The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1886-03-19
A WORD TO FOOLS AND TO FARMERS.

hand for planting the crop of 1856 vii
last years experience make any change:
for the better? Experience is dear
school, but fools will learn in no other
Now, | would ask, in the name of reason
and common sense, have We not been fools
long enough No farming community in
any age or any country ever got along and
did well who depended upon one product.
South America tried it with indigo and
failed. The cotton belt tried it with cot =
ton and failed, and the all cotton plan of
farming, if continued much longer will
eat up the plantation, dirt and all. A good
deal, Of late, is said and written about tho
incf6cicncy Of labor on the farm still the
farmers stick to cotton, which requires
more labor than anything we grow. Cot
ton will not do to eat. Labor follows meat
and bread, and when tho farmer makes
cotton to exchange for all the ncccssaries
of tho farm, which must be hauled thou
sand miles or more at his expense, and
often sold on time at one hundred per cent
over first cost, is it strange that the cotton
crop fails or is exhausted before all the
bills are paid We have a farmer in the
Republic of Columbia as plucky and cner-
gctic as can be found anywhere, who has
stuck to cotton through evil and good re-
port for seventeen ycars-he was strictly
an all, cotton man. Last year he made fif-
teen bales to the plow, but failed to pay
out by TWO or three thousand dollars, and
now offers his farm FOR sale. 1t is to be
hoped that some one will purchase who has
better farming sense to begin with.
Another ncighbor tried cotton for two
years aud declared that he got nothing but
the seed. lie did most of the work and
pulled through, until three or four years
ago he changed the schedule and began
making his own supplies. He is now able
to declare small dividends every year. All
that saved him during the cotton mania
it, 'cut close and squinched his thirst
Another farmer in an adjoining county
mortgagcd his farm to merchant to get
supplies, at Sc per acre. He was also
cotton man. In two years he ate up tho
farm besides all the cotton he could make,
aud was badly iu debt besides. spc,k of
these things to show how foolish it is for
the farmer to continue the all-cotton plan
of farming-which makes the credit sys
tenn necessity and then leaves him at the
mercy of the merchant, forgetting that
there is policy in war, but no friendship
in trading No legitimate business known
to civilized man can live to pay the credit
prices Tor meat and bread and almost every
thing used upon farm. Better rub out
and begin new, and, in case Of death, will
what we have to the merchant, and recon-
mend our families to mercy. In fact, no
man is exactly free wEo either bcgs or buys
his bread, and when bought at credit prices,
he is a slave indeed. 1t is not surprising
that our Southern farmers are slow to
catch on to the changed condition Of labor
The change was very great, but still the ne
gro as wage working people is the best
labor we can get What race Of white
people would work for thirty or forty cents
day, a peck Of meal and three pounds Of
meat week, and retire to his cabia at
night happy and contentcd, the year round.
If the farmers of Georgia would leave the
old rut this spring and plant plenty of
everything which can be raised on the
farm consumed by man or beast, and then
plant enough cotton to keep all hands ems
ploycd when not engaged with the provi-
sion crop; and then resolve that, all, both
white and black, wh0 are able 10 work,
must 90 at it and tick to it until the crop
is ma lc and gathered, it would almost raise
Georgia farmers from dead level to n liv-
ing perpendicular. | believe the old adage
is: "a wise man sometimes changes his
opinion. a fool never 1t would appear
that, after twenty years sad experience in
cotton, we might learn to be wise. 1t i.
confidently believed that cotton is now be.
low the cost of production, even for those
who can run The farm for cash, soil, labor
&C., considered | mean now the all-cottcn
men aud for those VIII" are trying it on
time farewell vain world.
[ Aid want to say few things ON the
subject of intensive farming, and although
my letter is long, will risk one or two