Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-24
THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM OF THE
SOUTH---THE COTTON CROP OF

Il
A Northern man, who has been sometime
in the South, furnishes the Cincinnati Com
mercial with the following as his impressions
upon this important subject:
Never, in all history, perhaps, was there
| witnessed SO complete a reyuIsion of public
sentiment on given topic as was seen in the
South after the Christmas HOLIDAYS. Before
that almost everybody Of white complexion
had been respondent and gloomy, while the
negroes were correspondingly elated and ex-
pectant the former, from belief that the
latter never would work again the latter,
from belief that they never would have to
work again. Now everything is changed.
For few days first succeeding those holt
days the colored people felt bitterly disap-
pointed at the non-appearance Of Govern
ment agents who we're to parcel out to them
the lands and cattle of their old masters,
but soon, with their usual happy and con-
tented dispositions they left off regrets that
they found were useless and with a univer-
salty that was astonishing both to North
and South, gave their attention TO facts, and
entered into contracts for the year. With
this the hopes Of the whites began slowly to
return, and, though they were 10th TO admit
IT and are still, they began to see pleasing
visions of prosperity in the future
10 negroes work had always been a
habit and they found no difficulty in renew
ing it; it is habit their white brethren
generally have yet to learn. OF course
there are thousands of lazy and worthless
negroes, who never have done anything of
value, and never will, but the majority of
them have gone nobly 10 work.
Renting, as many of them do, and working
under their own control, their labor will not
be so skilfully directed as formerly; there
will be 100000 less of them at work than in
1860, and they will work fewer hours per
day than then; consequently, there will be
less cotton raised than then by one-third,
perhaps, but they will lay the foundation for
a system of self-directing, intelligent labor,
that, in two or three years, will produce far
more cotton than ever before. The cotton
crop Of 1866 will be a better picked better
cleaned and better packed crop, as a whole,
than any ever before raised, for the reason
that there are thousands of poor white men
renting little fields, who never did before,
and these will bring it to market in the best
possible order. l estimate that there will
be 10000 poor white men renting land this
year who never did before, and at least as
many negroes. These generally contract for
one-third of the crop, and furnish their own
teams; or one-fourth, and use the teams and
implements of their former masters
The crop of 1860 was 5,344, 166 bales of
ginned cotton. In attempting an estimate of
the crop of 1866 ] shall set it down at
two-thirds of that of 1860, in all the
States except Texas, Alabama and Missis-
sippi. In Texas and Alabama, believe the
crop will be a full one, for they were the two
great centers of the confederacy, into which
were crowded thousands of negroes, many
of whom still remain, while they were very
little disturbed by our armies. In Texas
there are 100000 negroes more than in 1860,
and in Alabama probably $4,000. Missis-
sippi remained comparatively quiet also,
but lost many negroes. Her crop will not
exceed three-fourths. In Virginia it willbe
about one-half Here, then, is the guess, by
States.