Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1852-06-03
From the Soil of the South.
HOW TO RAISE THE PRICE OF COTTON.

HOW TO RAISE THE PRICE OF COTTON.
Mr.. EDITOR: 1t strikes me that you
must be well pleased with the result Of your
labors when you read the newspapers, and
see the accounts of fine cotton crops from
every section Of our country, and the
scarcity and high price of provisions. AS
the object Of your paper is to teach the
planters of the South how to raise large
crops of cotton and get and cents for
it; to raise small crops of corn and poor
hogs, if any at all, and pay one dollar per
bushel for the former, and 10 and II cents
for bacon, | say you must be well pleased to
find that your suggestions are so generally
adopted
But laying all jokes aside, do YOU not
sometimes think that your undertaking is a
hopeless onc-that Of encouraging and ad-
visiDg the planters to raise an abundant
upply of provisions and stock of all kinds,
asmuch cotton as they can after this is
done, and improve their plantations so as to
preserve and increase their fertility, and
keep them in a high state of cultivation |?
The cotton growing States can make, in an
ordinary year, not only as much cotton as
can be saved in good time, say by Christ
mas, but also a bountiiul supply of pork,
cotton, oats, peas, and potatoes, and might
add wheat. Is it done!
An answer is readily procured by taking
Columbus as criterion for the past year,
and inquiring how many hogsheads Of
bacon have been brought here, how many
bushels of corn from the west, and how
many of wheat! Bacon has been sold as
high as fifteen cents, corn has brought from
eighty.fve cents to dollar and quarter to
a dollar and a half per brshel. Northern
hay has been sold at one dollar and seven
ty-fve cents per hundred in our streets.
Why is this9 Men had just as well ac-
knowled &c the truth at once, and say they
plant their best lands in cotton, too few
acres in corn and oats, and pay no atten-
ton to the raising Of hogs. The high
price Of cotton during the last season has
caused many farmer to have scant sup
ply of corn for the next year; and not the
dry weather that was experienced during
the past year. 1t is true, the drought affect
ed corn crops seriously, but in many in
stances on adjoining plantations, where the
land was equally fertile and well worked,
one man has an abundance Of corn, and
another meagre supply. What is the
reason! There is but one and that is, one
planted a sufficient quantity Of land to
produce corn enough if the seasons were
not very propitious, and the other planted
just enough, provided the seasons were
genial. ask the planters if it is not time
to change this order of things? You will
hear man at any time, who has cotton to
sell complain that the English Spinner and
the Northern manufacturer are attempting
to purchase it for less than he thinks it is
worth, when if YOU would visit the planta-
ton You will see poor mules, an empty
smoke house and thec-fourths, if not four
flths, OF his land planted in cotton. He is
one of those who neglect every thing for
cotton, help swell the receipts, and reap for
their labor low price. Does he make
more clear money than the man who raised
his own supplies, and makes cotton a
secondary considerations Does he clear
as much? appeal to those who have
tried both, to answer the question.
He has to take his five and six cents
cotton money, and buy another mans ten
and twelve cents bacon and dollar corn.
Think of it that with soil and climate
adapted to raising almost every article of
food for man and beast, the necessaries of
life particularly, our people should buy
meat produced in Tennessee, Kentucky,
Ohio, and Indiana and hay grown in New
York and Maine. What Commentary on
Southern enterprise and agricultural skill!
Let every planter determine that he will
ever after feed his family and negroes on
Southern raised corn and hay-make what
cotton he can besides this, and 1 will
guarantee there will be no complaint about
the price Of cotton. l think all that was
necessary for the planters convention in
Macon to say to them, was-make your
own supplies, and you will find remedy
for the low price of cotton.
ARAToR.