New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-14
Great Bargains
Cotton.
From the oolnm aus Miss, Sentinel

from the Coum aus Niss) Sentinel
Who will now dare to say that 100000 bales of
cotton Will be raised this year? We never did be-
heye It, for our estimate has never been more than
l,5O0,0JO bales, and now we question very much
whether 100000 will be raised. Many plantations
are t3tally abandoned, while there are thousands
thaVhaVe not more than half compliment of
aoorers: But we frankly admit that, up to GER
IAN PERIOD everything promised well. We had
hne Dry winter, and consequently the land was
generally well prepared for the reception of the
seed.
Everything is now gloomy: the rains are heavy
and continuous; there is generally a bad stand
and the growing cotton can now be scarcely seen
by reason OF the rank growth of grass and weeds
The freedmen must now toll to make nm the loss
of weeks, and will they do it? We tbint, moi In
times of slavery it was always difficult to make mn
lost time; now it cannot be DONE aud consequently
much OF the land now planted must be turned out
so that part may be saved. ~
This is no fancy sketch, but verify as we write
it, These rains and this destruction of the rroyv
ing crop, is not partial but general. The Missis
! sippi has flooded the bottom landslide Red River
from all we can learn, has leaped its natural
boundaries, and has overlooked the whole country
| From every quarter the cry comes up, Grain rain
| ran--bad stands Of cottOn-it must be re-planted
| if the seed can be procured" and in many
| places where cotton seed cannot be obtained we
! hear of corn being planted instead of co ton
| Perhaps there never was in the history the
South such gloomy period. Deficient labo- as
uncertain as April weather-defective cotton
| seed-generally not more than half stand-and
no cotton seed with which to perfect the stand
thousands of ACRES ncultvated-tremendiou
overfows and uneeasing floods of rain for weeks,
is enough to try the nerves of any adventurous
planter.
More fortunes will be lost this year in attempting
to make still larger fortune than will be made.
Again, the crop as a general thing is unusually
late, and we all know that for many years, late
cotton has made but little. The last three years
were very fine cotton years, and we are all aware
that two good crops come but seldom in success
sion. Take the history of the past ten years or
twenty and such has been the case.
Hence, if everything else were favorable, we
might safely conclude that there would be short
crop this year AT the beginning Of the year, we
suppose there was not a county in the whole
South that promised as muchas old Lowndes. And
now, taking in consideration the great number of
that lie untitled the general bad stands and in
many places no stand at all the fact that in many
places the cotton cannot now be seen for the
grass and weeds the still continued rain and the
very defective labor, and the impOssibility OF
making up the time lost by reason OF the rains,
we are of the honest opinion that Lowndes will
not make more than one-thlrd the cotton she pro-
duced in 1860
4 If this be true of LOwndes one of the few IA
vOred counties of the South-a county rich before
the war, and with vast resources left her at its
close-what must be the condition Of those por-
tons of the South that were almost, if not quite
devastated by the war.
With these facts before our people, it remains
with them to decide whether or not they will dis
pose of what cotton they have on hand at to-day
prices For one, will not