The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-08
AaR1cULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
The Field, Farm and Garden.


The Field, Farm and Garden.
We solicit articles for this department.
rra name of the writer should accompany
tbe letter or article, not nece ssarily for pub
Iicatton, but as an evidence of good faith.
The Southern Farmers Must Reform.
What the southern farmers need is self
reliance. says Mr.. John II. Dent in the
Southern CltItirdtOr. Since the war, they
have become dependent on the farmers of
the west to feed them; the merchants to run
them: the money lenders to supply them
with money; the fertilizer factories to fur
nisb them manures; the drovers to furnish
them mules and horses; and even northern
mechanics to supply them with ak handles;
in short, every occupation supplies them
with all they have. How can the farmers
succeed, and prosper under such circum-
stances9 The wonder is, they have been
able to retain their farms and homes; this,
most of them have done, but what are their
conditionsl Merely hewers of wood and
drawers of water. All such must stop; a
thorough reformation must take place, or
serfdom is their doom. How can reforma-
ton be accomplished Why, merely by
self-conviction. One must be convinced of
his errors from experience; he must feel
and know he is wrong, and when 80 con-
WINGED in his own mind then, If he has reso-
linton. he will abandon what he knows to
he wrong, and take new line of departure
and rely Oh himself, and adopt a system
more economical and practical.
The great error the farmers mado just
after the war, was in trying to farm for
money. They overlooked the first princi
pies of farming, and that is, to make farm
ing successful; the farm must be made self
supporting those old methods we're
abandoned, raising food crops and stock
and cotton became the only crop, to make
I'D all wants and deficiencies; the result was
failure and poverty, and Instead of going
back to old methods and first principles,
cotton was held on to as the only chance of
making money and retrieving ones losses,
and it only made matters worse. This is.or
should be, a lesson of northumberland
from bitter experience-aad should lead to
reformation. 1t is a practical lesson, that
should appeal to ones good sense, and con-
vince, and no sophistry can gainsay it, and
the farmers only redemption is to go back
to diversified farming, which was the mode
of farming before the war, and make the
farms self-supporting. never abandoned
old methods; never had the cotton mania;
made fool crops my special object, hence
never incurred debts; by this method
gained no notoriety as farmer, but have
lived a comfortable, easy life. Ny advice
to all farme is to cut loose from western
corn and meat and raise it yourself; cut
loose from commefc ial fertilizers and make
all the manures you can, and run your
farm as economically as possible, and let
expensive machinery alone, until you can
aft I'd to buy such.
The work of reformation has been begun
with few, and their examples will have a
good effect on others, especially with those
who are making st ok raising a speciality,
for stock insures grain and grass farms, and
when it comes to such farming, farms will
improve and the agricultural outlook will
be more encouraging. Cotton crops will
never draw our young mea to the farms.
But when they see beautiful stock farms
and fine stock, they Will naturally be In
chned to engage in such farming, for most
persons fancy fine stock, and like them;
there is diversity and pleasure in such farm
ing. Witt cotton, it is year in and year
out monotonous drudge; it is a crop only
adapted to slave labor, for it makes slaves
of all who make it special crop. Diversity
our whole system of farming and give up
NJ, &kn,,.
for choosing the towns to the cotton fields.
Make farming interesting, and they will
come back to the farms.