The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-09-03
CONVICT IABoR.

| then stated that If the conVletS were
divided pro rata among the counties,
and the County Commissioners direct
the labor, and have them repair our
roads and build embankments along
our rivers and creeks and deepen
them, the value Of such labor could
not be estimated in dollars and cents.
shall not go over the arguments
made then, nor submit the data or.
statistics / then gave; but In the last
six weeksI have been as far west as.
1 Morgantony as far east as the Atlantic,
and from the northern border as far
south as Fayetteville, and have seen
the lands along the rivers and creeks
flooded the crops In many places en-
/ tirely destroyed, in. others so badly
damaged that the crops are
/ abandoned. - 4sg9f ka eqs.
/ The real less is hard to estimate
Time, labor, capital all gone, and corn
will have to be bought and shipped to
us from other States. .a.9f II
This buying abroad impoverishes
US. Suppose for the sake of illustra-
tion that only 10000 acres of our
best land has been overfowed.
At s low estimate that means 81
600, 00o bushels of corn, and you all
know what that is worth. We are
not only poorer by not having the
crop, but all the time bestowed on the
crops, the feed and seed, all this is
gone, worth the crops. In other
words We are poorer by s., ,000, 900
for every loo, 900 acres of bottom
lands so overaowed
I think it is about time we quit
donating convict labor to railroad cor
porations. They are growing rich At
our expense. avs ode sc 5saI
We donate the right of way, we
contribute efsour means to build the
road and. furnish the labor and after
we have done all this they charge you
two prices for bringing corn into the
State 1iaen we are almost ton the verge
of starvation. IF the Mississippi river
can be banked successfully am sure
our little rivers and creeks can be.
1t has been suggested that we use
our convict labor to make guano.
That looks like railroad scheme to
me. Who is to make it? The State.
We have had enough of State work
individuals then what benefit will
accrue to us? About the same that
comes to us from letting them work
for railroad companies. Besides no
one will contend that if work cost
nothing, that guano could be made
cheaper than it can be made now.
Steam power beats convict labor, even
when you pay nothing for the labor,
only having to feed and clothe it.
Besides the hard labor on ton of
guano is less than So per ton, so that
at the best it would amount to $685.
600 for our State annually.
1t would only be necessary to re-
claim 1000 acres of bottom land to
amount to as great a saving as to
manufacture all the guanos used in
our State.
Let me illustrate the idea further:
If our rivers were banked as the Mis-
sissippi River is, the bottoms that are
now comparatively worthless would
grow more corn yearly than we ever
have to bring into the State. Thou
sands of other acres that are cultivated
yearly, but frequently at a great loss,
would raise hundreds of thousands of
bushels of wheat, oats and corn and
supply us with all the hay We need.
If you will think of the vast amount
of money that yearly is sent outside
the State for wheat or -four, for seed
oats, for corn or meal, and for hay,
you can readily see why we are kept
poor. / have said so much about i'm
porting mea that / am almost ashamed |
to mention il again.
Is not this of sufficient importance
to arrest our attention
I would make the following sugges
tions, and hope that our influential
politicians, who love the dear people |
so much, viii act on them, but I have |
but little faith in them:
Let our Congaessmen and our Sena-
tors (who it was said could get appro-
priations SO easily BE- instructed to
ask Oh congress an appropTiaIloH loT
leVees instead Of having dredges to
move out sand bars.
Build the levees and the rivers will |
clean themselves
Take your bitches where they are I
confined they cut deeper and deeper;
when they are shallow and overflow,
the water runs more sluggishly and
fills up quickly.
The writer had the pleasure of be-
ing with Capt Eads at CRANKY, where
the Captain was interested in mining
galena, and was told by Capt. Eads /
that he had gotten his ideas of deep
ening streams by noticing the action