Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-08-17
Crops in the South.
From the Mobile Mercury

South, and as worthy OF the calm, serious
consideration of the patriot and philanthro
pist.
1t is now ascertained, beyoud doubt, that
the prevalence of an unprecedented drouth,
occurring and running through nearly the
whole length of the food crop making season,
all through the States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Texas, including portion of Arkansas, has
produced the most disastrous effects ever
known. 1t is true that through all this re-
gion, some locations have been blessed with
rains to make fair crops, and some, even to
spare, which somewhat relieves the gloomy
prospects for food for another year. But
these oasis in the desert the drouth has made,
bear portion of the whole area, scarcely
more than as one tive or six. Rains have
fallen within the week, in South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and we
suspect more generally than since the cessa-
ton of the spring rains. All accounts con-
cur, though, that these rains have come and
are coming, too late to benefit to any notice
able extent, the great breadth Of the corn crop
Some late planting may possibly be bene-
fitted to a slight extent, but upon that, the
effect Of the drouth has been to dwarf it so
much, that it hasn't capacity of size to pro-
duce more than nubbin. The effect Of the
drouth upon the food crops has been most
disastrous upon the hill lands, and poorer
soils cultivated by class of our population
with the least intelligence to device the means
to avert the calamities Of famine, and the
least ability to help themselves if they knew
how There are thousands of families in Al
ALBANIA and Mississippi, and we believe, in
other States, will not make more than corn
bread enough to last to Christmas, and ne'er
an ear to feed to horse or to fatten hog
for meat. This applies to those who live
away from the more fertile planting districts
and the river bottom lands. The effects of
the dr'outh upon the thin soils cultivated by
this class of people, has been disastrous to
their cotton crops to an extent that has cut
Oft almost their last hope of the means of sub
sstence through another year. We have
been hearing for the last two or three weeks
reports like this: /" Corn ruined past redempt-
ion, but cotton standing remarkably well -
For the last two or three weeks it has "stood"
it-that's ALL 1t has not been making 1t
did not wither, and die, and dry up, like the
corn, but its life during the last two or three
weeks has been Improbable. The weed is
small, and under no possible circumstances
of propitious seasons from now forth to the
end of the Gotten growing season, can it make
a crop. In the thinner lands, where the
drouth has reigned triumphant through the
whole cotton making season until now, the
cotton crop will be utterly insignificant, in
comparison to a full average crop.
1t were ridiculous to attempt to estimate,
yet awhile, the extent of the failure of all the
crops. Enough is known to excite the livel
est concern of the phlanthropists, in view of
the prospective suffering to the poor, and to
suggest the Importance of devising the means
to avert it as far as possible. And this is the
principal object we had in view in referring
to this topic this morning. The sooner this
subject engages the attention of public men
and philanthropists, the better.
E Happily, the great West and Northwest
have never been so fruitful of breadstuffs, and
have produced enough to furnish the drouth
stricken districts of the South. But it has to
be brought to these districts and distributed.
Means must be devised to protect the needy
against the rapacity of re1norseless specula-
tors, or the great West will TEEN in vain with
food to appease gaunt famine in the poorer
districts of the South. How best to accom-
plish this, is as interesting question as can
engage the attention of rejecting and good
men-not excepting the Presidential question.
A correspondent of the n Y Herald says:
From Louisville, KY, to Nashville, Tenn,
"a distance of $50 miles-the fields present
one continual aspect of blight and devastation.
The corn fields for miles Of acres appear as if
conAagration had swept through them,
burning and shrivelng the leaves and killing
the stalks. For many weeks there has not
been drop of rain, and the thermometer in
the shade at 1867 for days together. MIL
ions OF bushels of corn are thus lost to the
wealth of this section the coming season.
The crop islost beyond redemption. The to-
bacco crop has also suffered and is suffering
vastly. The plants are but one-t third the
hight they should be at this time, and look
ing at that as if it would be a mercy to the
struggling plants to pillow them under. Mill
ions OF dollars will be lost by the failure Of
these crops; and even now the granaries of
this usually luxuriant region are empty, and
grain by the hundreds of car loads has to be
imported daily from the East and West, viz:
the Louisville and Nashville railroad The
Nashville merchants already predict panic
and failure in the fall, while the railroad is
reaping rich harvest from the extraordinary
freighting business the drouth has occasioned.
How strange are the ways of Providence.
While the North and the South are wrangling
against each other, many really prepared and
willing to cut the Others threats, a bounteous
harvest in the North and the Great West will
fill the granaries Of the South, and keep the
people there from the miseries of starvation
The drouth, learn extends further South
than Tennessee, even into Georgia and Ala
bama, where the cotton crop is suffering i'm
mensely. 1t seems pretty clear that the
South will not be so rich this year as she was
the last, while the contrary will be the case
with the West; and then the Massachusetts,
shoemakers can sell their brogans to their
Western brethren without the danger Of in
curing bad debts, as in former years.
The De Soto Eagle of the 2Sth ult has the
following:
The corn crop in Louisiana, off the river,
will not reach one-third Of the usual yield of
q seasonable year, and in fact we know not
single planter on the hills that will make
more than sufficiency of corn to supply his
own demands, while there are many who will
scarcely make bushcl to the acre. We I'M
derstand that there are families in De Soto
parish actually suffering for bread, not being
able to procure it for love or money; for the
very reason that it is not to be had in the
country. 1t is awfully distressing, with the
most gloomy DrOSpectS ahead