Thomas County cat., 1890-05-01
THE SOUTHERN FARMER,
BUREAU OF SOUTHERN News. .
j. L. PATRICK, General Manager.

| Raleigh, n. L.
The word farmer CONVEYS TO oul
minds general meaning; and yet in its
meaning it is capable of many sub .divis-
ions. A farmer of New England is a
man OF many kinds of work, and of many
Titles. He raises, consumes and sells
everything which the soil can be made
TO produce or support. In the Western
states the farmer may be man who
measures his one crop of corn by the
hundreds of acres. In the Red River
valley or in California he may be, the
man who measures his one crop of wheat
by the thousand acres. In Texas he may
count his cattle grazing on his broad
ranch by the thousands In many of the
Southern States he may speak of his one
two, or four horse crop of cotton as his
farm; or his fifty acres of melons, or his
twenty five acres of tobacco as his farm
Again, scattered in all directions.
throughout the Southern states, are many
farmers working and living more like
the New England type of that class of
men, who give us the most of the food
We eat and the clothing which we wear.
Industrious, intelligent, upright, man
respecting, God fearing men. Their
home life is simple and unpretentiOus.
Their homes are not luxurious. but they
are the abodes of plenty and comfort.
The whole family may betray the lack
and need of educational advantages; but
they will also illustrate the old saying,
Blood will tell;' for in very many of
these plain homes will be found the char
acter of the born lady and gentleman. as
clear and fair as can be found upon
earth. The hospitality of these homes is
from the heart and complete. One of
the purest and most guileless characters
we eyer met, we found in one of these
remote farm houses. And when he said
in soft and gentle voice, II will keep
you over night if you will stay" we knew
that we had as full and honest an invita-
tion to share the hOspitalities of that
home, as it is possible for human heart
to give. Such invitations are never Civ
en- with the concealed hope that they
will be refused. And the stranger &C.
cepting them is at once at ease, and al
most literally at home.
If some farmer should transport a far
mer from any of the rich Northern states
in SINGLE night to the average southern
farm, he would awake and declare that
an evil spirit had ruined him and that he
could not live there. Not too fast, my
friend Take another day before you
lie down and die; look squarelv at the
good things which your southern broth
er possesses; and you will find these. His
land costs him much less per acre and
yields more. The average yield of cot
ton is three fourths of a bale, or thirty
seven dollars per acre. How many nor
thern farmers have sold the products of
the cultivated land at thirty-seven dollars
per acre? Again. the labor to produce
this costs the southern farmer abort six
tysix per cent of the cost Of labor to the
northern farmer. The cost of erecting
and maintaining the necessary farm
buildings is less than one-half the cost |
at the North.
The expenses of living are less; notice
able in clothing, fuel and those miscel- |
laneous expenses which the demands of |
society at the North erect into a steady |
drain upon the farmers income. Taxes
are light The towns, cities and states |
of the South have not yet learned that
real prosperity is measured by evtrava-
CANT expenditures and large bonded