The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-08-23

the heavy tonnage of freights daily de.
livered to your wholesale merchants in
the last twenty or thirty years. The
daily consumption of foreign -four on
the tables of our farmers has been
something enormous, while our cities
never enjoy bread prepared from home,
raised wheat.
UNIVERSAL RAISING OF WHEAT.
The universal raising of wheat in
your State will be no experiment and
no new undertaking. 1t will simply
be getting back into the footsteps Of
our fathers, and forging strong link
IN the desirable self-sustaining feature
Of our farm work. There are thousands
Of people in your State today who well
remember when patent -four sacked at
Western mills, had no sale in your
merchants stores. South Carolina
wheat has helped to furnish the muscle
and brain Of many of the most eminent
characters who have conspicuous places
in the history Of our country.
A STRIKING CONTRAST.
In contrasting the agricultural cond1.
tions Of the South as they existed thir-
ty-tive years ago with those of the pres
ent it can be more forcibly presented
through short illustration from part
Of our history with which we are all ia
miliar, and of which many of you who
are present here today have feeling
recollection. During the four years
continuation of the civil war the entire
population of the South was blockaded
on all sides. The continued call for
troops to the front drained the country
Of its best manhood, leaving agricul-
ture largely in new hands and under
the restraint of perilous, wrought up
times. The entire Confederacy sub
sisted upon home-raised supplies, and
the invading army of the North loaded
its commissary departments from the
products of Southern farms, Daring
the entire period of four. years there
was no suffering in any quarter of the
South by man or beast for want of good,
wholesome food, particularly -four.
Our troops suffered for want of money
and transportation facilities, but not
because there was not an abundance Of
provisions of all kinds in every section
Of the South. Gen. Sherman COM
menced his memorable march through
Georgia toward the close Of '6t, with
nearly one hundred and thirty-ive
thousand men and thousands of cavalry
and wagon horses. As he advanced on
his line of march to the seaooard, and
onward through your own State, his
foraging parties daily replenished this
vast army's commissary department
with the finest bills of fare ever issued
to any soldiery in modern times.
AN ASTOUNDING ASSERTION.
The full granaries, smoke houses and
extensive well stocked pastures Of South
Carolina's farms supplied Gen. Sher-
man with an abundance Of provisions,
without any great detriment to our
people left ia the wake of his march.
PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
1t cannot be doubted that there is
vastly more acreage in cultivation in
your State today than at that time.
Should such an army with its necessary
stock, equipments, start out through
your State at this time without a we'll
filed commissary, depending upon the
resources of the country to sustain its
march to the seaboard, how far would
it proceed without halting CT looking to
other sources for supplies? Suppose
for one short year the population of
South Carolina was blockaded aud
Western transportation facilities cut
short off what would be the conse-
quence under our present system Of
farming? Famine would run riot in
your towns and cities, and thousands
of the agricultural classes would suffer
for bread and meat, because our farm
ers generally do not produce enough
provisions to take their families through
one year. Of what magnificent past
we can boast and how glaringly it con-
trasts with the present.
In all departments of commercial and
industrial life. except agriculture, the
inventive genius of man is being utilize
with every possible degree Of profit to
the various avocations in which the
people of this country are engaged. The
convenience of all kinds that the world
is daily manufacturing and placing be-
fore the farmer are tending to render
him more helpless and dependent in
business which should be- pre-emineDt-
ly the most Independent on earth.
Thirty years ago when the old horse
power threshing and hand power fan
ming machines were in use, more wheat
was annually raised in some militia
districts of the various counties of your
State than is now threshed with all the
modern improvements at our command,
from the combined wheatacreage of two
or three counties.
SELF-SUSTAINING METHODS.
The young farmers Of your State
must look back into the early history of
their fathers and shape their future
course in agriculture by the self-sus-
tanning method in use on every fam at
that time, utilizing all the latest and
most approved farming implements that
will reduce the cost of labor, increase
the pleasure of the business and hasten
that day of prosperity so much to be
desired. The older farmer should re-
surrect the principles Of farming in
vogue'ouring their earlier days and make
of their farms commendable object les
sons Of what they know to be posi-
Bile of the great resources Of their
State.
PLANTING THE WHEAT CROP.
Plant your wheat not later than the
last week in October, preparing your
land by deep ploughing, narrowing aud
rolling. No matter how extensive or