The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-02-28

| NOrtnern SAID:
In one county n..middle Georgia
| found farm of 800 acres, with
teams and tenants and comfortable
cabins. On the 10th of January
last the tenants on this farm had
barely cotton seeds enough to plant
the next crop; not one peck of corr
nor pound of meat that was grown
upon the place. The owner of this
farm has not seen it in FIVE years.
| A little to the north of this farm
and almost touching it is anothe,
farm containing about $50 acres,
in just the condition of the one
before mentioned, except that it has
bankrupted two former owners, who
gave no attention to it's tenants.
The present landlord has not seen il
in two years.
| Still further to the north is another
farm of 600 acres. Here the woods
are full of cabins and the cabins are
full Of freedmen, who live as they
list and work as they please. These
tenants consume the products of
one year before they begin the work
of another, as they enjoy without
restraint their Incidence and their
inaction. The owner of this farm
has not been upon his premises in
three years.
Just a little to the south is a
smaller farm, containing about 200
acres. The tenants upon this place
have actually starved three mules
within the last twelve months, and
another will soon wend his way to
the boneyard. The landlord in this
case has not seen his farm for six
years.
These farms are not fictions; they
have all come under my personal
observation; they are in the center
of the best portion of the state, and
they are representative. I shall mo-
| 60 further into detail than to say
of the $4,000 farms in Georgia
$4,000 of them are run by indolen
tenants in the absence of the land
lords. To each pillow upon sucl
farms are furnished, annually, abou
one ton of guano, forty bushels o
corn and 200 pounds of meat, t,
produce two bales of cotton, thirteel
bushels of corn, three pecks of pc
tatoes and five hound dogs.
Fifty thousand farms in Georgi;
suffering from their own waste anC
by the idleness and plumber they
encourage, demorallzing, for miles
about them, the labor that would be
productive and prosperous. Fifty
thousand farms lin Georgia running
its agriculture and bringing our
lands beyond the recognition of CAPT
tai, banks and money centers. Fifty
thousand farms in Georgia destroy
ing the confidence Of business and
putting all farmers at a disadvan-
tAge in trade, while they indulge in
idleness that tester with corruption
as foul as qualification ITSELF
Fifty thousand farms in Georgia,
spreading the contagion of this So
cial, moral and political poison,
driving from their neighborhood the
best classes of our citizens to seek
protection for their property, Sc
curity for their families and advan-
tages that can never be found in
such surroundings.
When | say that the tenant sys-
TEN, operated outside OF the personal
supervision, personal control and
rigid discipline of the landlord has
been destructive to our system of
agriculture, | make known to you,
in my candid judgment, the main
cause for depression among the peo-
pie. This system has lost millions
Of money to the state by it's waste
fulness; it has demoralized and
ruined the better class of labor it
has broken up communities and
forced our people into the towns and
the cities for living; ithas brought
countless acres to worse than DESC
lation and to waste, and covered the
face of the earth with sadness and
decay.
1t will be remembered that | am
now considering elements of failure