The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-01

ID AO 4oSO 40OES4O" "AS
have plenty to do, to eat and to wear
Wherever the blacks are idle and half
starved you may expect to have race
troubles. If the government wants TO
aid the negro, instead of colonlzlng
him in Kansas, Mexico or elsewhere,
it could best give him assistance by
providing him transportation to the
delta country and building good
levees to protect the lands he works
upon"
SOME OF THE BIG PLANTERS.
Cotton planting in the future will
undoubtedly DE done on a great scale
by corporations, heavily capitalized
Already there are some of these in the
field. The Austin Corbin Banking
Company has $4,000 acres partly
cleared for cotton, which, it is
claimed, is it's best investment. The
Ashly Land Company has $4,000
acres, ten per cent. of which is now
cleared and under cotton. 1t will
have cleared the entire area for cotton
culture within three years.
Among Individual owners may be
mentioned Colonel B. S. Kicks, of
Yazoo City, who has eight cotton
plantations; Colonel John Willis, who
has $4,000 acres, one third under cot.
ton, and Mrs. Metcalf, the largest wo-
man cotton planter living, who has
5000 acres under cotton, and manages
all of her own business.
The above article from the New
York Herald gives the negro exodus
from this State a significance not
usually attached to it. Many of our
people make light of negro emigration,
and some would be glad to see every
darkey leave the State. All this is
the natural result of party feeling and
race prejudice. When the blacks
really begin to go, as in the East, peo-
pie at once awake to the crisis upon
them and set to work to arrest the
exodus agents.
So, too, should the call for "1O0,-
900" strike our Piedmont section,
planters and farmers would soon real
lie it's effects. Are we at all preparing
to meet it 7
One thing is now certain. The
negro is no longer the bug-a-boo and
scare,crow of reconstruction days, nor
is he so much the foot ball of party.
And if the masses of the Southern
people once come to meet the race
problem fairly on its merits, the in
dustrial issue will solve itself. This
the farmers of Eastern Carolina and
the planters of Mississippi agree on.
When the cry for help and labor
comes nobody breads negro suprem-
acy. Col. Kicks, mr.. Richardson and
others engaged in this labor move
ment are we'll known in North Caro-
lima, are strong Democrats, and all
agree that the measure is based alike
on sound business principles and safe
political calculation.
Now if the negro exodus continues,
as is likely, what is to be its effects on
us here in North Carolina? And how
are we preparing to meet it Will
we quietly let the negro go and take
the chavers of other labor? Or will
we make an honest effort to keep the
darkey satisfied and SO seek to hold
him. Will we continue to exhaust
our resources and energies on the
"thin lands" nov cultivated at a
loss, or will we seek to rise to the
highest of true agriculture and go to
work to improve our soil, and other
wise develop the vast advantages we
enjoy.
In a square contest with the richer
soil of the South and West and
against combined capital and the &C.
tive population of the newer States,
we can hardly compete, especially in
leading staples. But in all the attrac-
tions of farm life and the small do.
nestle industries, the old North State
is without a, rival. From the earliest
date the endless variety of the resour-
ces and the advantages of location,
SOL and climate, attracted population.
In 1890 she was the third State in the
Union. No true Efforts have hereto
fore been made to help u people and
she now ranks oaIy the 3Oth.
Again the a. stlon presses upon us:
How are we gong to meet all these
complicated issues of race, of labor,
of capital, OF skill and of industrial
development
Here aga n duty and interest agree.
For myself, the negro was never my
choice as laborer, and as a paid hand
or farm tentant he has cost me thou.
sands. But despite his faults he is by
all odds the best M labor we
are likely soon to get. And with due
regard to climate, the past habits of
our people, and the special cultivation
of our two great staples of cotton and
tobacco, he is our main stay. Ny
advice, therefore, is by all means to
hold on to our colored labor, and to
HO oil IN ~. $500.