New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-04-17
PLANTING IN DIXIE.

MIR. Jen. Davis mas Issued ITOClainhtlOn W
bis moro immediate victims, the people still
cursed by his sway, urging them to discard for
the present the production of Cotton, Tobacco,
&C., and devote their energies to tho growth
of all manner of Food. He would have them
grow Indian Corn in suficiency to subSist
Stock and supply Meat not only for his vast
armies but for the stay.atbOme people also;
he would have Corn sowed broadcast beside
rivers, canals, railroads, &c, for fodder to the
cavalry and draft animals employed in his
military operations. King Cotton being for the
moment discrowned, jeff deyotes himself to
adulation of King Corn, seeming anxious to
atone for the hardness by the feryOr of his
worship.
His appeal will doubtless have some effect,
but not much For, while no exhorts the
people TO grow food, he diyests them, by his
MEMORABLE CoDscription, Of more than hall
their capacity 10 do 40. Ii 10 not, as here.
a minor portion of the uble-bodied white males
it is the whole OF them between 10 and 90
years Old-that he summons aud c0mpels to
fight in defense Of his treason. Those who
have not already been dragged into the field,
OF killed for want OF sympathy with the
Rebellion, arc either hunting conscripts
through the forests, swamps, ahd mountains
or are skukng there 10 evade the cOnscrip-
ton and the boodhounds formerly kept to
hunt runaway negroes, but now mainly EN-
ployed in running down white men. Thus,
Coy. Lubbock asserts that Texas. out OF a
total white population of little over 100000,
has furnished ~, 600 men and boys 10 swell
the Rebel armies-more than one in five Of
the entire White population. That there is little
material left, will be judged from the fact that he
now proposes d levy Of all the remaining
Whites between II md 60 years Of age, from
which he hopes TO REINFORCE his shattered
regiments to the extent Of Twenty to Thirty
thousand. Having taken these, or caused
them to hide AMI abscond, who will be left to
carry on tho vigorous agricultural operations
which are coniessedly the COnfederates' only
security against famine The Slave Popula-
ton of Texas is less than fourth of the
total, and stands 10 urgent need Of watching.
II this minority should grow food enough ~
satisfy their own wants and those of at least
double thoir number of non-combatant adults,
they will have done nobly. And this is IN the
State which has hitherto contributed largely
~ feed the Confederate armies operating far
this side of her. Whit she do for them
henceforthl
az
sumes Horses and Cattle with frigbtful rapidly.
Tie animal, detached from the plow or the
farm wagon TO mount the cavalry or draw the
guns of Rebel army soon die and are not all
replaced Oh the farm whence they were taken.
The scarcity and dearness of Salt causes the
loss of great quantities Of Meat. The seizure
OF large quantities Of Meat and BreadsiuiIs by
Davis's orders and for the subsistence Of his
armies was perhaps dictated by urgent neces-
sty, but nevertheless tends to alarm producers
and parayze rural industry Men whose prop
erty 10 thus wrested from them aud paid for
in worthless rags at about half the price they
could obtain for it in open market, will there
after bo more anxious to conceal securely than
to produce abuhdantly. And the women who
are compelled to take the place in the field OF
their fathers. husbands and sons, torn away by
CONSUMPTION, will with difficulty and but mea-
gerry supply the want Of plow-horses Dir.
Davis will hardly find his granaries repIenished
while the War lasts. His urging his subjects
to plant largely is like calling "spirltS from
the yasly deep" and will have like result.
On the whole, we think Jefls exhortatOD
to plant serves rather TO reveal lis disease than
TO cure it.
Thr n. i. Erprfss viii Oblge us by not