The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-02-27
NO. u.

see S157.OOO to s62, 900, 900; Wisconsin
$170, 600 to ST., 100000.
Georgia, we are told, spends as much
on commercial fertilizers as Kansas,
Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio,
Tennessee and Texas. With this ferti-
lizer expenditure Of five million, Georgia
cultiyates 5000, 900 acres and makes a
crop worth $67, 900. 900. With tae same
expenditure on fertilizers, the States
named cultivate ninety-one million
acres and make a crop product of ss117733 ss17733;
000,000 The farmers in Georgia pay
81 in fertilizers to make $15 The other
States pay 81 to $40O.
The farmers in the States mentioned
have no cotton seed with which to sup
plement their manures. The farmers
in Georgia handled the last season over
six million worth of cotton seed. They
could make better fertilizer,out Of this
seed than any they buy, and yet this
seed was sold for two million dollars to
enrich trust.
Ii is said that farmers may be injured
by the tax policy Of the general govern
ment and may be overreached in their
business transactions, but the farmers
should look to their own wasteful mlsman-
agement as the chief obstacle in the
way of successful agriculture at the
| South.
Mr.. Northen has found in only few
localities proper care an4 economy in
the use Of barnyard maaures. Barn
yard manures, most farmers say, is too
pulky and gives too much trouble in the
handling. So they throw it away and
buy fertilizers easier of application.
Mr.. Northen does not. advocate the en-
tire abandonment of commercial fertiE-.
zers, butsinsists that they should be
largely displaced by barnyard manure,
mould, muck and cotton seed.
Mr.. Northen insists that every bushel
of cotton seed in Georgia is worth 25
cents as stock feed or manure, and
when it is sold for less it is a clear loss
to the farmer. He says:
With 900, 600 head of cattle, and suita-
BILE stalls to shelter them; with 200, 900.
horses and mules, and good barns to
stable them; 500, 900 sheep, and comfort.
able folds to pen them; with pea vines
to be turned under and pine straw,
leaves and muck for absorbents; 26, ,000,-
900 bushels of cotton seed to be crushed.
and put with this enormous accumula-
ton, or, better, fed to stock to increase.
the character and value of the manure,
Georgia farmers would make in manure
money value of more than twenty
million dollars that would build up orr
lands to a high state Of permanent fer
tility and abundant yield All this
could be done and cost but little more
than the handling.
Another hindrance to success, for
which farmers are themselves response
BILE, is the annual expenditure of nearly
three million dollars for horses and
mules to be used on the farm Every
one of them should be raised on Georgia
soil. have yet to meet a.
man in the State who has tried the plan
of raising his farm teams who has not
continued it with profit.
Will you pardon me now if I get
down little nearer to the root of the
matter2 The probing may be painful,
but if it heals the wound let the instru-
ment 60 in.
Mr.. Northen then quotes a practical
farmer, who had risen to wealth, and
who attributed unsuccessful farming in
Georgia to the miserable management
of Georgia farms.
Farmers idle their time, delay their
operations, begin the year on the first
of March instead of on the first of jan
uary; close it the last of November in
stead of the 25th of December. work,
when they work at all, five days in the
week instead of six; saunter lazily to
the fields an hour by sun instead of
with the early dawn; lose all the in
clement weather with no indoor work
prepared and leave to negroes much,
they ought to do themselves. No bust
ness, said he, managed as farmers
manage theirs could stand the strain.
Ditching, fencing, clearing and
cleaning are among the lost arts. If
the hills are going to waste, use the
opening and closing months of the year
in recovering them.
Get the farmers to go to work, con-
duct their business under system and
with active industry, demand Of their
forces good services and deny main
tenance until it comes; study conven-
ience Of arrangement and the properutil-
igation of labor. <
When these things are done, said
he. farmers will make money like other
people.
Mr.. Northen concludes thus:
II am fully conscious toat would
do cruel wrong if, in this discussion, I
covered the bright promise Of the future.
In my candid opinion, farmingi in Georgia
has reached its crisis. From this time for
ward the prospect will slowly brighten.
Never before have the farmers been so
determined. All over the State find
them practicing the closest economy in
every department Of the home and the
farm; together, they are studying the
mistakes of the past, and together they
are counseIjng plans for the future.
New lines are opening to light;
new industries are springing up on
the farm; new methods are being
adopted, and new crops are being put
upon the markets.
Georgia cured more hay the last sea-
son than for any three seasons before.
More grass means more stock; more
stock means more manure. Following
out this agricultural logic, we have more
yearling colts in Georgia than ever be-
fore. Nothing I saw in the State the