The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-02-01

dds to restore and preserve the fertilit,
OF our soils and keep up the productive
power OF our farms. At the close OF
the war, much of the land at the South
was impoverished from successive
years OF culture and despite the fact
that the war left us very poor people
In Georgia alone property values being
reduced from 100000, 900 TO $3.50.
| 600 900, our farmers took up the strup.
glo bravely, hoplng to retrieve tn cI,
losses in the further production of cot
ton, which ruled bcwilderingly hi.h,
The infatuation of high prices in
every avenue of trade and commerce
prevailed. Credit was easy, too easv
and everything needed on the farm
was ruinously dear. Mules SIbO tn
$3.50; flour $10, $15 800 per barrel .
meal in the Same proportion; meat 92
to rs cents pound; farm laborers s15O
to $l75 per year, and rations; besides
guano 800 per ton and farm tools were
eagerly purchased at prices which we
would now regard as almost prohibits
ory. But this high pressure policv
could not continue indefinitely, neith-
cr could the methods prevailing before
the war, except in rare and favored
cases, be successfully brought over
into the new conditions, which follow.
ed that memorable and devastating
struggle.
Az least 90 per cent. of the men who
plunged into this desperate and specul-
ativc period became hopclessly invol.
we'd, both farmers and merchants. The
high price of cotton and The ease with
which high priced supplies could be
purchased, credit prices being predlc-
atcd on big and rcmuncrative cotton
crops, tempted many men to put everv
available acre in cotton and not ono
square inch or else a totally Inadequate
area IN provision N supply crops of
any kind. When the price of cotton
declined, both the farmer, who had
borrowed, and the merchant, who had
loaned, found themselves saldlcd with
debts which only years OF earnest and
patient labor could nope to wipe out.
In many instances after vain struu-
gle TO regain the lost vantage ground.
the merchants went to the wall and
thc old plantations passed into the
hands of strangers.
''''' ~ - 's't PlSSutC tuu DlJH us,
'tis true. 1t was only those men who
loll0wtd more conservative methods
and who apprehcndcd the new era Just
beginning to dawn on our agriculture,
who were able to retain their birth
right and weather the storm of financi-
al depression, which swept with such
fearful force over the entire South. But
that generation has passcd-new men
have come upon the scene and now
prevail. The strong, young business
men Of the South, farmers and mcr-
chants and manufacturers aud bankers
have been trained in very different
school from the magnificent golden aye
OF the old South. Agricultural Itcra
turc has been spread broadcast over
the land, experiment stations have
multiplied, farmers Institutes, and
colleges and other methods for dissent
mating agricultural and up-to- date prin-
ciplcs are IN easy reach Of the army
of earnest workers constituting 73 per
cent of our population who are reading,
studying and applying these vital
truths. Already diversified farming
and rotation, fruit growing, cattle rails
ing and butter making are taking the
pace or lnc Onc-CrOp system with its at.
tcndant bondage TO debt and the indie
pendent farmer who can make his cot
ton and hold it is not the rara avis he
once was.
In technical education and manual
training, in manufacturing, in every
other development of business, the
new South is proudly taking her place
among commercial nations. The era
for which thirty odd years of lessons
painfully learned, disappointmcnts, dis
asters and final successes have prcpar-
ed the way, is being ushered in, and on
the banners of the twentieth century
we sec the glimmer of victory-victory
for farmers, merchants, bankers, man
ers-all business interests fight
ing in one grand army to hold the COM
mcrcial and agricultural supremacy of
the South against the worldl From
this union must come our strength for
all future conflicts against the forces
and combinations that would strive to
reap the entire profits from our great
crop-cotton is the gigantic
industry of the world.
II. T.. NEsBITT.
Marietta, Ga, January 8, 1900.
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