The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1916-01-28
FARMS AND MARKETS

In his address delivered bee
fore the Pendlet0n Farmers So
ciety, Secretary Houston calls
attention to the fact that the
farms of the state are growing
smaller each year, the average
farm now containing about 76
acres of land, while SO years
ago the farms contained an aver
age of some five hundred acres.
The secretary believes that
the unit farm is too small for
the economical 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 in
formed as to real conditions in
this section, or that he does not
know what is real prosperity
and an 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-
ble that on such large farms
labor was employed more days
i'm the year than now, and the
machinery and farming imple-
ments were used more days in
the year, but we doubt it.
But that is not the real ques-
ton. A few men then owned
the lands which sold for little
because only these few were
able to purchase lands. Conse-
quently the people who did the
real work were not farmers 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. Conse-
quently instead 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 families
real men who are a part and
parcel of the country, all of
which should enter into consid-
Grafton when we weigh the re-
suits accruing from the employ
ment 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 conditions may
not be so good with the small
farmer, and he may not be able
to dispose of the products of
the farm so well as could be
done with fewer and larger
farms, which might be organ.
lied, but the real progress in
land development, in the pros
perity 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, are the men who
are struggling to own the small
farms. The economical employ
ment 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,
real investigation in the coun-
ties of the Piedmont section will
dispel this doubt. Those coun-
ties are thriving most which are
settled by the white people of
the country, who are willing to
divide and subdivide 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 fer-
tile lands in this part of the
state, the owners 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