474 



eclioes the negative. Wliy is it ? The jeasous are many. Prominent among tbem are 

 these : 



First. A wasteful and slovenly system of agriculture, the curse of our whole country, 

 has been practiced in the cotton States. 



Second. The extension of the raw iiroducts of agriculture by manufacture has been 

 ignored or discouraged, culture has been restricted to a few crops, and the policy of 

 buying nearly everything needed to eat, drink, or wear lias been eucouraged. 



Thirrl. Labor has been mainly restricted to a servile class, becoming a badge of dis- 

 honitr rather than the crown of glory that it is ; a large portion of the people have 

 formerly lived in comparative idleness or unproductive employment ; and the intellect 

 and amI)ition of the influential or ruling class has been spent uj)on politics to the neg- 

 lect of material development. 



You liave sometimes held commercial conventions while destitute of any commerce 

 of your own. It is a significant sign of the times that you now. an exclusively agri- 

 cultural people, assemble to consider the means of agricultural improvement and the 

 general prosperity of your section. 



As you have listened to my frank detail of obstacles to progress, permit me with 

 equal brevity to note certain means of recuperation. 



A RESTORATIVE SYSTEM. 



My first counsel would be. practice a restorative instead of an exhaustive system of 

 agriculture. A system that involves abandonment of lauds and removal to new scenes 

 is mi worthy of the age and a reproach to modern civilization. 



No man ie worthy to lie a farmer who does not annually leave his land in better tilth 

 and strength than he found it. The intellect must share more largely with muscle the 

 toil of agriculture ; machineiy directed by skilled labor, and propelled by lirnte force, 

 and also l)y the mighty power of steam, must take the place of expensive and inefficient 

 human strength. This change, as I said in this State n year ago, "involves the neces- 

 sity fur smaller farms, better culture, liberal use of manure, rotation in crops, and a 

 larger working capital in proportion to permanent investment." You are already spend- 

 ing millions annually on the old lands of the Atlantic States for commercial fertilizers. 

 While I would commend a judicious expenditure in this direction, I would make this 

 a basis of a practical rotation with a course of grasses and other restorative agencies of 

 scientific agriculture. 



Thi' litisiness of agriculture should be an industry and not a speculation. The insane 

 pursuit of specialties has long been a curse to American agriculture. A whole commu- 

 nity runs wild upon hojis, when selling at fifty cents jjcr jiound, and in two years they 

 are scarcely worth the price of picking, and extravagance, begotten of high expectations, 

 is forthwith followed by bankruptcy. Wheat brings S2 per bushel, and whole States 

 become wheat-fields, while every other interest languishes, until the bread crop becomes 

 so abundant as to be fed to swine in preference to shipment for human food. The sheep 

 with wool at §1 per pound, holds high place in popular esteem, but is kicked from the 

 pj'sture by every Randolph of the farm at the first indication of a heavy decline in the^ 

 value of its lleece. In your section cotton, a great boon to your agriculture as a con- 

 stituent in your aggregate of production, may become an unmitigated evil if left to 

 usurp the jdace of all other crope. The crop of last year ))roduced $100,000,000 ; more 

 than titty per cent, larger tlian ten years ago. Three millions of bales may command 

 a profit of §;40 i)crbale, while five millions may not bring a dollar above their co.st. But 

 ]n-eseiit profit is not the main consideration. The increase in value and enlargement 

 of tile ]iroductive capacity of the soil, by a judicious rotation, including the restorative 

 influences of green-cropping and cattle-feeding, is an increase of capital, a source of 

 larger annual income, and an addition to the inlieritauce of one's children. It not only 

 insures a ]>rofit from cotton culture, but enables the planter to pocket the entire pro- 

 ceeds of its sale, other products feeding man and beast. This leads me to another word 

 of counsel, namely : 



PRODUCE MORE AND BUY LESS. 



As an individual grows rich by what he saves rather than by what he makes, so a 

 coniMinnity thrives by the amount of its surjilus more than by the extent of its sales. 

 How often has the money received for a crop of cotton failed to discharge indebtedness 

 incurred for all other supplies / How many plantations have been mortgaged to secure 

 such debts ? T)ie day will come, if wise counsel is heeded, when the products of cotton 

 will be (•// sio-jdits, other products paying the expense of the farm. I have received, 

 officially, abundant testimony, from individual successes and failures, of the superior 

 profits of mixed hnsliandry with cotton. I am positive in the conviction that the per- 

 manent prosperity of these States depends upon a more diversified agriculture. While 

 it is true that a large cotton crop may produce actually less money than a small one, 

 no sane man will question the political economy which adds to this source of revenue 

 many others, which, together, make an aggregate many times larger. 



