The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-18

Cdlll ~ w i - 1850
when a boy, have we gone ten miles
with q load Of wheat tor grinding
But presto! What a change! Now. We
buy the very best of flour at six O
seven dollars q barrel. In 1913 cotton
was five cents a pound, and flour fiv'
pnllars a barrel. Now cotton is eigh
cents q pound, and flour only six dol
lars. There is still another reason
The flour we buy is far better than TIT
CID country mills could make.
We used to make "homespun" clotl
for clothing, sheeting, etc. we don
do it any more, and no II is found t
denounce this departure from the ole
way.
Not to DISCUSS the question in fur
thcr detail, we want simply to drop tho
above Thoughts" in defence of those
farmers who have given up the culture
of wheat simply to supply the wants OF
theirfamilies. where it will not pay tC
grow wheat for market it is doubtful il
it would he eXpedient to produce it at
all except in case where a farmer has
so large 4 family that the quantity o
flour required makes it a matter of con
siderable importance.
Our remarks are intended now to
apply to the South Atlantic and Eas-
tern Gulf States. In the northern por'
tons Of this territory there are few
farms that cannot supply at least q few
acres of land especially well adapted
to wheat: and in the middle hill
country this is also true to a less degree.
On such soils it will be found that
wheat will yield just as we'll as it ever
did i'm similar soils. A farmer with a
large family will find it a paying crop
in the long run, provided he can get
the product converted into Graham
flour. According to our taste and long
experience, there is no better bread
that comes to a farmers table than nice
Graham pone and Graham griddle
cakes, made of home grown wheat.
HOGS AND COTTON.
The transition from "hominy" to
" hog" is easy, but the same argu-
ments are not applicable. we mean to
say that cheap Transportation is not Q
sufficient excuse for abandoning all
efforts to "raise II own Bacon"
While there may be but few farmers
who ought TO grow wheat, there are
but few farmers who can be excused
for not raising hogs. They are SO
easily managed, so cheaply fed, so gen.
orally except from fatal diseases, and
withal so profitable that we would
rather-as an individual-give up pro-
ducing corn than raising hogs. What
is true of hogs is more strictly and
generally true of milk and butter, beef
and mutton, chickens, eggs. The
trouble is our ~inclinations are too
strongly in favor of cotton. Cotton
is King" should read "Cotton is
Master" and the cotton planters are
his slaves. 1t is the slavish devotion
to cotton as the sole resort for a money
income that has impoverished so many
Southern farmers, and bound them in
debtors chains. Think for q moment
of the cheap and fertile soil, the mild
and equable climate, the great variety
Of forage and fattening crops of the
South-cowpeas, sweet potatoes, chu.
fas, peanuts-not one of which can be
produced in the North and Northwest
to say nothing of Bermuda grass, crab
grass, corn, oats, rye, clover, collards,
sorgum, etc., which We can produce
Just as we'll as they can be produced
anywhere. Why talk about limiting
the area devoted to cotton by co-opera-
tive effort, or resolutions, or what not!
What do the farmers do with most OF
the money they get for their cotton,
after paying for the labor that produces
it? Why, they buy bacon, lard, can.
ned beef, canned milk (they do with
out butter), a good deal of corn or corn
meal, tons of hay, seed oats and rye,
syrup, flour, mules and horses, etc.
nearly all of which they may ano
ought to produce at home, What il
every farmer would produce all of these
things at home, and then add fruits
and vegetables, all in quantities suffi-
cient to supply the country, including
the towns? He would find that ne
could make cotton at eight cents q
pound, if necessary; for this back re-
volution of methods would so reduce
the area in cotton, and the total pro-
duction would be SO much diminished
that the price would 20 at once to ten
or twelve cents.
But we were talking Of hogs, and,
generally, what is true about bacon is
true of home products. We have gone
astray from the good old paths. In
some things we have done we'll, in
others we have acted %unwisely. and in
none more unwisely than in giving uI
the breeding of hogs, horses anc
mules; COWS, sheep and poultry. Let us
resolve to seek again these old path!
to get back into the prudent ways o
our fathers and grand fathers-avoid
ing their Mistakes, but reaffirming ant
%readopting their wisdom.
DITCHING AND TERRACING.
Hillside ditching has apparently hat
its day, and is giving away to new
ideas-the terracing system.
The old style hillside bitches, how
ever, would do just as we'll as they eve
did. The question is did they eve
serve their purpose, and the answer j
at least doubtful. Terracing is now a.
ditching was forty or fifty years ago
Will terraging save our lands abso'
lutely from washing away? We un,
hesitatirgly answer no, not withou
helpful conditions, such IS grass ant
small grain culture, and proper rota
UlOll. IL 10 uOuUllul III lIull lllS lCllaC'
lines that have benn run in the last tel
years were run on adead level, as the,
necessarily must be run if they are t
what is expected Of them.
Very few farmers possess the necc5s
sary skill and judment to use even tn
simplest form of leveling instrumen
without first gaining some expert
ence
1t is really q work that should b
done by a professional farm topograph