The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-05-07
"WOOLVERINE" GETS DOWN
TO" "HARD-PAN."
81 knew not what was playing,
Or what l was dreaming then,
But I struck one cord of music
Like the sound of a great AMEN ! p"

Did | strike the "Lost Cord {? T"
Truly grand "Amen !" has been
borne to me on the wings of the
mighty South Wind from my South
ern brothers; perhaps prophecy of
the golden future, when the common
brotherhood of our common country,
broad shouldered and strong, march
ing onward and upward to worship
at the temple of Fraternal Love, shall
hear the white-robed priesthood of
purity and peace chant Liberty and
Union, now and forever, one and in
separable ! F."
Yet-through all the letters run the
minor cord, 1--WE are in trouble;
help US !" Only they who have
suffered can truly sympathize, and this
revelation that "The trail of the SER
pent is over all the Eden of our
sunny South is very, saddening. l
would that some mighty reformer and
leader of men might arise and Gas
Father pitieth His children aid
you to achieve the ultimate purpose
VI OOA1S, 'UpP'''"oo'
The cause of your woes are clearly
pointed out by different ones, "The
war left us impoverished" We
have struggled manfully to rebuild,
but falling values and changed condi-
tions of our laboring class have left
us in debt" "Our plantations are
too large" And the most pathetic
wall of all is, " We want some one to
do our work. "
Your land tracts are too large. One
man offers me 1000 acres for about
$75,OOO That is three square miles or
sections. The section l live in, the
one west and the one east, have about
twenty-five farmers, ranging from l2O
down to 20 acres, and number of 5
and l0-acre tracts; also village of
about 400. With a bank, two. ele-
vators, three mills, eight stores, cheese
factory, tile and brickyard, &c. It
would take nearly quarter of mil
lion to buy these three sections, $15,-
600 to buy his. Your lands are too
cheap. Ii you could give away half
those large tracts in 40acre farms to
pushing population like ours, the
remainder would increase in value
100 per cent. every two years until
it reduces the limit of producing value
Your labor is too cheap. A man who
earns and gets but Is cents day can
buy but 25 cents worth of goods. It
is no use to produce luxuries for that
class. They can't pay for them. Give
laborer So a day and he wants to
buy everything in sight. His wife
and family will buy the rest That
makes good times spin. The amount
of money laborer spends and puts in
circulation is limited to his wages.
" Good times are limited by the
amount of money in circulation.
Our country is racing down the
road trod by all nations of the past,
crushing out of the small proprietors
in all the lines of production. You
are having the soul and spirit and life
and liberty crushed out by the monop-
olists of money. So are we of the
North.
Beware the millionaire lumber
barons of the North are among you.
They will buy your cheap timbered
land and you may live to see that
timber worth $500 per acre. After
the timber is off it will be sold for
taxes. That is the history of Michi-
gan's pine lands.
Beware the wolves They have
less soul than worn out shoe.
"Our industries are varied enough"
Quite likely, though one writer says
"we make about 25 per cent. on cot
ton and tobacco, and have to be con-
tent with that" Shades of Adam
Smith Why, the farmer who clears
8 per cent. here is fnancier of the
first water
am still ignorant of the situation
down there, but there is host of
things you might try.
Will alfalfa grow on your land ?
California boasts of two to five crops
Of hay a year and one to two and
half tons at a crop. 1t does we'll in
the South. Fifty acres should keep
twenty five cows all the year, and that
is quite dairy. A few such dairies
could cooperate and run creamery
or cheese factory. There are three
cheese factories and a creamery inside
of five miles from my farm, and the
COWS have to be fed from November
lst to May lst on an average. You
can put creamery butter down in New
Y York at half or two-thirds what it
costs US. You pasture on cheap lands
nearly the year round. If your land
is worth anything as pasture you
ought to clear enough money every
year on each good COW to buy three
acres of the land you wish to sell.
At lansing canital of this State is