The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-13
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE AND ITS
NEEDS.

A discussion of the above subject
in the Breeders Gazette, of Chicago,
called forth the following article
from Prof. J. M. johnson, of our N.
G. Agricultural Experiment Station,
which we are sure will be read with
interest by Progressive Farmer peo-
pie:
The discussion of the causes of
agricultural depression in the South
and the suggested remedies therefor,
which has appeared in recent issues
of your paper, has doubtless been an
important factor in bringing the
farmers of this section to a realiza-
tiOn of their condition. Men from
different districts of the United
States assign widely differing rea-
sons for our present condition. I
have no desire to criticize or find
fault with the articles on this sub
ject, which you have already pub
lished, nor do l wish to enter into a
controversy with any of the writer's
even though I may have views diff
fering from theirs. To at least one
whose range of observation has ex-
tended beyond sectional lines there
seems to be an intermixing of truth
and error in the theories-if they
may be called theories-set forth by
some of your correspondents on this
topic.
From observations made in differ
ent places it is very readily seen that
the agricultural conditions in the
South are not the same as those in
other sections. In the North the
farms are usually comparatively
small and are cultivated by their
owner and the members of.his family
which generally insUres good atten-
tiOn to the minutest details of the
work and this makes it easy to avoid
unnecessary losses. In the South
the farms are larger, comprising Gas
they often do) several thousand acres
which are usually apportioned out
among a set of tenants who know
next to nothing about retaining the
natural soil fertility or growing
maximum crops at the minimum
cost. The land owners for social
and other reasons often prefer to live
in villages and cities which makes it
impossible for them to give that
close attention to their rural posses
sions which is so essential to the
most economical production.
The changes in political and social
affairs which overlook the South
from 1860 to 1870 were parents to a
degraded agricultural practice and a
dislike for country life that were
manifested throughout the entire
section by the turning of the farms
over to an unintelligent class for
cultivation and the removal of the
intelligent landowner to the towns
and cities. a system of farming re-
quiring the exercise of but very lit
tie knowledge soon became an abso-
lutte necessity. Thus the one-crop
method-a child of necessity-has
developed and become so widespread
and powerful as to act as an incubus
crushing it's adherents closer and
closer to the affairs of poverty. We
are not crying for return of the
political conditions of ante bellum
times. The whites of the South are
not at all anxious to reassume the re
sponsibilities of ownership over the
negroes. The freedom Of the latter
was given them ; let them enjoy it in
peace and quiet. IF left to those
who understand it best the race
problem will gradually work out it's
own solution to the best interests of
all concerned.
The South has been favored by
nature with the very best climate.
Extremes of temperature as expert
enced in the North and West are un-
known in the South droughts and
blizzards so dreaded by the country
people of some less favored sections
are strangers to those of this. The
heat of the torrid zone may be the
progenitor of lazy and indolent
classes, but that of the Southern
United States is not. Financially
and industrially the South has been
crushed beneath great burdens
which need to be felt before their
full weight can be realized. Some
times her people almost lose hope.