The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-08-23
GOOD ADV ICE
q Speech that Every Farmer
Should Read and Study.
TIE ROAD TO PROSPERITY.

TIE ROAD TO PROSPERITY
MIR. C. H. Jordan, a Distinguished
Georgia Farmer, DeIiyersan
Instructive and Interest
ing Address.
The following is the speech of Mr.
c. H. Jordan, Of Georgia, before the
Wheat Growers Convention:
Mr.. President, Ladies aud Gentle.
men: There is no occasion Shich is tc
me more enjoyable and no compliment
which esteem more highly than the
privilege of being with and talking TO the
far ers of my country. In the discus,
sion Of those problems, the solution OF
which is essential to prosperity in ouI
future farm work, subject Is present
ed in which We are now most vitality In
terested. Conditions which did not
suggest themselves decade ago are be-
coming serious and formidable at the
present time. While personally a
stranger to the mos: Of you feel that
my own interests are identical with
yours and that we are all engaged IN a
common cause.
In advocating revolution in our
farming methods | shall not suggest the
adoption Of anything which has not
heretofore been successfully unde7tak-
en-, and will give no advice which is
not capable Of practical application. 1t
is quite apparent to any casual observer
that cur system of doing business is de-
cidedly contrary to that which existed
during the days If our greatest prosper
ity and consequent independence.
There was a time, not so far back in
the past when the farmers Of the South
supplied the population Of the towns
and cities with the necessaries of life
from the varied products Of their farms.
At the present time large majority Of
our farming classes are helplessly de-
pendent upon the merchants for supplies
not only for themselves, but for their
stock as well. The heavy staple sup
plies which the merchants handle are
grown in the far West and the proceeds
Of the cotton crop of the South, which
should represent the surplus money
crop of the farm, is paid out to the
farmers of the West. We are enrich
ing not only these producers, but the
railroads, wholesale and retail dealers
through whose hands these goods must
pass before reaching US, and who charge
full commission all along the line.
The crop out Of which we are expected
to pay for these supplies is sold at a fig
ure below the cost of production, and
there can be but one result to US from
the continuance of such system Of do
ing business.
GREAT AGRICULTURAL STATE.
Tie great State Of South Carolina
possesses as great a degree of ofdiversifed
resources as any State in the Union.
There is not a farm in your State which
cannot by proper method Of diversi-
fed planting, under an intensive system
of culture, he made self-supporting.
The farmers Of your State must realize
that every pound of supplies which
they purchase in the open markets is
produced by other farmers in distant
sections of the country who labor under
greater difficulties than those with
which we have to contend.
When Southern farms were self-sus-
tanning open accounts were the only
evidences Of Indebtedness, and farm
er's word was as good as gold, Sharp,
shrewd business men Of the world saw
that there we're fortunes to be made out
of the cotton crop if the farmer could
be induced 10 produce it IL large guam
titles.
The Western people saw an opportu
nifty for building granaries and packing
houses to supply the South with food
if we could be induced to turn our at
tentiou entirely to growing cotton. The
big railroad magnates saw grand op-
portunity to increase dividends, multi
ply their rolling stock and otherwise
fatten on the freights to be obtained by
transporting heavy and costly supplies
from the West for the Southern cotton
grower during the spring and summer.
In the fall millions OF cotton bales
would be turned over to them for car
riage to the seaports or Northern mar
kets, and second whack had at the
great Southern industry.
The stock raisers of kentucky and
Tennessee we're pleased at the bright
prospect of supplying for tie future
that beautiful Southland, where al that
was needed to make man rich was a
piece of land planted in cotton, with a
Negro and Kentucky mule to plough
it.
Guano manufacturers saw at once
that plant foods in enormous quantities
would have to be supplied to keep up
the fertility Of the ceanly cultivated
fields, and that the investment would
be good one. Cotton expositicns
were held all over the country and the
white staple crowned king.
1t has taken twenty years to whip
the fight, but the intense greed Of the
world has done the work, aad to-day the
old king lies half dead in the ditch,
while broken and disappointed mourn
ers gaze upon the long trail of disap-
pointed past. While the farmer has
lost in the struggle the country at large
has developed and increased its wealth
steadily each year.
| have no criticism to make Of the