The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-03-27

wishes entirely, the President of the
Association issues the following ad-
dress
To the Farmers of South Carolina
. / believe that the lively interest
manifested by you for the past two
years in the press, in public meetings,
in the by-ways, at home and abroad,
and in three State Conventions held in
Columbia, attended with loss of time,
and considerable expenditure of
means, which many could i'll afford,
meant more than a capriciousness of
purpose.
The first of these conventions con-
sidered many things.
The second, more clearly perceiving
our necessities, narrowed it's delibera-
tions materially, specially recommend
ing a'separate agricultural college, the
establishment of an experimental Sta
tion with the said college, that the
board of agriculture should be di-
vorced as far as possible from politics,
and its members chosen by the Farm
ers' Association, and that the law or
ganizing the board should be so
amended as to increase it's members
from FIVE to ten, with the power of
electing it's. own secretary. The last
convention, held after the laps of
twenty months from the first, and
after the recommendation emanating
from the second had been earnestly
discussed, both publicly and privately,
unanimously closed its session by af-
firming the above recommendations,
although, before the vote was ordered,
an earnest exempli6cation had been
made them of the plan afterwards fol-
lowed by the Legislature. .
It is for you to say whether or no
your wishes have been met. Instead
of one strong, we'll equipped expert
ment station, in connection with the
agricultural college, we have three
weak ones, at which large per cent.
of their income will be annually ex-
pended in "duplicated officers. In
stead of a real agricultural college,
separate and apart from the influences
of the South Carolina College, where
it was hoped boys would not only be
educated and trained in the mysteries
of successful agriculture, and made
acquainted with the powerful levers
of progressive farming, but where the
allurements and inspirations of farm
life would be constantly instilled into
their minds, and from which we might
hope to have fair percentage of them
return to the avocation of their faith
ers, we have an enlargement of the
annex only. Instead of board of
agriculture, reorganized on the plan
outlined by your convention, the leg
islature has enlarged the present
board, denying it the power to select
it's own secretary, thus fatally Gripping
it's efficiency. '
Without claiming that all wisdom
is with the farmers, it appears to me,
as l feel it must to you, that in these
matters affecting us and our interests,
first and foremost, our judgment and
wishes should have been concurred in,
not in the grudging and halfway
manner in which we have been recog-
nized, but cheerfully and heartily.
The more so when the enactment of
these measures into laws would have
little or no additional tax, as
their maintenance would have chiefly
come from money now appropriated
by law for similar but unsatisfactory
use. Congress has given to the
farmers of South Carolina, in COM
mon with those of other States,
$4,000, and has secured to us be-
sides $1l, 500, both sums to be paid
annually. Besides this, the farmers
of the State are paying about $685.
600, years inspection fees on fertil- |
izers, to furnish a fund to be used in
their iterest and for their protection:
Who gainsays their right to say
how this $51, 900 should be expended,
Or who was so bold as to deny that
It would not be expended as it should |
be ? 1t is largely through your labor
hat the State has collected its taxes
during the five years Immediately fol
owing our redemption from Radical
rule, not counting the above annual
AK on fertilizers, nor the constantly in
,reasing income from phosphate royal
les, the poll tax, the ordinary and spe.
;ial county tax, nor the constitutional
,wo mill school tax, from which sources