The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-07-17

! baccO he AMI others of the section
raised was marketed ut l very small
! profit. II went to Richmond, and it
! wls Of the light golden yellow, not then
very Wcii known rs in great demand
! ia the market. But ii WAS us fine as
| silk-literallv rs fine as silk-and it
made 4 demand that is now world
wide. The market has shifted to the
towns in the section where it grows,
! and railroads have been built to trans
! port the crop. On the market day the
planters bring in the stuff by the hogs
head and roll it off the wagons to wide
floors to warehouses built for the pur-
pose. The hogsheads are opened, the
! tobacco dumped out ami assorted. and
an auct!oncer gets up and wants
to know how much he is offered, and
and buyers from New York and ali
other manufacturing centres tumble
over each other III their anxiety to an
swer tile question. Forty cents pound
is Il common price for the leaf and
seventy is often reached for choice lots.
Last year Mr.. Knott had some
choice lots and so many Of them that
he cleared $500 an acre from ten acres.
There were several other planters in
! Granville county who did as we'll, while
4 plenty of them made $500 an acre
the top profit made by Mr.. Ballentine
on his choice lot Of spinach on his
| truck farm near Norfolk.
The tobacco crop requires Intelligent
care, but there is 30 Yankee farmer
worth a forkful Of daisies who couldn't
learn to grow the crop in one season.
The seed is sown in a specially prepared
bed in February. The plants are trans
planted TO the field in May. From 800
10 t,S'M plants are put Oh all acre, and
4 darky, who costs the planter about
! $l+ 4 month al! told, keeps two and Il
half acres in prime order if he is looked
| after properly. The yield is from 100
| to !, ,3,i0 pounds an acre, and the money
for it should DC in the planters pocket
within ninety days from the day the
plants were set out, after which he can
go fishing or see his poor or rich re-
lation or do anything else that plcases
him.
If, after looking over such farms and
! such profits rs are actually made here,
the man who has been fighting potato
bugs about the hcadwaterS of the Hud-
son or dosing the hog cholera in
| the Mississippi valley or willing under
the hot winds Of the Western country
doesn't think there is money in some
kinds offarming he-is o curious sort of
a farmer. Not all farms nor all planters
max ke such profits, but there are grades
in farms and farmers in the North as
well rs in the South.
Probably the first thing a Northern
farmer would ask about these Southern
lands is the price. Around Norfolk
farms that are well located cost 5000 an
acre. That will buy farm of good
truck land with good buildings, and if
properly managed it would yield 500
an acre in profits.
The best kind of farms for tobacco
culture in the golden tobacco belt are
to be had at S23 an acre. This price is
for land which should yield, under pro-
per cultivation, from four to ten times
its cost in profits every year depending
on the weather at certain stages Of the
growth Of the crop, and in rare cases
$500 an acre. The buildings are Of a
kind that would not meet the appro wal
of q thrifty Yankee, nor would the on.
dition Of the fences please him. But
the land is all right for tobacco.
There are plantations of from 500 e
GOO acres in North Carolina which the
owners try to manage, but no planta.
ton of that size, Of which the reporter
could learn, was profitable. The small
plantations carefully planted and well
fertilized and cultivated were
the ones that made their owners rich,
if incomes of from S3,0UD to $4,000 a
year net be counted tic incomes of rich
men.
As OH the truck farms around Nor.
folk, the labor IS and must be done by
negroes. The white man cannot afford
to work for the price of negro, and
TIE N0rtherner who goes South will
make mistake if he does net devote
his time to encouraging the niggers'
instead Of the hoe. 1t is apparent
! therefore, that the South is not the
place for man with no capital at all
but 4 very good place for Il man oi
small means and thrift. 1t is better tc
90 South than West.