The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-03-11
HOW FACTORIES HELP FARMERS
\ Striking Illustration of the Value to
Farmers of Manufactories.

L. J., of Blacksburg, S. c., writes
as follows to The Manufacturers Re
cord
Piedmont and Pelzer are two cotton
manufacturing towns IN Anderson
and Greenville Counties, taking taelr
names from cotton mills. lncorporat-
ed companies began to build and op-
crate these mills sixteen or seventeen
years ago, one starting with $265, 900
capital and the other with S400, 900,
while the present capitalization OF
Piedmont is $S00,000 and Of Pelzer
81, 900, 600. Piedmont has about GS,-
900 and Pelzer 107, 900 spindles, and
each a full equipment OF looms Of I'M
proved pattern.
The increased capital has been made
up of accumulated profits and newly
subscribed stock, Pelzer getting Sl25
a share for the last 100000 Of stock
issued.
When these mills were projected
the value of real estate or farm lands
in the surrounding country was small,
certainly not over S. to $40 per acre.
The system Of cultivation then 10
vogue was crude, and generally the
farms were dilapidated and little cared
for
These factories when once IN opera
ton, awakened a new spirit among
the farmers, who soon realized The
tact that potatoes, turnips and every
food for man and beast found ready
everyday cash market at their very
doors, due to the assemblage-o of factory
operatives as consumers at PelZer and
Piedmont. The result was that re-
newed attention was given to farm
Improvements and the production Of
food crops which had hitherto been
neglected, all interest having been
given to the production of the only
salable crop then and previously
known-cotton. At the same time
the local demand and market for cot
ton for the mills has put on it a pre-
MUM of from one-eighth to one-quar-
ter of a cent per pound, and often even
more On this basis, on every bale
raised within the wagon market limit
of these two factories the difference at
the minimum calculation would be
from sixty 81 20 a bale, or on 80, 600
bales $4,000 to $3S, 900 year, equal
in fifteen years to s270, 900 to $40, 900
all of which has gone into the pockets
Of adjacent farmers; and while these
factories did not consume every bale
produced within their territorial limits
yet they fixed the price and put the
premium on all Of it that was shipped
away.
If we had any data upon which TO
sum up and fix the profits made ia
the last fifteen years by farmers living
around these towns-made from the
sale of vegetables and farm products
and wood as fuel to the factory peo-
pie the amount would doubtless be
very large, perhaps millions; and yet
these profits were scattered among
people who never contributed a cent
towards the building of either OF these
large and prosperous industries.
While the building and operation
of these mills have proven highly re-
munerative to those who invested
money in them, and while their stock
is in great demand and more than
double its original cost, it may seem
strange, but it is fact, that the peo-
pie of the surrounding country who
own the farm lands have in the ag-
gregate been benefited to an amount
in excess of the entire cost Of both
| factories.
From a point midway between
Piedmont and Pelzer describe a circle
or imaginary line with radius OF ten
miles. Such circumference will en-
close 2OO,0 acres of farm lands.
Suppose the building OF these factories
placed upon these 200, 900 acres OF land
an increased and enhanced value OF
SIS per acre and the sum is 81, 900, 900;
at $40 per acre s2,OOO,000, aud at SIS,
s., 100000 aud at $50, $4,000, 900 of
enhanced value. Taking 10 as the
true limit, it gives profit to the own
ers of land within a radius Of ten
miles of 100000 more of enhanced
values than the entire capitalization
of both Piedmont and Pelzer, all of
which has accrued to them without
their making cent OF Investment.
The write: has repeatedly talked to
intelligent and educated farmers who
live within two to ten miles OF these
factory towns, and most of them place
the increased value of their lands re.
sultant on the building of these fac.
tories at from SIS to S25 per acre. As
fact. no farms v'ithing ten miles OF
either town can now be purchased at
less than $25 orS30 per acre. and many
will now command greater price
than this even.
Seventeen years ago, when Col. II.
P. Hamett purchased the lands near
and on which Piedmont now stands
at 50 per acre, there was living near
by an old respectable farmer on a
worn out and dilapidated farm with
house to correspond, the roof even
being wornout. and leaSy. He had
offered his farm time and again at s5
per acre, and finally tried to get 81. 80
per acre to enable him to move to
Alabama or Texas in order TO get bet
ter land. Failing to sell he)emaiued,
and when the noise of loom and the
hum of the spindle were heard near
him, he took heart, began to farm bet
ter and sell wood, turnips and farm
truck, put new roof on his house.
cut away the briars and thorns, fixed
up the place generally and has since
sold 100 of his surplus at $50 to s75
per acre, and could now get so per
acre for the 200 left; and this honest
old farmer is but one of the many who
have found themselves bettered by the
successful enterprise of others
Suppose cotton factory costing
$500, 600 to 81, ,000,O00 be built on 1000
acres of waste lands at the south cost
ing $4,000; on this would be 500 to
500 dwelling houses for operatives on
as many distinct lots of say 100 by 300
feet. From past experiences with US
in twelve to fifteen years these town
lands would be worth as much more
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