The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-10


A correspondent Of the Monticello Times,
after giving good deal of thought to the
matter, has come to the conclusion that
there is but one remedy for the present con-
| dition Of the southern farmers and but one
practicable solution Of the Affection prob
lem. The remedy and the solution are one,
and he puts them in the form of PROPOSE
ton.
His proposition is to this effect: Let all
farmers IN the cotton belt who are out of
debt cease to grow cotton and devote their
time and attention TO the cultivation of
grasses and cereals, and to the breeding and
improvement Of live stock of every kind.
lie argues that farmers who are fortunate
enough to be able to give up the planting of
cotton could sell their grass cereal and live
stock products l.. remuneratiye prices to
those of their neighbors who have no alter
native but to grow cotton.
This would be very good remedy, in
deed, If it were practicable; but in the very
nature OF things it cannot be applied. A
vast majority of the farmers of the south
raise cotton, not because they are in debt,
but because it is a cash crop. 1t commands
at every railroad station, as well as at the
larger markets. This is the secret Of the
Affection programme
In other words every planter, no matter
how remote he may be from the railroads,
has home market for his cotton, and it is
practically the only product OF his farm for
which he has a home market Year in and
year out, every bale of cotton that the far
mer raises represents so much ready cash,
whether it is in his gin house, at the rail
road station, or in some eastern warehouse.
In the face Of this fact, all the editorial
theories that are printed fade into insignif-
canoe. TIE CONSTITUTION has argued
against the Affection programme as vgor-
ously as any OF its contemporaries, and has
shown by a consensus Of experiences from
the farmers themselves that diversified agri-
ricultuFe is more profitable; but behind all
the arguments and all the results of expert
ence lies the stubborn fact that cotton is not
only a cash crop, but that it has home
market. 1t is fact, too, that cannot be
disposed Of.
There is but one solution for the all-cot-
ton problem, and that is home markets for
the diversified products OF the farm. In
the north and east, agriculture as it is prac-
tced in the south has wel-ngh disappear
ed. In its place there are dairy farms, hay
farms, stock farms, vegetable farms, small
fruit farms and poultry farms.
This desirable state Of things has been
brought about Icy the development OF the
industrial resources of those sections, by the
building of factories, large and small. All
forms of industry have been fostered and
encouraged, and the result is that those
who till the land at the north find ready
and an eager market for every thing the
soil can produce.
THE CONSTITUTION maintains that what
has been done at the north, with its sterile
soil and its forbldding climate, can be done
at the south on a ten-fold larger scale. The
trouble is that here, where war has weak
ned and impoverished us, and where the
land has been given over for the most part
to a primitive and hopeless species Of agri-
| culture, not one man in thousand realizes
the extraordinary, the tremendous POSSIBLE
tiles that surround us.
In no section under the sun has Proy-
dence been more lavish with its gifts. Our
mineral resources are the richest and most
extensive to be found on the face of the
earth. All that is needed to make the
south the wealthiest and most prosperous
country on the globe is the development of
these resources and the industrial possbili-
ties which they suggest.
This development is now going forward,
and ii it continues, it Win not be many
years before the famers of the south will find
themselves in a position to take rich toll
from tile new conditions by which they will
be surrounded.
LITTLE BILLY CHANDLER thinks he is