The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-02-11

} Need of HONS Market for Farmers.
The Manufacturers Record haI
labored long and earnestly to i'm.
press upon the south:
L. That the south, as a whole
can never be prosperous until its
farmers are prosperous.
2. That southern farmers, as q
class, can never be prosperous until
they have home market for all the
diversified products of farm.
3. That this home market can
only be secured by the develop
ment of extensive manufacturing
and mining interests throughout
the south, and that it is impossible
to do this without protective tariff.
| The first proposition admits Of no
| discussion. 1t is a self-eyident fact.
There is hardly more room for dis
cussion of the second. The south
ern farmer is advised day after day
and year after year to diversity his
products raise less cotton and
more of other produce. To GER
tain extent, this advice is very
good. There are, Of course, many
farmers who would improve their
condition by raising their own food
stuffs, but even a change in that di-
rectien would not lift up and i'm
prove the whole farming interests
of the south. To make prosperous
the agricultural interests of that
section, as well as of any other,
there must be even a wider diversi-
ty of productions than cotton, corn
and hogs. These are the staples,
but it is hardly sosmuch the staple
products that bring prosperity as
it is the diversified products of
farm. The southern farmer must
have a home market for his poultry,
eggs, butter, milk, fruits, vegeta
bles, &c. In the production of these
he would find great profit if there
were q good home market for them.
At present he has little-or no mar
ket for these very important artic-
les. 1t is true that here and there
some demand is found for them,
and in the neighborhood of the
larger southern cities and manufac-
turing centers there is q growing
demand for all such productions;
but hoE small is this demand as
compared with the almost limitless
capabilities of che south in the pro
duction of such things! Almost
nine out of ten southern farmers
would simply be wasting time and
energy to raise fruits, vegetables
and poultry in the hope of finding a
profitable home market and so they
must of necessity, willingly or un-
willingly, continue to raise cotton,
SIS that is crop that can always |
be turned into money. A home
market can only be secured through |
the development OF manufacturing
and mining, which would furnish |
employment to consumers of agri |
cultural loducts-the south hav-
ing already far too many producers
of such products as compared with |
the total population. What revo |
luton would be seen if every south
ern farmer could readily sell, at re
numeratlve prices, every crate of
fruits or vegetables he could pro-
duce, every pound of butter be
could make and all the poultry be |
could raisel Instead of poverty
would be seen riches. and the south |
would become as it ought to be-
the garden spot of the world. 1t is |
THIS ability to sell everything that
they can raise that has made the /
northern farmers rich. Tcavel |
through Pennsylvania and you see
on every side evidence Of great ag /
ricultural prosperity. The land is
naturally no better than that of the
south; the climate does not begin
to compare with that of the genial
sunny south, and the farmers are
only more enterprising because
they have more Inducements to be
so. Give the sout hern farmers the
same opportunities possessed by
Pennsylvania farmers, in having a
good home market, and they, too,
would display the same energy and
enterprise The last census tells
US that the value Of Pennsylvania's
manufactures was greater than the
combined value of the manufactures
OF the whole south, or in other
words, every man ufaeturiDg enter
prise located in the fourteen south
ern states in 1850, il crowded into
one state as large as Pennsylvania,
would not make that state near as
much of q manufacturing area as
was at that time. 1t
is this enormous concentration of |
industrial interests that enables
farmers to grow rich.