The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-25
Southern Stock RAISING.


pen, to impress upon our southern far
mers the importance-yes, necessity-of
closer attention in the matterof livestock
raising says, @. E. Caldwell, in Prairie
Farmer. Truly, am convinced that the
wasted and shatterd fortunes of our
southern agriculture can only be regain
ed by going back to the old ante-bellum
bedrock of successful agriculture, live
stock raising. There is an opinion enter
tanned by those unacquainted with the
facts, that the immense fortunes built up
in the south before the were was the re-
suit of cotton growing with slave labor.
This opinion is most decided false, as
facts will clearly prove. Cotton, before the
war, was grown almost entirely as a surp-
lus crop. 1t was not expected that cotton
should buy anything in the way of hog
and hominy. Nearly all plantation sup
plies were raised on the farm, often
enough in one year to supply the planta-
ton two years. In some instances, farm
erS did not see the bottom of their barns
in five years, the new crop being piled in
on the old Hay and fodder stacks stood
about the farm by the hundreds, Much
of this fodder and hay was never used.
There was no demand for it. There was
more than the immense herds of stock
could consume before harvest once more
plenty brought" Our woodlands and
commons presented a scene of animal
life seldom seen since Jacob tended his
hocks on the plains of the holy land
Cattle upon thousand hillS,O sheep
bleating in the peaceful, sun-kissed, crys-
tal-watered valleys; while fleet-fOoted,
longsided hogs plow the murky soils of
the many swamps. These were the chan
nels through which great fortunes accu-
INFLATED. We talk about diversified farm
ing nowadays, but our ante-bellum agri-
culture was far more diversified than
what we have to-day. The great agricul-
tural estates of the south were the results
only of a strictly-mixed system of farm
ing. Such wealth could not have been
the result of cotton culture Why2
Simply because farmer could not have
paid for thousand-dollar "nigger'' with
tive-cent cotton. Then again, before the
war, the total production of cotton was
hardly more than half bale to the slave,
Now figure it out and see for yourself
if cotton was the crop that made the
south bloom with beauty and blossom in
multiplied wealth. Before the war the
south was the absolute mistress of the
worlds agriculture. The pages of mod
ern history do not record peer in ag-
riculture to that of the old south. The
great west of to-day, with all its boasted
wealth and progress, presents no just
comparison with the old south. 1t will
thus be seen that diversified system of
farming, and not strict cotton culture
was the foundation upon which our former
successful agriculture was built Faith
fully followed, cotton culture ever has
and ever will be, a snare and delu-
Sion" ever promising, but never
fulfilling. But ''whom the gods wish
to destroy they first make mad"
and so it has been with the devotees of
cotton They are mad raVinp mad after,
cotton Our farmers seem slow to learn,
even in the bitter school of a most sor-
rowful experience. But they are learn
ing. Slow, it is true; but like all radical
changes in political and industrial life,
the reform must of necessity be slow.
One very strong conviction has forced
itself upon the minds of nearly all south
ern farmers, and that is, that a change of
some kind must take place in our system
of farming, or else we are doomed to utter
ruin. 1t is lamentable fact, that. even
in this present year, thousands of south
ern farmers have neglected to raise
enough corn to supply their farms,
while hardly one farmer in
dozen has had even the most remote idea
of raising his own supply of pork. This
too, in the face OF the prohibitory price at
which hog products have been selling
during the year, and with no prospect
that it will be any better for at least
twelve months to come. l would most
earnestly ask every southern farmer to
stop long enough in his wild race for cot
ton, to consider his way" and see if he
cannot perceive the awful gulf of fnan-
cial ruin just ahead. And with this
thought in mind, will reserve for my
next article what consider land think 1
can prove) to be the remedy for much, if
not all our financial troubles