The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1841-02-03

|great cause of the incessant struggle to
make large cotton crops, to the neglect OF
every other interest, is the reckless habit
of contracting debts, which | am depre-
eating. Negroes are purchased upon Gre
dit, and the planter is thus furnished both
with the means and the motives for unduly
and disproportionately enlarging his cot
ton crop. As cotton is the only crop that
will command money, and as money is
the most pressing want of a man in debt,
every thing is directed to that object; so
much so, that it is the standing apology
for neglecting to pursue sounder system
of economy. The saying has, indeed,
become proverbial among planters, eff |
were not in debt, | would not strive to
make such large cotton crops, but would
devote myself to raising my own supplies,
and making permanent engagements"
Let me, therefore, advise, admonish and
beseech all our planters, as they regard
their own peace of mind, their own true
interest, the dignity and honor of their
vocation, and the substantial welfare of
the State, to avoid the entangling embar-
rassments of debt. Let them regard those
who may offer them credit with no friend
ly eye, but as enemies in disguise, who
seek to lead them into temptation. If they
have cont acted the habit of anticipating
their incomes, even for single year, let
them reform even that. Yes, "reform it
altogether" Then will their prosperity be
placed on immovable foundations. Then
will they stand mistaken and unterrifed
amidst those periodical storms and convul-
sions which are the inseparable concomi
tants of a false and artificial system of
fluctuating credit and currency. Then
will South Carolina find it an easy task to
perform the high and solemn duty of pre-
venting those convulsions, by reforming
that currency.
There is another reform in our agricul-
turai economy, to which every planter in
South Carolina is invited by the most per-
suasive considerations, public and private.
1t is to adopt and steadilypursue system
of permanent Improvement, not only, in
the soil, but in the building and fixtures of
his plantation, and to abandon the impro-
vident policy hitherto generally pursued,
of exhausting the soil in the too eager de-
sire to realize large present income,
without any regard to the future. 1t is
absolutely distressing to contemplate the
memorials of this wretched policy exhi-
bited in every part of the State-a policy
which, while it denies to the present gene
ration almost all the rational comforts
which alone make wealth desirable, leaves
to posterity an exhausted soil, ruinous
mansions, and barren inheritance.
Now, it would not be too strong an ex-
preston to say that every dollar judicial
ly invested in the permanent improvement
of his estate by the planter, would be
worth more to his children than two dol
lars invested, as is usual, in the purchase
of more negroes to cut down the forest
and destroy the soil. We have reached
a point in our agriculture, which impe-
riously demands fundamental change in
this respect. However the virgin soils of
the Southwest may palliate the folly of
such course, the alternative is distinctly
presented to us, of permanently improv-
ing our estates, or of deserving them. We
cannot contend with the planters of Ala
bama and Mississippi, IN wild and de-
structive system, by which even they have
sunk under embarrassment and ruin, with
all their advantages of soil and climate
We can make up for our comparatively
inferior soil and climate only by supe-
rior system of husbandry. While they
are exhausting their soil and preventing
the natural increase of their slaves by a
reckless system of pushing and driving,
let us improve the fertility of the one, by
resting and manuring it, and increase the
number of the other, by moderate work.
ing, and by providing every thing neces-
sary for their health and comfort. And
| have no doubt that a South Carolina
planter who shall limit his cotton crop to
five bales to the hand, and rely mainly
upon the natural increase of his negroes,
will leave larger estate to his children,
at the end of ten or twenty years, than
Southwestern planter who follows the
system generally pursued in that quarter,
though he should make eight bales to the
hand, and annually apply his surplus in
come to the purchase of land and negroes.
Thouph thew are really STRUGGLING for the