The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-08-16
LIVE STOCK IN THE SOUTH.

Oily IN EQ6 CuAuSS6 VI JIG AutAAO GSWO
thing may be done in this direction,
but in the past nothing was nearer an
impossibility than a union Of the W
industries. Indeed, in the cotton plan
tation districts, it was a matter Of
caste, and to enter wool growing,
orcharding, castor bean planting,
melon growing, or the cultivation OF
anything except the royal plant, would
have placed one under social ostracism.
I could name many notable facts in
proof of this statement, which no one
familiar with Southern agricultural
history can deny.
Cotton growing was the natural out
growth of the plantation and slave
system, stimulatedby the short sighted
view that a single product of world
wide demand, and with comparatively
little competition, could alone support
a great population. 1t could for a time,
but origin ators Of this one crop prRc
tice did not look ahead far enough to q
time when a cotton crop worth $780,
OOO,OCO would mean but $50 a head for
a Southern population of Is, OO6, 900. 1t
was not craftsmanship, but provincial
ism, that restricted industry to aRri-
culture and agriculture to cotton. Not
to outgroW this idea, in a fertile and
productive territory suited to the pro
duction of almost anything that can
be grown within the limits Of the
United States, would secure a sure in
heritaucs of poverty. The traditions
of this fetch controlled too long the
labor and effort of a great country, till
the price Of an acre of land, the aver
age value of the product of a mans
labor, and Of course the wages OF labor,
all helped to emphasize the story Of
the unproductiveness and economic
falIacy of the single crop idea. 1t is
now more than forty years since diver
sifcation was politically and socially
possible there, yet more has been &C
eomplished in that direction in the last
ten years than in the preceding thirty,
and far more still will be in the next
ten-so strong have been the industrial
letters forged by heredity and long
established custom.
This accounts for the absence Of cat
tie, sheep and miscellaneous agricul
tural production in the great planta
ton districts. The tenant system was
not much in vogue before 1860, and
now it is only a mOduS UtUendt of the
planter and the freedmen, in new rela-
tions. for the cultivation of the same
plant upon the same plantation, and in
neither case is it responsible for the alb
n of I've utock- As to crop mort
cages, the crop was actually or vir
tuelly mortgeged under the old regime
more generally than at present, and it
was not uncommon for planters to be in
debted to city or country merchant
the full value Of the years crop, for
n farm supplies and provisions
advanced while the crop was growing.
A years credit was allowed, and not
fnfrc quently a large balance unpaid
was carried over against the next crop,
There is now a smaller percentage OF
this indebtedness than formerly, and
but for the advances to colored share
renters the proportion would be much
more reduced.
Fifty years ago, in the great cotton
districts, a few COWS of inferior milk,
ing quality were kept, scarcely any
butter made, and little bought from
Northern or Western diaries. Mile
was used to a limited extent in sum
mer, and often in the winter the cows
would wander to the canebrakes ant
causea Tactical dearth at the homestead
A great change has occurred in recon
years, and milk and butter are in many
districts abundant, COWS are better
bred and better fed, and fine butter j
not infrequently made, and in somr
cases sent to Northern markets.
When the era for live stock growing
began to dawn, as cotton exclusivenes
showed signs of dying out, it was fount
that the native cattle were of littl
value, either for milk or meat-a Texa
or Florida steer being worth in mafke
scarcely a fifth as much as a fnish6
Western steer. And when the Shor'
horn was introduced for stock improve
ment, the Texas fever, which has il
habitat in al the great cotton CROWN
sections, soon destroyed it, delayin
for a long time improvement of SoutI
ern stock. Eventually, however, tt
progeny Of the victims became immur
to the attacks of this dreaded diseas
and cattle Of the best breeds are no
numerous. In Texas, this improv
ment is SO general that it amounts to
nnunIntinn in stnnk. nrnminn tho mi