The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-02-01
Andtrsat4 gntelligemssr.
Food For Reflection.

To the Editor of the Ne,Cs and Courier ::
There are many citizens in this State
who can remember when the planters of
upper Carolina, Georgia and Alabama
carried their cotton to Hamburg to sell
and hauled back their annual supply of
sugar, coffee, salt and iron. Hamburg
was the only market for all that section,
and at one time the msst important cot
ton market in the South. During the
fall and winter the four and six mule
teams with jingling bells and white COW
cred wagons crowded the streets and e1-
tended far out on the plank road. The
farmers in those days did not consider
the middleman and spesulator nui-
sance, when they bad to journey 80 far
and lose weeks of time from farm work
in order to find him. They we're glad
enough when the railroad enabled them
to sell their cotton nearer home or ship
it to Charleston. So the farmers of these
times, Notwithstanding the cry against
the towns and commercial classes, like to
20 to the market where the middle men
and spectators are most numerous and
give the last one chance to bid on their
cotton.
The 6rst consideration with every pro
ducer is q market. Manufacturers are
always on the lookout for new channels
of trade and new uses for their wares, and
welcome every possible customer with
the utmost courtesy and kindness. But
in this State We have the strange specta.
Gle of the farmers fighting, with the ap-
parent aim of extenuation, every interest
which can enhance the value of our
crops while raising to excess those which
make us more dependent on other com.
munities. Truly we deserve to be called
"feol farmers" there is no other term to
describe such folly, and our daily suppl.
tion ought To be
"Oh, wad some pow'r the giftie gle us,
To see oursel's as ithers see u.s."
A friend Of mine, who sells milk in a
neighboring town, told me that the town
people kept too many COWS and that in
jured his business. Another said there
were too many gardens and consequently
no marke. for vegetables. Now, here is
the line on which the farmers should
fight the towns: Let us encourage, by
eur good will and friendly votes, theil
growth help to cover all those gardene
with factories, dwellings and stores; e1
tend the town limits and destroy the COW
pastures; con6ne the town people te
their regular business of showing the
yard stick and pen. Then the farmers
woald have better markets for their di.
versifed crops, the farms for miles
around would increase in value. taxes
would be decreased by the increase Of
taxable property, and farmers sans and
others who do not wish TO farm could
easily find good employment.
The experience of the past two years
should admonish us that the day is moi
distant when sotton planting on large
scale in South Carolina will bea thing o.
the past Cotton as lint producer is 6
sun plant, aud no appliance of agricul
tural art or scienco can affect those eli
matte conditions which develop the bolls
and staple. As competition increases the
ceoler sections of the cotton belt will be
the first to succumb. There are vast sec
tions of the globe where climate, soil and
cheap labor are more favorable to the
production of cotton than ours, and oul
own history furnishes many examples o.
the transposition eli staple crops.
South Carolina has no coal or ireI
mines to develop, and in this We are
fortunate, for they bring an undesirable
population, but she presents the most de
sirable field for the manufacture of cot
ton, and the people who follow the rail
roads and factories are an intelligent
thrifty and Law abiding class. The sys-
tenn of farming, which supplies an indus
trial population with the necessaries ane
luxuries of life, is one which could no
be wrenched from us, and for which oul
State is peculiarly adapted.
Reform in this direction is the only
hope for the future prosperity of tb'
State, and the chief condition for it
early accomplishment, is just ant
friendly sentiment on the part of the peo
pie. J. 8. J.
Florence. s. G., January II, 1893.
~