and the crop of oats of
Col. Wylie, at Lancaster, remain respec.
lively the largest on record, the corn crop
reaching 200 bushels and the oats. crop
181 bushels per acre. DR.. RavenePs
crop of Bermuda hay near Charleston
was ten thousand pounds to the acre,
exceeding more than fourfold the
average crop of the United States. MIR.
Childs, within five miles of where we are
sitting, pro6tably grows and sells with
the Means grass $4,000 worth of hay
per apnum. Col. Rion's growth of
lucerne in Fairfield yielded ten cuttings
in the season, and by actual measurement
twenty-five feet of growth. The Egyp-
tiau millet, a luxuriant and valuable
forage plant, is cut from six to seven