The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-04
COLUMBIA.
Thursday Morning, october KS.
The New Policy for the South.

from the New Orleans PicdYlt1le, ,
which treats in masterly manner,
and fully enlbodies ideas which have
been advanced on several occasions
in the columns Of the Phoenic. These
ideas are gaining ground, and we see
they are being generally discussed by
our Southern cotemporaries. They
embrace two propositions-the more
thorough culture of Southern lands,
by abandoning the attempts to cult
vate large tracts, and by erecting
manufactures.
The Mobile Times asked, n few
weeks ago, from the landlords of that
city, where they expected trade to
come from, to justify their exaction
in the shape of high rents? And
we'll it might ask. The usual receipts
of cotton, heretofore, in that market,
we're from 100000 to 100000 bales;
now, the prospect-and it is doubtful
ut that's, that the receipts, this
year, will range from 100000 to
100000 bales. This is more or less
the case in every Southern market.
And, asks the Times, what is the fu-
tllre before us?
If emancipation in other countries
has produced certain results-for in
stance in st. Domingo and Jamaica
it ought to teach the Southern people
lesson they must heed. Production
in those fertile regions has steadily
decreased, till, finally, st. Domingo
imports sugar, and Jamaica hardly
raises enough of the sugar cane to
supply her blacks with rum
TO avert such q condition of things
here, as we have frequently said,
smaller tracts of land must be cult
waited, and cultivated more thorough
ly; and, on this point, our Mobile
ootcmporary says:
although not as respondent as
some are of the future Of the South,
we again reiterate our warming 70 the
planters, that, if they persist in cul-
tivating large estates, they will be IL
retrievably broken before two years
have elapsed, and that their only
hope Of salvation is in the sale, at
reasonable and easy terms, of most
of their arabic land to actual settlers
from every quarter of the GLOBE
" ire gratified to see the policy
referred to gaining ground-to make
the most out of the soil by an i'm
proved system of agriculture, and to
manufacture our own cotton. And,
in this connection, the statement in
reference to the labor system of the
North, and the immense amount of
work performed there by machinery,
contains most valuable hints to the
Southern agriculturists, and suggests
another idea, which, if acted on, will
increase the prosperity of our section
The paragraph is from letter of the
Hon. John Forsyth to his paper, the
Mobile Register. He writes from
Pennsylvania:
''The wealth of this country cannot
be Justly measured by its population.
The improvements in machinery, es-
pecialIy as applied to agriculture,
almost dispenses with the human
hands, and the sweat of the brow.
They plough, SOW and reap with ma
chimes, and mans only occupation is
to superintend them. Hence, you
ride over country dotted with farms,
in high state of culture and groan-
ing under crops, and are surprised at
the lack of laborers, and wonder who
does all this work. Capital and sci
ence have supplied the places of our
large gangs of negroes, and the work
goes on as if by magic. Thus, Penn
sylvania, with her 100000 Of popu-
lation, enjoys productions equal to
the labor of 6,00O,OO0 The same
process would make the South a gar
den of fruitfulness, the abode of
great population, and the seat of
power. Let us take lessons from our
neighbors, and find compensation for
the sudden destruction of our vast
labor system"
There is the whole secret. The
words, "dotted with farms in high
of nf o,,1f,,ra ,, avx,1o;n ono ,,,aonc