Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-01-24

er than slave labor. Intelligent planters
admit this, but some of them have no
faith in negro free labor.
All estimates, relating to business OF
|; any sort, are liable to be erroneous, from
causes which no human foresight can
anticipate, and any estimate | may make
must be taken with at least some grains
of allowance. Suppose a cotton planta-
ton be purchased, containing one thous-
and acres, six hundred improved and four
hundred acres of wild land, for twenty
FIVE dollars an acre, amounting to twenty
FIVE thousand dollars. The purchaser can
plant the first year four hundred acres in
cotton and two hundred acres in corn
To cultivate that quantity of land would
require forty good hands and twenty
mules. The highest price paid in the
State for first class hands is twenty FIVE
dollars per month, including wages,
boarding and clothing, that is, the ne
groes to purchase and pay for their own
rations and clothing. Supposing these
forty hands, all to be first class, each
would receive for his years labor $500,
making in all the sum mof............Sl2. 600
Twenty mules at $3.50 each.......... 5000
Other expenses of cultivation, say 5000
Total costs of cultivation year, $4,000
To which add cost of land........... %, 900
Total cap'l in land and cultiv'n S43, 900
The average yield on good cotton land,
with ordinary crop, is one bale per acre,
and it is estimated that one hand will
produce ten bales per year, and cultivate
enough corn besides to supply the place
| for the following year. Experienced
| planters inform me that the quantity is
as likely to be over as under a bale to the
acre, taking series of years together. At
this estimate the place would produce
four hundred bales of cotton, and at the
least calculation four thousand bushels of
corn. What cotton will be worth next
fall is only matter of conjecture. 1t is
now worth from forty-five to fifty cents
per pound. Owing to the uncertainty as
to the quantity that will be raised the
coming year, there is a general impress
sion among cotton dealers and CONNER
cIal men that next fall there will be no
material diminution in price, unless a f.
nancial crisis shall unsettle values of all
sorts.
l will estimate the value of cotton
next fall at thirty-6ve cents per pound.
Value of 400 bales of 400 pounds
each at 35 cents per pound, or
$40 per bale...... ........................S56,O 600
Capital in land and cultivation. $4,000
Leaving ............................... I3,UUU
After paying for land and cost of cultiva
ton, as profit.
The following would be the profit of
the enterprise, according to the above es-
innate, upon the suppOsition that the
land is not more valuable than when pur-
chased:
Value of 900
Value of mules in the fall......... 2.50Ul
Value of corn raised and on hand 2,000I
Value of plantation implements. 1000
Value of 400 bales Of cotton........ $4,000 !
Making the sum of.................. $4,000
From this there should be deducted
the capital invested and one years inter
est on it:
Capital invested. 900 |
One years terest..................... $3.50
45,Oo8E
Which deducted from the above sum
of SS4, 500 would leave, as net profit, the
sum of S3S, ,920, after returning the caDi-
tai invested and interest upon it. If, for
any cause, this estimate is too high by
one half, the years crop would amount
to, for cotton, S2S, 900, and for corn, ST.
900, making $4,000, which would pay
for the land, and leave $1,000 towards
paying for the personal property and the
cost of cultivation. Would not this be a
fair investment Would not land in the
North that would pay the purchase price
by what could be raised upon it for three
years, be regarded as desirable? Sup
pose one should fail, for two or three
years, to realize large profits, by cultiva-
ton, the price at which lands cotton can
now be purchased. would, in the iudg-
ment of judicious men, be a good invest
ment.
The wants of the world will stimulate
the cultivation of cotton by white or col
pred labor, and experience has demon
;trated that the cotton lands of the Uni
ted States are as valuable, if not the |
most valuable of any on the globe. What
has been called the Southern States, en-
Oy a monopoly of the cotton lands in the
United States. In my judgment no
more tempting field for young. intelli-
gent, enterprislng and industrious men
han the South affords, now that slavery
S legally abolished.
l can see why a man in the North who
mas competency, and does not care to
risk much to add to his estate, should be
satisfied to remain where he is, although
it does take six months of painstaking
to make himself comfortable
5he other six months of the year; for
ali such may we'll adopt the wisdom in
Hamlet's soliloquy, that the uncertainty
which hangs over a change in our con-
lition-
Makes US rather bear the ills we have
Than fly to others that We know not Of"
Capital can afford to aid honest, capa-
Dle and enterprising men in the business
Of cotton raising in the South. l have
said that large amount of capital is not
required. There was offered, the other
day, in st. Landre, fifty acres of good
cotton land, with thirty-three acres i'm
proved and under fence, with a comforta-
BILE dwelling house upon it. for SO per
acre in gold, or about Sl4 per acre in
greenbacks. To purchase this would re-
1uire, say 500 in currency. A person
who is willing and is not ashamed to Ia
sor, with a hired man and boy, two
mules, plough and two hoes, could cul-
Livate on this place twenty acres of cot
ton and thirteen of corn. Upon substan-
tally the foregoing estimate, the account
at the end of the year would stand as
follows:
Cost of land. 500
Two 300
Wages of man and boy................... 400
Other expenses. ............................. $50
Total capital invested................l,55O
The result of the years crop would be:
20 bales of cotton at $40 per bales 800
Value of mules on hand d....... $50 Il