Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-03-13
SKETCH
OF Southern Con.
ditiOnS
And Customs of South.
ern People.
A Loose Soil and Heavy
Ska. Rains
r-T"
Hard on Agriculture In
| Tennessee.
How Northern People Acquire the
Lazy Habit.
How Northern People Acquire the
Lazy Habit.

teresting letter from the South. 1t
folloys:
am well aware that visit and ira
vel Of only month in the South gives
little right to express opinions on any
subject. At least, the opinions will
at best he like the snap shots of a ko-
dak-true pictures, in the main, of the
particular objects in range, but wholly
inadequate in any wide and general
way. On the whole | was favOrably
impressed with the agriculture on this
my third visit In that region. They
have had immensely more to contend
with than we in the North-more, al
most than we can conceive as possible.
To lis the civil war meant unusual
prosperity in and for agriculture. To
them 1t meant disaster beyond our
conception-well nigh humiliation
Farm buildings, fences, fruit trees,
betterments were wiped out of exis
tence as with the bosom of destruction.
Even the soil was well nigh ruined,
from it's peculiar constitution, in way
that we can hardly understand. have
studied one broad line OF the civil
conflict with considerable care--from
Memphis through Corinth to Chatta-
nooga and beyond, in southern Ten
nessee and northern Mississippi, Ala.
bama and Georgia, and the condition
of things even yet Is deplorable agri-
culturally. From 1851 to 1865, inclu
sive, agriculture was practically
abandoned In most Of the South. Turf
like that in the north, Is unknown
south OF Kentucky except on the very
high lands of east Tennessee, etc
The soil Is, most of II, the soft ''loess'
carried in enthusiastically fine particles
In the slow river waters of that early
day when the Mississippi was an arm
OF the gulf, many miles wide. extend
ing up to and beyond Cairo. This
fine, soft loess or silt seems to floa,
in water like slaked lime, and any
marks like tracks of army wagons
In the turfless soil fast grew into i'm
mense gullies, reaching down to the
,level of the lower land and back
into the rolling land until millions OF
acres were ruined for agriculture.
or course Northern man thinks ol
feels that he would "do something
about it," Perhaps he would. Per
haps II would not pay, Perhaps Il
no had begun with almost literally
nothing, as they did after the war, anG
had only negro labor, and been him
self subjected TO the same climate, h,
would have done no differently. Fol
the climate is less bracing and life I,
in many ways easier than here II |,
neither so easy nor so necessary "tC
get hustle on oneself" People from
the North soon succumb. A Northern
lady, regular Miss Ophelia" for en-
I ergy, after n residence of year or tw,
there remarked to Northern fricnt
4 of hers with droll resignation II use,
to think they were awfully shiftles
\ about their housekeeping but now In
4 as lazy and dirty as the worstw Thl
y lassltude seems to me to account 70
4 their dialect, in part, at least. Whe
n the energetic tongue, teeth and lips O
\ well educated Northern man under
take to talk, they unite to chop ol
. each syllable and word as sharp an