The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-06-04
The Ell Dorado Of America.

TO the Editors of the Neaos and Courier ::
The South Atlantic States owe much Of
their prosperity to South Carolina. For
many years before the war this section
had been the nursery for the Southwest.
1t had raised strong men, fitted them for
work and sent them to develop the rich
lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Texas. The universal system pre-
vailing here prior to 1860 had been to
cultivate the lands only so long as they
were naturally fertile and then abandon
them and clear fresh acres. The intro.
duction of commercial fertilizers checked
this destructive system aud reyolutioniz-
ed agricultural methods. Intelligent
farmers were not slow to realize that by
the use of commercial fertilizers wornout
lands could be restored to their former
fertility.
The discovery of the agricultural value
of South Carolina phosphates came just
at the right time, and was the immediate
cause of the most surprising agricultural
development in the South Atlantic States.
Parish Furman demonstrated that it WAS
possible to produce more cotton to the
acre on the poor lands Of Georgia by the
use of commercial fertilizers than had
ever been obtained from the rich alluvial
lands of the Mississippi Valley. These
practical results checked the emigration
from the older States to the Southwest,
prevented the further destruction of tim
ber and carried the cotton production of
the country far beyond the greatest yield
that had ever been anticipated.
The fertilizer factories of South Caro-
lima constitute one of the leading indus
tries of this st-te. In 1870, two years
after the beginning of phosphate mining,
there were seven companies engaged in
the manufacture of fertilizers here. At
this time there are eighteen, exclusive
of the smaller concerns that only manip-
ulate and do not manufacture. They
employ capital of over S4,500,000, and
their product, amounting to more than
200, 900 tons, is sold in nearly every State
of the Union. Besides the regular fertili.
zer companies there are some twenty. five
cotton seed oil mills that mix acid phos.
pilates and cotton seed meal, and supply
q great part of the local demand.
The business in the past has been a
very profitable one to manufacturers and
of enormous benefit to consumers. The
recent rise in the price of sulphur and
phosphate rock has increased the cost of
production, but the South Carolina man
ufacturers, with characteristics pluck and
sound business judgment, are preparing
to protect themselves and their customers
from imposition from sulphur trusts by
using pyrites. Already several compan.
les have completed arrangements to sub
stitute the pyrites for sulphur in time for
the next seasons product. In doing this
they will not only make themselves inde.
pendent of the sulphur dealers, but will
develop another industry in the South
in the mining and utilization of the py-
rites.
The discovery of phosphate rock in
Florida may to some extent affect mining
in this State, but it will prove of great
benefit to Southern farmers, as it means
8 reduction in the cost of this material.
This will increase its use, enlarge the
cultivated area, and continue that i'm
provement and advancement Of Southern
agriculture that has contributed so much
to the prosperity of the whole country.
The valley of the Nile is possibly the
most fertile region on earth. On the
banks of this wonderful river, rice, sugar
cane, sorghum, cotton, indigo, wheat,
oats, barley, beans, melons, and tomatoes
grow abundantly, while the orange,
lemon, pomegranate and other fruits
flourish. Two crops are made on the
same land each season. A yield of forty
five bushels of wheat per acre is followed
by yield of FIVE hundred pounds of
cotton. The annual inundations of the
river restore to the soil whatever elements
of plant food may have been removed
therefrom by the crops.
It is said that the records show that this
land has been cultivated without depreci-
alton fer ten thousand years. Apparent.
ly nature has done for this favored region
I'll that it requires; and yet Mr.. J. E.
Russell, in recent address before the
Massachusetts board of agriculture, says
that the yield of the crops would be in-
creased by artificial fertilization. fit
would pay the farmers Of the Nile valley
to use this commodity how much greater
are the benefits chose farmers derive from
it who cultivate land that has been par
tally exhausted from long cropping.
South Carolina farmers are fortunate,
therefore, in being able to purchase at
homo the article they most need to make
their lands productive and profitable.
Prof. Holmes was right in saying that
phosphates and fertilizers were more
valuable to mankind than the mines of
Golconds or the golden sands of Cali
fornIa, L, A, RANSOM,