The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-05-26
IL TENNESSEE. SATURDAY. MAY &C. 1866.
Bad Accounts from the Crops
plantation Econor.rv

BaO Accounts from the NEOpS-
Plantation Economy.
We are sorry to hear very unfavor.
able accounts from the cotton and corn
crops-particularly the former. Owing
to late start, long continued rains,
and lands heavily seeded with grass
from four successive years OF corn eul-
ture, the cotton crop is now in so des-
perate a condition that & considerable
portion of it must be abandoned, and
what is saved will be seriously Damaged.
An old planter told US, on Saturday,
that in fifty years experience and OBJ
serYation he has never seen the cotton
crop, generally, in so unpTomising q
condition, and he feared very much
that in the effort to rescue =. many
planters would make an entire allure
As a general thing they had pitched
too heavily for their force, working on
the voluntary principle,) and the natu-
raj reluctance to abandon any portion
of their crop in order to save the re-
mainder, and the increasing discour-
agement of the laborers in view of the
Herculean task before them, in his
judgment seriously endangered total
loss.
When a cotton crop is badly gin
grass much of it is inevitably lost,
even if the grass be subdued. A good
stand" as it is called, is ordinarily re-
duced TO about half stand In the pro-
cess of eradication, and the work is 50
slow and tedious that with the most
diligent and perseVering labor the plan
tation economy is thrown out of joint
Then it was, in olden times, that the
negroes took to the bush-oVerseers
were in despair, and planters gloomy.
1t remains to be seen how freedmen
will meet the emergency, and whether
moral suasion will answer the ends of
the sterner methods Of compulsory La
Dor.
The true course now would be to put
the plough in large part of the cotton
lands and replant in corn. This can
be done until the end Of June, with
fair chance of success. 1t Is the COM
mon opinion that not half a supply of
corn has been planted. Two or three
acres Of corn to one of cotton used to
be the rule, but the practice this year
has been visa versa.
Many sagaciOus men are seriously
alarmed about the future of this sec
ton of Georgia If the cotton crop
should fail to a great extent, as now
appears probable, and cotton prices
should continue to decline, the people
will be reduced TO great straits With
no money to buy corn and meat, their
cribs and smoke houses, under the ru-
innous policy now being pursued, will
be empty. All experience has demons
strated that planter operating upon
the policy of buying his meat and
bread stuifs is on the straight road to
perdition and making rapid time. We
look in vain for an exception.
But planters this year we're dazzled
by fifty cents q pound for cotton, and
unwisely forgot that the markets
would be fixed for them SO soon as they
had any cotton to sell. The reduction
| has been so rapid that the wise among
| them can see the danger in time to es-
cape it, with good luck. If they will
bestir themselves and put in corn, t4ey
can then hold on to the little cotton
they may produce and take the
chances Of q rise from an ascertained
short crop; buff the years operations
! leaves them bare and scant of pro-
visions they are at the mercy of the
cotton buyer and must realize at any
price and as soon as possible
From what we can learn now we
shall not be surprised to see the cotton
crop of Georgia reduced to a fourth or
fifth of what it used to be-say o hun
dred to a hundred and fifty thousand
bales, and the crop of the entire South
sink in the same proportion. There IL
be no fortunes made-no golden dreams
realized, and he is q wise man who or
ders his arrangements upon the strict
est principles of sound economy.
The planter should, first of all, look TO
bread and meat, and when one sees the
mules tugging the heavy wagon loads
of corn and nay out of Macon now
daily, he may rack his brain in vain to
reconcile the situation with any views
of plantation economy worthy q man
sane and sober. Worse and worse it is,
to hear that while this thing is going
on in May, not q third of q crop oil
corn is growing-there's a poor chance
for cotton, and prices are coming down
How any farmer can, for o moment, en-
terrain the idea of feeding his stock on
forage, long and short, bought at three
cents per pound, and his laborers Oh
meat at twenty-five cents, passes al
human comprehension. If compelled
, to do it once by the desolations of wal
or any providential cause, the memory
of it should stick to him so closely tina
the idea of short corn crop should
give him the nightmare.-Mac0n, Ga.
Journal and Messenger.