Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-02
The Eject Of the Civil War on the Cotton

Product ID
Mondays New York Herald says in its
money article: a...8 a-..- -.
The question of most interest to the COM
mercial world at the present time relates to
the supply of cotton. Under the general
impression that this years crop will be ma
terally curtailed by the war, middling up
lands have risen in New York to fourteen
cents pound, and many operators look for
much higher prices. Very serious apprehen.
siops are entertained abroad on the subject.
The British Government is spending money
freely in conveying experienced planters and
agents Of the Cotton Supply Association to
various parts of India, where cotton may be
crown. The French are granting bounties
on the production of cotton in Algeria; steps
are being taken to cultivate cotton more ex-
tensively than heretofore in Western aud
South. eastern Africa, in Central America
and in Australia.
1t is pretty certain, however, that whatever
may be the ultimate result of these efforts,
they can not, this year, or even next, lead to
the production of enough cotton to supply
the wants of the civilized world. Next VIM
ter there will be general scarcity of cotton,
if the supply from our Southern States should
be cut off. The question of the day, there
fore, is-will the war prevent the South
growing and exporting cotton2 ..t
uS BtSNhiAluR lhlfkCSaAOh phttlSo
best qualified to Judge is that, while the war
must necessarily interfere with agricultural
| operations in the Southern States it will not
absolutely destroy this years cotton crop.
| WeBnow that large area of land has been
| planted, and that thas far the weather has
been favorable. 1t is hardly likely thes sho-
cotton plantations will be the scene of con-
| ficts. They are the last place in the world
where prudent general would lead North
ern army, and the we'll understood objects of
the nation in its present uprising can be at.
tanned without disturbing many fields. How
far the war may divert slaves from field labor
remains TO some extent an unsolved problem.
| Without the presence Of Northern army to
incite them, it is not very likely that negro
insm rections in the Gulf States will become
! SO general OF so formidable, this year, as to
prevent altogether the hoeing and picking
of cotton.
| In the border States the slaves are already
running away in droves, and in the course OF
! few months the bulk of them may perhaps
have found free home in the North.
But in the great cotton States-Georgia,
| Florida, Alabama, Mississippi Texas, Louis
lara and Arkansas-it is not so easy for a
slave to escape beyond his masters reach.
Whatever happens there will remain large
number of plantations removed from the
scene of conflict which ought to yield al
most an average crop if the weather be fa'
vorable. It must always be remembered
that TO the planter it is matter of life and
death to grow cotton and send it to market
A Southern planter, owning two hundred or
FIVE hundred slaves, must either feed them OF
prepaie for the worst. He can not dischars se
them, as a Northern farmer would do in the
like case. We may therefore rely upon II
that, whatever happens tremendous efforts
will be made by planters throughout the
South to produce cotton inspite of obstacles
and it is probably fair to infer that these eff
forts will result in the production of crop
which, though probably far short Of the
great crops of 1858, 1850 and $780, will no
compare unfavorably with the crops of ter
years ago, and which, with the increased
supplies from other sources, will not leave
the manufacturing world destitute of the es
sental staple.