Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-08-24
D IT MUST FOLLOW AS THE DAY. THOU oANs,T NJ


t,sfSS ~ N<AAhAS&AA1<As SOS;1h SfAGSS
have largely figured in the heavy
tonnage Of freights daily delivered
to your wholesale merchants in the
last twenty or thirty years. The
daily consumption of foreign flour
on the tables of our farmers has been
something enormous, while oul
cities never enjoy bread prepared
from homo-rhised wheat.
i UNIVERSAL RAiSiNG OF WHEAT,
i The universal saising 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
a strong link in the desirable self
sustaining feature of our farm work.
There are thousands of people in
your State to-day who we'll remem.
Der when pateut flour, 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.
| :. STRIKING CONTRAST.
In contrasting the agricultural
conditions of the South as they ex-
histed thirty-five years ago with
those of the present it can be more
forcibly presented through q short
illustration from part of our his
tory with which we are all familiar,
and of which many of you who are
present here to-day have a feeling
recollection. During the four years.
continuation of the civil war the
entire population of the South was
blockaded on all sides. The con-
tinued call for troops to the front
drained the country of it's best man.
hood, leaving agriculture largely in
new hands and under the restraint
of perilous, wrought up times. The
entire Confederacy subsisted upon
home raised supplies, and the invad-
ing army of the North loaded its
oommissary departments from the
products OF Southern farms. Dur
ing the entire period of four years
there was no suffering in any quater
of the South by man or beast for want
of good wholesome food, particularly
flour. 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 commenced his memorable
march through Georgia toward the
close Of '6f, with nearly one hundred
and thirty-tive thousand men and
thousands of cavalry and wagon
horses. AS he advanced on his line
of march to the seaboard, and on
ward through your own State, his
foraging parties daily replenished
this vast army's commissary depart
mcnt with the finest bills Of fare ever
issued to any soldiory in modern
times.
AN ASTOUNDING ASSERTION.
The full granaries, smoke houses
and extensive well stockcd pastures
of South Cardinals farms supplied
Gen. Sherman with an abundance of
provisions, without any great dctri-
ment to our people left in the wake
of his march.
PRERENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
1t cannot be doubted that there is
vastly more acreage in cultivation in
your State to-day than at that time.
Should such an army with it's nee
essary stock equipments, start out
through your State at this time with
out n we'll filled commissary, de-
pending upon the resources of tho
country to sustain it's march to the
,IIoeaboard, how far would it proceed
without hating or looking to other
sources for supplies? Suppose for
one short year the population of
South Carolina was blockaded and
Western transportation facilities out
short off, what would be the conse-
quence under our present system of
farming2 Famine would run riot in
your towns and cities, and thousands
of the agricultural classes would
suffer for bread and meat, because
our farmers generally do not pro-
duce enough provisions to take their
families through one year. OF what
q magnificent past we can boast,
and how glaringly it contrasts with
tho present.
In all departments of commercial
and industrial life. oxceDt acricul-