The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-03-15
From Our Piedmont oorresponaent.

I recollect when I was a boy-forty or
more years sgo-al the farmers would
have their laud broke up, the logs rolled
and fence corners all cleaned out and be
ready to plant corn by this time of the
year, and they had more t" 10 tb IN they
do now There was the fences around al!
the cultivated fields to be reset ard new
rails to split TO take the place of !he de-
cayed ard broken ones, the fence corners
to clean out every Spring-that Is they
would grow up in bushes and briars,
which We would have to cut out and burn
then there would be lots and cords of
manure to haul out, the bitches would be
to clean out. and if farmer didn't clear
new ground every winter be was not
much Of farmer in those days. Yes,
they had all of that to do through tie
winter, besides having to 90 some ninety
or hundred miles to Hamburg with
load of cotton and to buy his groceries,
iron, etc., for the year. They would do
that and then be two weeks further along
with crop at this time than we are now.
Now, we don't have anything scarcely to
do (?) and we are away behind with that.
I reckon We 20 to town too much, or are
hunting after Office, or something, don't
know what, but one thing do know and
that is the farmers-not many of them
live as well now as they did then, and I
don't see any thing to hinder them from liv-
ing better and with less labor, with all the
progress and improvements We have now.
The trouble is, | am afraid, that every
thing has got to bs so cheap and easy to
get that the majority of the people think
they can buy everything-that is all the
necessaries of life-that should be rased
on the farm cheaper than they can raise
it, and if you 20 at it with figures you will
soon figure up that you can buy flour,
corn, hay, meat, &C., cheaper than you
can raise it at home. but experience
teaches the reverse. / know from my own
personal knowledge that it is cheaper to
raise our own corn than it it is to buy it,
even at twenty five cents bushel, and
home-raised meat is cheaper than Western
at five or six cents pound, but 1t won't
figure out that way on paper, for you are
sure to begin this way: On an acre that
will make fifteen bushels o. corn l can
make half a bale OF cotton, wnich, at ten
cents per pound. would be from twenty to
twenty-five dollars. Well, that will buy,
at fifty cents bushel in the fall land /
know it won't be over that some forty or
fifty bushels-two or three times as much
corn as would make, besides having
manure or cow feed, or to sell, and so you
see the farmers-a great many OF them
lust figure themselves out Of a corn crop
every year and continue to grow poorer
all the time, until at last some men who
know of who had good farms of their own
few years ago are now renters. Some Of
them, perhaps, are renting the land from
the corn and bacon merchant that they
owned 8 few wears ago, but still they say
it is because of uni Just legislation in our
Lawmakers, when I expect) in nine
times out of eleven it is their fault-too
much figuring on how much corn they
can buy with the cotton made on one acre
of land. These are only nay opinions, and
I give them for what they are worth. and
if any farmer can show me that l am
wrong, let him now let it be known, or
else hereafter talk on. Well, as vas 60
ing to say, we are badly behind with our
work in this neighborhood. don't know
how it is generally, but we are behind and
I see no way to catch up unless it will stop
raining for month or so.
would say to "Ned Needle" to not let
that fellow bluff him about the Alliance
pills, for I think be has the genuine arti-
Gle, for can feel the effects of them two
miles or more without taking them: that
iB, keep out of the Alliance, aud 1reckon
they do some good.
News is scarce now.
had to kill my faithful dog few days
ago. thought he had hydrophobia, and
as I didn't care to take any chances on
him to wait and see, killed him before
he began to have spasms, but I think be
would have had them in another day.
SQUIRE FEwEL.