The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-03-29
DOWN IN ELBERTON.
Bill Arp Pays Visit to a Thrifty Town


Bill Arp Pays Visit to Thrifty Town
I If you want to see a good old town
that is renewing her youth 60 to Elber'
ton. Thirty years ago these old Georgia
towns we're considered finished and they
made no progress in population or in
business. The young men as they came
to maturity emigrated and none came to
take their places. No new buildings
were put up and the old ones were suf-
fered to go to decay. But within the
last few years most of these old towns
have put:on new life. Look at Wash
ipgton and Eatonton and Milledgeville
and Newman and Gainesville and Elber.
ton and many others that used to be
called finished. One can hardly solve
the mystery of their late progress, but
one thing is to be observed. The
wealthier classes from the country are
making an exodus to the towns all over
the South. If this exodus continues
there will soon be nobody left in the
country but negroes and the poorer class
of white people. The social attractions
of towns and cities and the privileges of
schools and churches are yet inviting,
but we fear this exodus will have a bad
effect upon intelligent farming. A town
farmer soon loses his interest, his enthu.
siasm. He goes out once in 9 while to
eShow his tenants are getting along.
He gives a few directions and makes a
few suggestions, but that is all. His
ambition becomes centered upon the
time when the rent wheat and the rent
cotton will come in, and that ends it.
The tenant is not going to fill up gully
or stop wash, nor cover the CALLED spots
with straw. The orchard will not be
pruned, nor COW peas sowed, nor the
gates kept in repair. This town farmer
soon becomes atown trader or Speculation,
for he can make money at atanything else
than at farming. 1t does look like farm.
ing is poor business. Here and there
you find thrifty farmer, but their name
lis not legion. They are about one in q
hundred, and when you investigate the
successful one you will find him shrewd
trader who knows how to buy cheap and
sell dear. He will. pick up mule for
seyenty.6ve dollars cash and sell him to
his tenant for hundred and ten on time.
he will buy his cotton seed at ten cents
bushel and sell them for fifteen. He
will make him advances of meat and
meal at the same profits, and so he gets
in the papers as successful farmer, and
all others are condemned for not follow.
ing his example. Well, they can't do it,
+ for they can't get start, fair start, and
that is the whole of it. Farming lands
in Georgia are in no demand. The
owners can not get as much for them TO-.
day as they. could ten years ago-they
are returned for taxes, lower and lower
every year. But everything else seems
to thrive. Merchandise, manufactures
and mining are all doing we'll. Even
teaching school, or preaching, beats
farming, and hence the towns are pros.
periDg and the country is languishipg.
Blacksmiths, carpenters and brick
masons make a fair support, and the
chair factories and broom makers are
getting rich. A brick mason will not
work for less than two dollars day, but
a farm hand has to take seventy.fve
cents.
One of our most intelligent farmers
told me that he made more money of of
his fruits than from all his corn and
wheat. and cotton. Well, reckon these
things will regulate themselves after
while, but they look very discouraging
now. A Rome merchant told nae yester.
day that this depression of farming was
all owing to the protection that the tariff
gave to manufactures, and that the far.
mer would never prosper until he had
the same amount of protection, and that
he ought to have a bounty of at least ten
dollars bale on his cotton. Well, that
would help him of course, but to my
opinion the trouble is We have too many
farmers in proportion to the other occu.
pations. In Pennsylvania there are
twenty-five persons engaged in farm work
to seventy five engaged in other pursuits,
and so every farm worker has three other
months who are also hungry and waiting
for the products of his labor. He can
sell everything he makes for good
price and there is always good demand.
In Georgia there are seventy.6ve farm
workers and only twenty-five consumers
outside to buy their products. The
whole thing is reversed, and 80 while
farm lands average forty one dollars per
acre in Pennsylvania, they average eAly
FIVE dollars and sixty cents in Georgia.
Now, while we are inviting our Northern
brethren to come down let us make a
| specially of inviting artisans, mechanics,
( manufacturers, and let us encourage our
young men to go to the chronological
school and learn trades instead of pro-
| fessions. We. have long talked and
written about the pleasures and profits
and independence of farming, but it is OF
no use. Our young men are not going to
| try it in the face of the hard experience
| of their fathers. When there are more
people to feed and fewer to plow they
will go at it, and not until then.
At Elberton, I heard the busy hum Of
machinery and the sound of the hammer
and the saw all about. New houses
ornament the suburbs and many more
are going up. The people are looking
for the early advent of the great railroad
/ =.