The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-21
GET LAND AND HOLD IL.
That Is the Advice That Should Be
Given Every White Tenant Farmer

ALSS
in the South.
(By E. C. Branson, President Stat
Normal School, Athens, Ga, in tn
Progressive Farmer.)
May ! venture an answer to the ed
itorfal inquiry in your issue of the %
instant: 1.-The Land of Opportunity
Who Shall Possess IT,
The increased average size of farm
in the United States between 1880 an(
1900; the rapid increase Of large es
tateS, in many instances more than
million acres in extent; the bare fact
of farm tenancy, and what is NOR
appalling. the alarming increase o
farm tenancy throughout the United
States and especially in the South. tn
beginnings of competitive rents amOns
tenants for farm holdings, which will
grow greater year by year to the de
struction Of the tenant classes, just az
in Belgium, Ireland and England; thu
pressure of population in the Un1tet
States Eve will hav nearly two hun.
dred million people in the United
States by the middle of the presen'
century,; the inevitable rise OF lane
values (farm lands alone increased
six billion. one hundred million dol
lars between 1900 and 1900, the com
m~ercializing Of farm operations fol-
dividends alone; the decay Of farm
life and farm operations under the
tenant system; the decay Of rura.
schools and churches, the high prices
for farm products, along with the inn
possibility OF Investigation, ntenSi-
cation and rotation under the iron law
Of tenancy; the movement of country
populations Cityward, due to our rlS-
ing industrial city civilization.
All these things mean in the South
that we are apldl our
rural regions to a tenant farm class,
and What Is worse, to a negro tenant
farm class. and that our farm regions
once so abandoned are i~rrevocably
abandoned; that we are creating in the
South, and in America for that mat
ter, a population of lack-lands and
iack-allS who must be more tranSlto-
~ and migratory, with an interest in
community life less and less abiding
and loyal; that we are departing more
and more from our only hope Of eco
nomic safety and freedom. namely.
small land holdings by independent
owners.
I love these plain people on the
farms. I am Of their sort. But | e
for them exceedingly. for their chill
dren and their children's children, as
the years go on. Our intelligent farm
ers need to be just as much concerned
with the economic side Of farm life
as they are with the agricultural side.
Our educators and statesmen will be
obliged to consider all these matters
quickly and wisely. Neither America
nor the South is immune from the
play of forces that have worked the
destruction Of the farm classes of Ire
land and Belgium. But on the other
hand, these same forces intelligently
understood and directed may make of
the farm regions Of our Southland the
agricultural paradise that we find in
Holland and Denmark. It is true we
are getting ready to answer the pro-
phetic inquiry: Choose this day which
economic system ye will serve We
cannot delay an answer to this quee-
ton very much longer. If go, it will
be too hate. Our bIrthright will be
forever gone.
Now d direct answer to your ques-
ton. When in one county of my
State six men own One-third of the
farm lands of the entire county; in
one man one-third OF the
total farm acreage in another, three
men practically the entire county, and
so On all owe the State; when an In
diana company of farmers buys FL. geo
acres Of farm lands in the southwest
ern corner OF the State, and another
company $4,000 acres in the south
eastern corner, and when another
company buys 100000 acres In the
end; when two English arts
tocrats own 100000 acres Of farm
land in Florida; when two more aris-
tocrats own 100000 acres in Mississ-
ippi, and a little bunch Of aristocrats
5000, 900 arces in Texas. it seems to
me that the people who arc going to
own our farm land in nothe genera
ton or two will be people Of sense;
not necessarily people of heart. The
man OF sense will own all our South
ern farm lands, or nearly so, and we
have a vast multitude Of people
scrambling for a footing upon land
just as in other countries of the world,
and then we shall have all the prob
that education, religion and
craftsmanship can deal with to the
end of time. 1t ought to be unceasing-
" into the ears of the farm
class: With all thy getting, get land
it Is safe to say they will never
do it as a great class until they &c. the
necessary und~ erstanding of the pro-
found drifts Of things today in Amer
life.