The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-19

evils noe WHICH uOOn .T.y
folIowed and must continue, until the
amaIl minority of our people are
sorced to cease to appropriate the
large part of their profits.
PIntarch says in his olives that
Tbesus, the founder of Athens, invited
everybody to come to his common
wealth and enjoy equal privileges with
tho natives. "Yet," says Plutarch,
che did not suffer his State, by the
nromiscuous multitude that flowed in,
r he turned into confusion and left
w;tbont any order or degree, but di-
~;Jod the commonwealth into three
distinct ranks-the noblemen, the
b;1shandman, and the artifcens. To
the nobility he committed the'care of
roIicion, the choice of magistrates, the
+eacbing and dispensing of the laws,
the whole city, being, as it were, re-
Jnced to an exact equality, the mobiles
excelling the rest in honor, the hus-
ahandmen in profit, and the a~rtficers
IN numbers In this recognition of
intelligence by giving the mobiles the.
dispensing and Interpretation of the
law, in allowing the husbandman just
and reasonable returns for his labor,
and in the recognition Of the neces-
sity of diversified industries by hav-
ing an excess of the population arti6-
GERS, Thesus laid the foundation for
the greatness and fame attained by
that small Greek State, whose civiliza-
ton has exerted and still exerts a
powerful influence upon our modern
civilization. This policy adopted by
him in founding Athens, althoughthis
event is clouded in the mists of re-
mote antiquity, stands out in. bold re-
lief as a beacon to statesmen that the
certain way to make a country pros
porous and happy is to lay deep the
foundation for a prosperous agricul-
ture, by insuring to the husbandman
remunerative returns for the product
of his labor, and to encourage the es-
Enlistment of manufacturing, me-
chanical and mining industries. With
a prosperous agriculture the tendency
is toward the division of land into
small holdings, with the natural result
of an ever-increasing productive capac-
ity of the soil to sustain an increasing
population. While, as we readily
perceive, under the unfortunate con-
dition now existing in this country,
the tendency is to the concentration
of land in the hands of the few, who
become, too often, absentee landlords,
with a deterioration of the capabili-
ties of the soil, while the tenant tiller,
to all intents and purposes, becomes a
slave, though not held in actual
bondage.
A writer in Rarper's Magazine of
April last, discussing in an able paper
the condition of agriculture, says
" There are steadily accumulating
conditions, which will, in the near
make imperative the adoption
in this country of closer and more en-
lightened methods of agriculture than
now generally obtain among our farm
We are all ready to acknowl-
edge that there is a sad lack of intel
and intelligent methods among
our farmers. We have recently had
the experience of seeing the farmer
prefer d visit to the circus, to attend
ing a good agricultural fair. We
saw last week more farmers in Con-
cord to see the circus than attended
the fair during the four days of it's
continuance the previous week. Yes,
there is a sad lack of intelligence
among the farmers; yet it will be i'm
possible for them, as a class, to attain
that degree of intelligence or anything
approaching it, which will enable them
to adopt scientific methods, so long as
agriculture is weighed down, hampered
and made so Improbable by existing
evils; and the longer these evils con
tinue, the less possible it becomes for
them to become an educated class,
pursuing closer and more enlightened
methods. Their efforts must be
directed to securing a subsistence for
themselves and families. That this is
the main effort of the average farmer
over the entire country is too true.
lis true some succeed, but they either
do so by the strictest economy, deny
ing themselves of life and leading a
life OF hardship and toll no n can
envy, or by their fortunate convenience
to market, being thus enabled to sue
ceed by growing s~pecialties.
Mr.. B. F. johnson, a farmer and
an able correspondent of the Countrv
Gentleman, says in his letter to that
paper OF October 3rd: "The orn oats,
and hay crops of 1889, for the black,
SOIL counties, are scarcely more than
tWo,thirds of the average per acre of
the last five years, while prices for
these and neat cattle are 80, if not 40
or SO per cent lower. Meantime no
small portion of these products are
raised by tenant farmers who a
some, from two-ifths to one,half Of