The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-09

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CHANGE IS NECESSARY IN Q FARMING.
The cotton crop this year has been
perhaps the largest eve made in the
South, but much has been lost,for the
want of hands to pick it out in time.
Hands are scarce, hence much was
lost, as the picking was behind, and
the storms destroyed much of it, and
the loss in quality and quantity was
large. The hands that made it were
not able to save it, and hired help
| could not be had. We have the force
to save it were it employed on the
farms as formerly. But every year
new industries are springing up and
being extended and enlarged, hence,
there is more demand for labor, and
the labor required is being drawn from
the farms, consequently farm hands
are becoming scarce. 1t is useless to
make more cotton than can be saved,
10 why plant so largely of cotton?
Would it not be best to curtal the
cotton crop and adopt a more diversi-
fed system of farming, and raise all
our farm supplies, instead of buying
them? There is this about it: farm
where you may and plant what you
may, unless the farm is made self-sup-
porting and self-sustaining, there will
be no money in farming. The South
makes annually between six and seven
million bales of cotton, worth at least
$500, 600, 900, and still her farmers are
depressed, and why so2 Because the
most Of that large amount of money
is spent in buying food supplies, horses
and mules that could be raised by her
farmers. But if our labor becomes
diversified and finds employment in
the many new industries spr1ngng up
all over the South, the cotton crop
must necessarily be curtailed, which
will be better for the Southern farmers
than the system they have pursued for
the last twenty years. The South is
undergoing a great change. Formerly
it was strictly an agricultural country,
now it is becoming a mining and
manufacturing, as well as agricul-
tural, and her commerce is being
largely increased. This must neces-
sarIy wrought great changes in her
former business modes and systems.
Who are to feed this large population
employed in mining, manufacturing,
railroading, commerce and other pur-
suits? Is the Northern farmer to do
it, as they have heretofore done, or
the Southern farmers? Surely it is to
the interest of the Southern farmer to
do so, and keep the money among us
that is sent North for the supplies; let
the Southern farmer have at least a
part of the money being made in our
country, instead of most of it being
sent to add to Northern wealth. We
speak of the poverty of our people.
How can it be otherwise when we
neglect u opportunities and let the
money made South go to Northern
farmers and Northern merchants and
railroads! we see and complain of the
unjust discrimination made against
the South by national legislation, and
how are we to protect ourselves against
such, except by making the South self
sustaining and independent of the
North. We car only do so by keeping
the wealth of the South, that our
agricultural and manufacturing re-
sources give us, let our profits re-
main South, where they naturally
belong.
Whilst we are strictly an agricul-
tural people, necessarily we are de-
pendent on the North for all manu-
featured articles. But now, as we are
becoming a manufacturing, as well as
agricultural people, we should keep
u wealth among us; we have paid
tribute long enough to the North; let
us nov act in s~elf-defence and build UP
our Southland. We w it to our
country and to ourselves to do so. as
we have a country that enables us to
do so. The great mistake our farmers
make, they labor under the impression
that cotton alone they must rely on to
make farming profitable. Has not
twenty years experience convinced
them that it has been. a delusion?
They have worked at it faithfully
and unremittingly, and still they are
poor; then cotton has consumed the
profits by the expense of making it,
and has made others rich, but keep us
poor. 1t is time they would change
their system, aud try diversified farm
ing, and feed ourselves and feed onr
people engaged in other pursuits. Out
of this seven million bales a portion of
it they will put in their pockets as a
clear npOft b11t q CDooTI FRO o4iOo "a -