Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-02-19
wALHALLA, $. G..
wEDNEsDAY, FEs. Ie, 1909.
Freedom for the Farmer.

1t is not too late in the season Cor
Southern farmers to form themselves,
each into a committee of one, to
strike for the freedom of their farms
and themselves from the cormorant
credit system. The South has not
raised a crop since the civil war upon
cash basis. The reasons prevent
ing it are too we'll understood to
need revamping now. The question
that is pertinent pivots on the pres
ent reasons why our farmers should
begin the work of decentralization
from the old incubus policy.
Much looking to that end has been
accomplished in the past thirty years.
Better farm methods and machin-
cry have been gradually introduced
by progressive farmers, crops have
been rotated and intensifcation of
cultivation practiced. The results
are seen in the larger percentage of
farmers who are out of debt, who
are farming on cash principles, rails
ing home supplies and rationing their
own employees. Every such one is
the envy of his neighbors. They
call him "lucky" and let it 90 at that,
without an effort to emulate him.
We are convinced that thousands
of Southern farmers can begin with
the present season and in less than
three years be their own bankers and
independent of supply house, West
ern slaughter houses and North
western flour mile. They will be
able to walk among their fellow-men
unmortgaged and indifferent to the
holder of the guano note and the
date of delivery to the man with the
store account
Plant corn There is no better,
healthier, cheaper food for the South
ern palate, blood and bones than
good corn. It's value is surely appre-
ciated, else we would not annually
buy such tremendous quantities of it
out OF Western elevators.
Why not raise it at home? If
some men can grow rich trading in
1t, with commissions, freights, in
lnce and interest added, why can
nt Southern farmer make the
same money by raising it on his own
cheaper lands and with the saving of
all those incidental and price -enhanc-
ing charges p? We insist that the
highest wisdom and economy should
determine every intelligent Southern
farmer to make himself Independent
on the corn issue.
Plant corn! Sow oats!
They are a necessary and valuable
crop. Our lands will produce them
with as much certainty as those of
other sections of the country and
surely with less cost than they can
be imported from distant States.
In the fourteen Southern States,
with nearly third of the population
OF the Union, and that population
principally engage in agriculture,
we raised in 1900 only S3,99S,256
bushels of oats. If we need oats in
the same ratio as our fellow citizens
generally, our share would be 269,-
100000 bushels, and of trat amount
we raised less than one-third. There
is one big sluice gate through which
our Southern money flows to enrich
other sections. Sow oats
Make hay! 1t costs less money to
encourage grass and cure it into hay
than to kill il off the farm. The hay
crop of the Union is 50,000,O0O tons.
We do not raise one fourth the hay
in the South that we use. If farm
won't raise anything else it can be
made to raise hay, and hay pays
handsome dividend on the land and
labor invested in its production.
Make hay
The first crop. of cotton, accom-
panied by sufficient food products
and cereal crops for home use, that
shall be raised in the South on
cash basis will Immediately double
the value of every acre of farm
lands in this section on which that
feat is possible. Every farmer who
can perform the deed will find him
self twice as rich in assets, credit and
independence.
The time is the present and the
opportunity is one that has at the
end OF it more hard, gittering,
world -conquering gold than lies at
the end OF summer rainbow or the
Shagway trail.-Atlanta Constitu-
tion.
Saved Him From Torture.