The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1904-01-13

With all this restless desire to dis
cover new opportunities the human
mind of the day seems bent upon the
idea that all that is good lies ahead.
There seems to be too little thought
given to discover what is right a. our
doors in our very midst, and especial
~ does this apply to the people of
the South and to the opportunities
that lie concealed here. There are
no conditions in Georgia that should
excuse our people for restlessness
to go West or East or anywhere 10
search of better lands or more prom
ising opportunities. My greatest
hope for the future of the South lies
in her agriculture, and the nearest
road to reach that prosperity lies in
having men of money and brains to
turn their attention in this direction.
The soil of the South used to produce
In such abundance till it was seem
ing land of milk and honey
anyhow, alI old people know that it
was land of wonderful abundance.
To get back to this wonderful abun'
dance I would say to those men
capable of great enterprises to cease
their strain on experimental and
uncertain lines:
Come join your brains with our hardy
sons of toll,
And watch the generous yield Of
Southern soil.
1t only Graves from laggard SONS
touch
To yield the same to-day and just as
much.
If men of brains and capital will
turn their attention to agriculture in
the South We will soon have satisfied
people and land of such abundance
that there would be no more restless
search for new fields of endeavor.
Giye up the planning of great enter
prises at least till you have brought
agriculture in the South TO where it
should be. It is now time to plan
the making of next years crops. 1t
is not sufficient that men almost
beggars drift into the country seeking
work. We want people capable of
forming great syndlcates in the inter
est of farming, just as such syndicates
are formed for other pursuits and
other developments.
Farmers are now sowing wheat.
and the great majority of them are
bouncing and skimming it in with
little old s'shooters" that bounce ut
every rock and clogs and skins at
every bunch of crab grass. The need
is for men capable and with capital
to harness up teams with something
more than q pair of traces and q back
band, and to provide implements
sufficient to put in the grain as it is
in other countries. IT the people out
in the States SO much Dragged on
we're to try to farm as the average
Georgian tries, they would starve to
death without a doubt. The imple-
ments on a farm in the Western
States represent greater investment
than land. improvements, stock and
everything here in the South. There
must be an improvement in our
methods here of farming, and there
must be greater effort at making
country homes more inviting in the
matter of social contact. The lone
liress that attaches TO q msjority of
tenant homes must be relieved. It
will take such a revolution in our
present methods to accomplish these
things that it were idle to think Of it
without a greater amount and a
different handling of money. I wish
that Georgia had few men in her
agriculture as Mr. Morgan is in rail-
roading, I know it might be unpop-
ular for a while with some, but I
believe that great combines in farm
ing, just as capital is combined in
other pursuits, is the South's great
need. Il is now the season for the
preparations that will 60 to make the
crop of 1904, and it is the greatest
;ptoroek tbot corfropfs Georoia and