1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



61 



For the Kew England Farmer, 

 SHALL -WE GO SOUTH P 



I met with a gentleman at one ot our rail- 

 road stations a few days since who informed 

 me that he was an agent for an association 

 whose head quarters were at Memphis, Ten- 

 nessee. Their object in sending him this way 

 was to influence emigration and capital south, 

 especially to their IState. 



He unfolded to me his purposes and plans 

 and the grounds of his hope for success. To 

 his mind there was not the shadow of a doubt 

 as to, the question of its being more advanta- 

 geous for emigrants to settle south and for capi- 

 tal to seek investments there than any where 

 else in our countrj'. 



These points are being persistently pushed 

 at the present time with great vigor, not only 

 by organized bodies of men who send out 

 their circulars and agents, but by individuals 

 who have an axe to grind in some way if they 

 succeed. I am not prepared to say that they 

 are wholly wrong and selfish in this matter ; 

 but I am confident that there are so many 

 drawbacks to be considered and obstacles to 

 be overcome in a location there, that, what at 

 first glance appears to be every way desirable, 

 will, on more familiar acquaintance with all 

 that pertains to the question, assume a very 

 different aspect, and doubts will arise and 

 assume such large proportions as to deter 

 many from yielding to their first impressions. 

 Very many have, no doubt, bettered their 

 circumstances by going south, but more I 

 should judge had failed to be satisfied by the 

 change. 



On going through portions of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, 

 last summer, I was convinced of the fact that 

 almost every northern man who located out of 

 the cities, fonnd it not only desirable but in- 

 despensable that northern men should go in 

 communilits of their own neighbors and fellow 

 townsmen, or others well known to them. 



The fact is. however much we may wish to 

 keep it in the background, that the southern 

 people are not what we wish they were in 

 many respects. Their tastes' and sympathies 

 are not in unison with ours ; and, of course, 

 so long as this is so, there cannot be fusion o! 

 feeling and harmony of action. I learned 

 from ladies from the north, whom I saw in 

 Alabama, that they were treated with much 

 courtesy by the gentlemen, but very patroti- 

 izingUj by the ladies. This I think will be 

 found true there almost universally. 



1 found some northern men doing well, very 

 well, so far as money making is concerned, 

 but more who were not. Crops are more un- 

 certain than with us in New England, and 

 when two years of failure come together 

 great distress often ensues. 



If a man goes south with a view either to 

 prospect for lands or for using money for 

 Other porposes, he will be surprised at the 



amount of consideration bestowed upon him 

 as soon as his object is disclosed. Should he 

 be somewhat vain he will find food enough to 

 satisfy his ambition in that particular. Any 

 amount of calls and invitations will flow in 

 upon him. He will be surprised to find him- 

 self so big a man. As a farmer I would soon- 

 er go the extreme northwest part of our 

 country and settle on the proposed line of the 

 Northern Pacific railroad (say in the valley of 

 the Saskatchewan, where wheat is said to yield 

 fifty bushels to the acre and weigh sixty-four 

 pounds to the bushel) than settle any where 

 in our southern or southwestern states for a 

 home for myself and family. 



It will surprise most people to be told that 

 the winter temperature in this northern region 

 is several degrees warmer than with us, 

 and that no more snow falls. It is certainly a 

 very healthy country, and free from fever and 

 ague and other malarious troubles so preva- 

 lent at the south, and generally in all new 

 settled countries. 



I am aware that it is claimed for the soutb 

 that their mines of iron and coal are in great 

 abundance and of excellent quality. There is 

 no doubt of this being true. But is it not 

 equally true that we have as good if not better 

 mines at our own doors ? Within a few days 

 I have been looking over some tables and 

 estimates of the cost of making a ton of pig 

 iron in Missouri and in Rhode Island, and 

 find that Rhode Island can produce it for less 

 cost by about twenty per cent, and of a quality 

 pronounced equal if not superior to Mjssouri 

 iron. These tables are given by one of the 

 prominent business men of Providence, and 

 are not mere fancy figures to gull the unawry. 

 If these statements are correct, what advan- 

 tage are we to gain by going south to invest 

 in such business ? Is it not manifestly for the 

 interest of capital to seek out enterprises of 

 this kind at our own doors, where we can look 

 after it with our own eyes and handle it with 

 our own hands ? k. o. 



Massachusetts, Nov., 1870. 



Westminsteh, Vt., Farmers' Clib.— We 

 thank the Secretary and Treasurer of this veteran 

 Club for the information that the association 

 enters upon a new campaign with the following 

 ofticers. From what we have published of its dis- 

 cussions and from what we have seen in the local 

 paper, the Bellows Falls Times, we conclude that 

 it is one of the ablest and best conducted, as well 

 as oldest Farmers* Clubs in New England, and 

 cannot doubt that it is doing much good among 

 the farmers of that town. 



Vtesident. — W. U, Kimball. 



Vice President n —ti. M. Nuttlpg, Geo. W. Mctcnlf, 

 B. F. PhulpH, II r Kiirr. <). L. FiBtMib 



Secretary and '/'retisuri r. — M. V^^Daviii. 



Axsistniit Serrttiin/ — I B. Moroc. 



l)irfcloni.—i). C. VV'rii,'M, H. Floyd, Orrin n. Black, 

 N, G. I'ioico, K. Wi Ramiey, Lwnuul bpaulding, 



