The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1848-11-29
WHAT WILT E COTTON PLAN
fERS DOT

This is question daily asked by our plant
ing friends: There seems at pres mi great
solicitude as TO the policy which is to be pur-
sued by them in pitching their next CROP
We hear the cry Of lels cotton and more
grain finging from one end OF the Stale to
the other. We are not surprised tina, many
planters who plant heavily, should say their
present crup will bring them in debt if the
runous prices cohtinde diuch longer No
planter can make both ends meet who re-
cclves only four or five cents for bis cotton,
and has 10 pay the present. csorbi'an1 prices
l"r bagglnS, bale rope, pork, mules sugar,
cnfftc, sal, and iron. Mules are high, pork
IS high, bagoing and r pc are up to the prices
of the twelve and fifteen cent times nf cotton,
and sugar. coffee iron, and salt steadily stand
at the old rates. IF 10 expenditures for
these necessary articles, The planter has 10
add his negro clothes. shoes. hats aud blan.
kels, he will have no'hins left to rcnuneratc
him for his labor. These are really matters
which they should ponder over, and svs-
TEN of planting which does not repay for
the labor and investments Of capital engaged
in it, we reasonably think would soon be
abandoned. But it will not b.. Our plant
crs are taught no other systems; they do not
know how they will supply the vacuum which
would be made by All immediate abandon.
ment .-of the cotton crop. II would take
several years before they could perfect, with
the srlclcst economy. those arrangements
whicI, would render them entirely indePen-
dent of i, as marketable crop. Therefore
the sle, taken should be wiseE considered
beEme adopted, and the utmost caution
should be observed in making, what VIC SIM
cercIv believe would be; ir once began, a
radical change in our svstem OF agriculture:
We therefore advise for the coming year,
reduction imply Of INC third of the cotton
GRO, throughout the state; devotIng at The
same time, the land thus thrown out of The
cultivation Of this crop, To the production ol
grain; and the increase of labor which would
thus be given TO the proper manur'ng and
Improving tiage Of the cotton planted. and
the general improvement Of the plantation
By this process the cotton lands would be
increased in fertility, and the increase of the
grain which would follow, would greatly ia
ci|i,ate the rearing Of mules, hogs. cattle, anf
sheep; and in a short time the whole State
could render itself Independent of the exac.
tions of our Kentucky ncighbors, who kind
Iy supply US with all such things. simply al
The expense of the prosperity of our agrcul
,ural population; for in practice, they annual
ly sweep the country Of all the surplus cast
which is ahoat, in payment for their bacor
and mules. We would, if this system were
adopted. soon be able to produce as much
cotton on fifty acres, as we do now on ont
hundred; and The investments of the agrl
cultural profits the State at home, although
they might be small, would have wonder
fuI influence on general prosperity, and bu'l'
facilities throughout our now desola,e ant
almost unapproachable State, which woul'
not only cnclaiH our own soIIs 10 her Dor