58 The Bulletin. 



crops. Those sections where the farmers raise their own supplies, and have 

 some to sell to supply the local markets, are the most prosperous. 



We need to fence our farms, and must do so, if we keep live stock ; and we 

 must keep live stock if we expect to have manure to go on our crops. With- 

 out manure I believe it almost impossible to get our farms into a high state 

 of cultivation. By the keeping of live stock on our farms, not only will this 

 live stock manure the farms and get the fields in better condition for growing 

 better crops, but they will pay a profit to the owner. Our waste lands and 

 hills should be fenced, and growing cattle, horses and sheep, instead of being 

 allowed to grow up and, in many cases, wash away. 



If one-half the money that goes out of the State for food products could 

 be kept here, what a change would come about in the financial condition of 

 our people in a few years ! We need to supply our markets with good butter 

 and milk. We are sending to Iowa and other States to buy our butter. They 

 are sending here and getting our cotton-seed meal, making butter and sending 

 it back to us. By such a system they are making their farms rich at our 

 expense. This should not be. I have found feeding milk cows to be profitable, 

 and the best way to get good manure that I have tried. 



Why not raise more sheep? I have found that sheep are as easy to raise as 

 any stock, and almost indispensable in building up my farm. They will im- 

 prove any land they graze upon: will kill the briers, keep down weeds, kill 

 sassafras and bushes, will distribute their droppings evenly over the fields, 

 and put the land in fine condition for any crop. If there was no other profit 

 I would consider that they pay me in preparing my land for crops. But they 

 will pay in mutton. A gentleman said, in Danville you could not buy spring 

 lamb for less than 25 cents per pound. Another gentleman said in another 

 place two sheep brought him $16 in mutton ; and we can consume more of it on 

 the farms. How about the wool? We have woolen mills in the State ready 

 to convert your wool into blankets, flannel, nigs, shawls, buggy-robes and 

 cloth — and I don't find any for sale as good as I have made out of my wool. 

 These mills are sending North for wool, and our money is going to enrich the 

 farmer who keeps sheep. Why not keep some sheep, and let them help you to 

 improve your farm, and at the same time make your family happy by provid- 

 ing good mutton and good woolen goods? If you do this you can keep more 

 money in our State and more in your pocket. 



Each one of us must do our part in the great work of reclaiming our State. 



We need to keep good brood-mares to raise our own horses. We cannot 

 afford to be paying from $400 to $000 per pair for horses and mules; every 

 time you buy a pair out of the State you are making some other farm rich 

 and putting money into some other man's pocket, and proportionately making 

 your farm poor and taking money out of your own pocket. 



We ought to raise more poultry, chicken, turkeys, ducks — yes, and geese, 

 too. You can't now get a good feather bed, and yet geese are grazers and are 

 easily raised and give little trouble. Yet we are sleeping on straw ticks or 

 sending North to buy mattresses. 



We should raise more meat. Keep more hogs on the farm ; meat is too 

 high to buy. / 



There is scarcely a county that does not have these products shipped into it 

 from other States ; and too often the farmer himself is the purchaser, when 

 he should not only supply himself, but should supply the local market. To 

 do this means you will have to raise more feed for this stock, such as your 

 land is best adapted to — pea-vines, red and crimson clover, hay, etc. ; oats 

 and wheat when the land is adapted to it. If you do this your farm will 

 show the result, your land will get better and better each year, raising larger 

 crops, thus enabling you to keep more stock and put more money in your 

 pocket. To do this will require time and patience, unless you have a big lot 

 of money to do it at once ; but it is the true system of farming. 



This kind of farming will build up any country, and make the farmer inde- 

 pendent of any trust or monopoly. I know the difficulties in the way, but 

 I know by experience that what I am saying is true. If you are going to get 

 the gullies, brier thickets, and galls out of your place, you must have stock to 



