The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-12-15
FARMS AND MARKETS.

Pendleton Farmers Society, Secre-
tary Houston calls attention to the
fact that the farms of the state are
growing smaller each year, the aver
age farm now containing about
se~venty-six acres of land, while fifty
years ago the farms contained an
average of some five hundred acres.
The Secretary believes that the
unit farm is too mall for the eco
nomical employment of labor, and
that the country will not prosper as
it should on that account. All of
which shows that the Secretary is
not informed as to real conditions
in this section, or that he does not
know what is real prosperity and
progress. Fifty years ago when
the farms had five hundred acres
each they were in the hands of a
few lordly landowners, and the
lands were titled for him by negroes
and the "tenant class" 1t is posi-
BILE that on such large farms labor
was employed more days in the year
than now, and that machinery and
farming implements were used more
days in the year, but we doubt it.
But that is not the real question.
A few men then owned the lands
which sold for little because only
these few were able to purchase
lands. Consequently the people
who did the real work were not far
mers but laborers, and the lands
were tended as laborers are wont
to tend them.
But in these later years, every
man has become, or desires to be,
his own landlord. Consequently in
stead of the tenant class and the
day laborers of the years gone by,
we have a constantly increasing
number of landowners, who are
willing to own small farms, to live
on them, raise and educate famil-
ies-real men who are a part and
parcel of the country, all of which
should enter into consideration when
we weigh the results accruing from
the employment and performance
of labor.
1t is not correct to say that the
division of the lands into these small
farms is impeding progress. Other
causes, such as, marketing condi-
tons may not be so good with the
small farmer, and he may not be
able to dispose of the products of
the farm so we'll as could be done
with fewer and larger farms, which
might be organized, but the real
progress in land development, in the
prosperity and progress of the peo-
pie on the farms will be found on
the seventy-six acre farms; and the
people who are looking for good
government, for good schools, good
communities and clean politics, IRE
the men who are struggling to w
the small farms. The economical
employment of labor should not be
measured alone by the number of
days of work but by results, and
these people are showing the real
substantial results.
If there is any doubt in the
mind of anyone on this subject, a
real investigation in the counties of
the Piedmont section will dispel
this doubt. Those counties are
thriving most which are settled by
the white people of the country,
who are willing to divide and SUBJ
divide the lands, so that every man
may have a place he calls his own.
The blighting effect of large farms
has affected the Western part of
Abbeville county for years. With
vast areas of the most fertile lands
in this part of the state, the
have been content to farm them by
negro labor, and thriftless tenants.
The lands remained undesirable, and
almost valueless, for years. But
within the last fifteen years, these
lands have passed into the hands of
men who we're willing to divide them
and sell small farms. Many men
who now own thirty acres Of land.
in this section are today worth more
in the dollars and cents their lands
will bring than men were who own
ed three hundred acres of the same
lands twenty years ago.
The country is being rapidly pop
ulated with people who want to own
small farms, and in a few years we
shall sec many of them, with COM
Portable homes, good out-buildings,
with school-houses and churches, a