Year: 1879

70 say yet In the depressed feeling in ag-
riculture in our State, in fact all over the


country, beg leave to express the opinion


IN this communication that all is not lost


nor is our case desperate but if we will
do our part, with will that knows not how


to fail, the future is exceedingly hopeful.


Agriculture is the foundation Of all other


industries, and no one can believe that
this great country can be held down
long under this depression. Our young
men who have gone earnestly to work, with


q determination to stick and succeed, are
hopeful'ahd doing well. 1t is the old men
who were raised in other days in affiuencc,
and the tdte young men and those who
seek an easy life through politics, who. des-
cant and groan most over the hard times,


and hope for relief through some amend
mcnts or destruction of law, both moral aud
State, instead Of their own stroug arms,
who are trying to give tone to public opin-
ion for their own selfish ends, who are dam
aging society and the dearest interests of the
State. The brave, the honest, the indus
trious man should not look back and grieve
over the past that, with all its pleasures
aud errors, is gone aud can't be recalled :;
but as the God of Nature sends his genial
sun-rays to warm and gladden. the earth
and start the young plants to bud and grow,
so let the vital forces of our human nature
work US new energies and new industries.
and casting behind them all the past, with
its depression and gloom, look only to the
future with determination to 70 to work
and succeed, and nothing will prevent sue.
cess. 1 know it is hard, very hard, to get
into the habit of work, but with the habit
once formed, every man is the happier for
l:. Aud, FIRST, let u Jegin from to-day to
prepare for crop, both of tobacco and corn,
according to our means and ability. Now
is the time to begin. Every man with one
horse or one OK, can do something. If he
has neither and not the means to get either,
hire to, or get into copartnership with some
one who has, and go to work. Don't uu.
dertake too much Of any one crop, but
make little of all and whatever you do
undertake, do ,ocN. Plow thoroughly and
work it we'll save all the ashes made in
cleaning up your ground or in any other
way, if only gallon in place, and crop
it in your corn hills, and save and put on
all other manures Of every kind, but don't
go az debt for manipulated fertilizers, they
will not pay on corn at presents prices, and
on tobacco only if you have the money in
hand to buy them and repeat, work
thoroughly ,ohdt you undertake. l know the
prices of both staples are very low, but l
think they are now at bottom, ond if there
is any change, it will be for the better
They will pay, however, at present prices,
if made with the strictest economy. 1t
will pay in the sweet sleep produced by the
consciousness that you have made an effort
to do something for yourself and your State,
and have not been sitting down in idleness,
perhaps at cross-road store or grog shop,
groaning over the hard times superinduced
by idlencss and political hercsies 1t will
pay in the example you set to your broth
ors and children, even if the balance-she
at the end of the year shows only your


bread for your labor. After you rcrop and
garden is planted (don't neglect the garden,
for out Of that alone you you can iue),
prepare from one to FIVE acres of land for
turnips fer your sheep the following winter
they will grow on most any well. prepared
light ground, and will feed forty sheep to
tho acre of turnips, in all the weather in
winter that they usually require feed in
this climate; and there is no industry or
stock that pays as we'll in the South a as fifty
to hundred sheep well cared for !; they will
invariably, from wool and lambs, pay first
cost or 100 per cent. in a year, if well man.
aged and protected from dogs, and every
man can and should make his own dog law
with phial of stryohnine. Our wise leg
islators are afraid to do it. These sugges.
tions are addressed to every man who owns
one hundred acres of land or more, who is
willing to work, and who can command cap.
ital enough to rent one hundred acres or
more, and it is more applicable to the man
that owns or can rent and stock larger
farm but my advice to renter with small
capital is, not to undertake. too much, and
to large land owner, with small ability
to work it, to rent out what he cart work
well. Believing that we are at bottom pri.
ces for llTagricultural products, tho chan.
ces are that the future will pay all who will
practice judicious economy in that calling


Free trade, my friend Major r. says, is what
we want, Some oft may be good thing
for the South and agricultural sections, but
whether is it better to raise revenues by q
protective tariff (for our Federal govern


ment is heavily in debt and must have rev.
onues), or by direct taxation of tobacco,
cotton and sugar of the, South and incomes
of the North--for the South have none.
think q revenue tariff, incidentally protec.