Year: 1867

marvellous fertility but this Is IN the iutuie'
and for those who take their lives IN thcl
hands. and much money in their pockets


II il those vast portions of the South whelc
health can attend civilization, ana which nave
been brought into cultivation, that require W
! tention. and this, not OF individuals ouV vi
Government itself. Their condition bllcly Is
thia On first being cleared good crops Wefo
raised for several years, but the SOIL Deihs no
where natural for grass, has been removed ny
successive Groupings, or has been washed INTO
valleys. or foated out with the streams INTO
tbo ocean. At this time all Southern fields are
| !, tbe different stages ranging from compare
tive freshness to marked decay and absolute
borrepness. There arc tens of thousands of
farms, once yielding abundantly, which now
cannot produce eight bushels Of corn or 90
pounds of lint cotton to the acre. OF course
such land as well as the owner, bear the marks
of debasing poverty. So far from this condition
becoming in any respect better, every year
adds largely to the number of farms on
the doleful list Now, for the South
to attempt to raise her bread and to supply the
world with cOttOn-tO bring in agricultural
machinery and to make the wheels of industry
revolve with greater Tapidty-is only to hasten
her day of DOOM Some of her most intelli-
gent men arc aware of these facts; formerly
no one so keenly felt them But life for them
is short, and they will take to the grave
crushed hopes, and crushed because they car
red on that terrible war for the express pur-
pose of having fresh plantations on fresh and
more distant soil. But the majority do not
consider these things; if they did. sufficient for
them, too is the evil of the day.


To meet the wants of the South, and equally
so of the North, reorganization of the De-
partment of Agriculture is imperatively de-
manded Congress should make special appro-
prations for the establishment of experimental
farms in various Southern States These should
show how the land which is yet productive can
be continued so, and, when this is done, IN
crease will follow. Then attempts can be made
for restoring fields which are impoverished.
For instance, let there be a Government farm
near Atlanta, and grass be made to grow, not
only in Summer, but in December and March.
The hilly regions should not be neglected By
reason of the steepness plowing would he i'm
practicable; if it could be done, the first
heavy rain, after the roots of the trees rot,
would carry away the soil. These hills can be
put in blue grass, and they viii furnish abund-
ant food for sheep. We should be opposed
to an experiment in any county that would
not enforce an cffectual dog law. The at
tempt, at first, should 10 confined TO making
simple farms, where dairy products would he
reasonably abundant through the year, and from
this basis all other crops can be grown with
profit and ease. Skill and good Judgment alone
can carry out this plan but these qualities are
by no means rare, thanks to the labors and
trials of the present and past; and with the
smiles of Providence success will crown the
endcavor. The need now is for Commissioner,
who. with the sanction of Congress- Will or
ganize and carry out the proposed idea. If the
South can be taught how to retain the fertility
of the SOIL saying nothing about the increasing
production, fifty or a hundred millions of dol
lars will be a small sum to secure 50 desirable
an end. 1t remains now to be seen whether
our legislators can rise TO the importance of the
occasion, or whether they will permit to be
repeated on this continent the process which
changed fruitful region in Western Asia into
a wilderness, leaving for our instruction the
ruins of Balbec and Palmyra among the desert
| sands.