The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-09-08
THE FARMER.

THE SOUTHERN FARMER.
Wallace P. Reed, a we'll known, but
visionary newspaper writer, recently
contributed a remarkable article to the
columns of the New York Indep9nd-
ent. under the title King COtton's
Slaves"
The purport of the article was that
the Southern farmer within the cotton
belt must, of necessity, make cotton
his leading crop; that he is and must
remain in debt to the country mer-
chant, who, as u~nrelenting as Shylock,
holds him in perpetual bondage; that
if he grow other crops than cotton
there is no market for them; that he
cannot sell vegetables or fruits; that
Northern and Western farmers who
have moved into the cotton region
have found their superior methods
and their ability to pay cash for labor
and supplies" of no avail to them, but
have in a few years grown disheart
ened and have gradually sunk into a
condition of eerfdom that, specifically,
''there is not an instance on record of
a Northern farmer who has prospered
to any great extent in the South since
the war"
Mr.. William H. Edmonds, of the
Southern States Magazine, Baltimore,
has answered the article through the
Independent in a very able and thor
ough amer. Mr.. Edwards says in
one paragraph of the answer:
IF the author of the article had said
that Southern farmers, along with
those in other parts of the country, are
suffering because of low prices of all
agricultural products, he would have
farmers in the cotton belt pursued, for
the most part, for meny years after the
war, the fatuous policy Of growing cot
ton exclusively and importing their
food stuffJ, and that this policy kept
them hopelessly in debt to the country
merchants and city factors, he would
have stated a condition that did IN
doubtedly exist. But when he makes
the averment that this condition OBJ
tains generally in the South now; when
he claims that this all cotton policy is
a necessity, growing out of natural
conditions; when he makes the astound-
ing statement that no Northern farm
ers have prospered to any great ez tent
in the cotton region, he contradicts
facts"
The above paragraph is simply q con-
~densation, for Mr.. Etmonds goes w
the whole ground and works in many
facts. He might have added that the
aQd thrifty aa our Northern neighbors,
and but few of them have their farms
so highly improved, yet they are not
so heavily in debt. The real estate
mortgage Indebtedness, as furnished
by 1890 census returns, show on alarm
ing state of off airs North. This indebt-
edness, including city and town mort
cages, ranges from $144 to 1882 per
capita in the best agricultural States
North, including Pennsylvania, New
York, Massachusetts and Illinois. In
the South this Indebtedness ranges
from $12 so in South Carolina, ST. in
North Carolina, $26 in Georgia to $40
in Tennessee. In none of the Southern
States will the real estate mortgage in
~debtedness reach above $50 per capita.
In the North every State goes above
800. Under favorable conditions most
of this Indebtedness, North and South,
will be cancelled, and it is plain that
the Southern farmers can get out of
debt earlier than their Northern neigh
bors.
We have never yet met a Northern
farmer who is dissatisfied after living
in the South a number of years, and
any good Northern citjz n will meet a
hearty welcome in any part of the
South.