Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-18
Good fishing at East Lake.
GREENSBORO.
Tom Wilburn Granted Bail-Annual Chal-
 lenge Debate.

rom WHDurn GranUea ball-Aunuhi OudA-
 lenge Debate.
 Greensboro Dec. 15.-(Special Corre- spondence) )-Tom Wilburn, for tile kill ing of John Glover, was brought before Judge Christian yesterday on habeas corpus poceedings and allowed bail in the sum of $3000, which was readily given.
 Miss Rowena Jackson, whose health has been bad for several months. died here on the 18th instant. She was most estmable young lady and member of one of the oldest families of Greensboro.
 Cotton seed are selling for 16 cents per bushel in Greensboro; corn 30 cents per bushel and country-made molasses from 25 to 30 cents per gallon. Very little cot ton remains In the country, as an evi- dence of which the receipts at this place last Friday were sixteen bales, to 11O bales on the corresponding day last year, and on Saturday thirty-three bales this year to 21S bales last year. In 1892 the receipts were forty-siX bales and in 1893 115 bales for the corresponding Saturday. A few planters who are in good financial condition are holding back their cotton, but as general rule the cotton has been marketed as fast as 1t was packed. A fair average of cotton to the mule this year has been five bales, whereas of a good year it is from eight to ten bales to the mule.
 This section has raised more than suf- ficient corn for the people, and large number of hogs have been killed, prob- ably twice as many as during any year since the war. Hog and hominy are not as rare commodities as they once were in this country.
 But little blowing has been done for another crop, which is bad indication for a good harvest the coming year. In bo ank Iap6C the Ia nd should he bedded before the 1st of January to in- sure a good crop. But this cannot be done under the present system of labor. that is renting of the lands to the freed men. You cannot make them see the necessity of preparing the lands for cul- tivation before the rainy season sets in, which is generally in January and Feb ruary. So they get their lands bedded mp by the 1st of May it makes very little difference with them whether it is done wet or dry. And yet more crops are ruined by bedding the land too wet than by any other cause. The great need of the farming interests of this country is intelligent direction of the labor of the country. In the good days of old, when this country was cultivated like garden and the cotton fields bloomed like the roses and the corn fields were one vast expanse of waving green, who ever heard of farmer turning over the man. agement of his farming interests to an ignorant darky? The thing was un- heard of. And yet that very thing is being done all over the black belt. No wonder the country Is not prosperous and farming has run down to the lowest ebb. It will never be prosperous so long as the whites abandon their plantations, flock to the towns and leave farming to the negroes. Every interest to be sue cessful must be managed and directed by intelligence. We might as well expect to see mills, mines and furnaces success fully managed by ignorant labor as the farming interests of the country. It takes as much brains to make success full farmer a it does in any other occu- patton, and the idea that generally pre- yails that any fool can farm is a mis- taken one. But the usual plan is for parents to put their bright boys to the study of law and medicine and their dull boys to the blow, whereas, if the plan was reversed 1t might be better for the world for more people are benefited by the successful pursuit of agriculture than that of law or medicine.
 The annual challenge debate between the two literary societies of the Southern university took place last night A large and interested assembly was pres ent. The question and the debaters were as follows:
 Resolved, That the United States should not extend her borders"
 The Beles Letters society was repre- sented by A. Urquhart, Selma, and J. E. Wilkinson, Jr., Selma; the Clariosophic society by J. P. Mccoy. Tuskaloosa, and C. A. Beard, Verbena. Thespeeches in thought and in delivery were up to the usual high grade on such occasions. The decision was in favor of the affirmative.