Page 8 - Rumbaugh

View down the River.
FARMING IN THE SOUTH.
If farming were done in the South with the same method and energy that t:he iron maker or spinner bestows upon his business, it is beyond a doubt that its ·fame as a rich agricultural country would be not one whit less splendid than it 'vas in the days of slavery. A farm laborer should be paid for a year's labor at least the sum of money that would pay for his food and clothes while he was a
slave, and in addition thereto a sum that would be a fair interest on the value of himself and family while slaves.
The South stood once one of the foremost and richest agricultural countries in the world. The soil upon which she raises . cotton now is the same as that upon which she raised it then. The price obtained now is more than then, and the cost of labor is now less than then if the maintenance of slaves and interest on investment be taken into consideration.
The next Southern "boom " should be a farming boom. The soil ot the South is as superior to that of the rest of the United States as her mineral and forest resources are. Her climate is as fine as that in which ancient Rome attained the highest of all civilizations within the knowledge of history.