Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-03-22
sURMlsrrGs ABOUT COTTON.

dergons, ana must yet undergo In 1T
intermediary stages of progress to
ward settled transformation unde
the new order of things, must rende
chemerical all attempts aiming at ,
probable estimate of the present year,
yield Of cotton. The crucible of OK
pertinent will, 1t Is to be hoped, no
prove unsuccessful in assaying salts
factorily the crude elements con-
mitted to it. From the dross and
debris OF those elements, we indulge
the hope and belief that pure ore
enough will be forthcoming to ena.
bic our political alchemists to mould
a now organization which shall give
permanence, uniformity and regu-
larity to the pursuits of agricultural
labor in the South.
Coupled with these incertitudes Of
change consequent upon an explosion
Of old established theories and
usages, are the contingencies attend
ing the culture of cotton from an ex-
cess of drouth or rain and the rava.
gos of the caterpillar, which go to
render still more vague and unoer-
tain all conjectures as to the estimated
yield Of crops IN fatmo. Neverthe-
less, in the face of all these draw
backs to anything like safe calcula-
tions, we meet occasionally with
statements and figures ingeniously
put forth in support Ct what the au-
thors would have appear as correct
data on which to predicate the total
ity of the cotton supply for the pres
ent year. These attempts at solving
a riddle as mysterious and complex
as that Of the Sphinx, are, as may
well be supposed, widely at variance,
and altogether too unreliable to be
entertained by careful seekers after
truthful information. Some Of them
doubtless spring from honest but er-
roneous convictions, whilst others
may proceed from the scheming mo-
tives of spectators, who by false
representations hope to affect the
market prices of the staple as may
best suit their selfish purposes.
We have before us, De BOWS Re.
view for March, land here, by the
way, we would take occasion to re.
peat our former thanks to the editor
and proprietor for sending us his
able monthly, in which we find
concisely written editorial on "The
Cotton Interests Of the South" Com
ing from 80 respectable n source,
and evincing as it does an amount
of careful observation and deductions
not to be met with in any article on
the same subject, which has come
under our notice from any other
source, we are tempted to lay before
our readers the remarks of the editor
in full which are as follows
Tho Editor of the Review having re-
Gently made an extensive tour through the
cotton States, is enabled to speak with
some degree of confidence in regard to the
prospects of the crop of 1866, which ia now
being put into the ground.
Under all the advantages of the old sys-
tenn of labor, and with the full agricultural
force which existed in 1850, the crop OF the
cotton States, with fair season, might
reach 100000 bales but taking the
chances of such a season one year with
another, it would be n reasonable estimate
to say 100000.
The efficient negro population of the
South has been reduced by the war, on
liberal estimate, one fourth. Upon the
supposition that all now in existence are
willing to work up to the standard Of the
past, deduction of one-f fourth must there
fore be made from the above figures.
But would 1T not be an absurd hypothesis
to suppose that in the inexperience, the
ignorance and wild hopes of sudden free
dom, tho negro will be 30 productive
an agent az under the regulations and sys-
tenn Of slavery, which existed two hundred
years No one familiar with the oharao-
ter of the black races would make such a
mistake, and there are no results 30 far
which would cause us to make it, A fair
deduction of another quarter will therefore
be very safe. Thus the 100000 bales
must submit to be divided by two.
Here, then, we have probable crop of
$3.50, 900 bales, NTH the Whols cotton region
under full cultivation.
Is that an existing condition Our OBJ
seTvation, conversation and collected in
formation from every source, leads to tho
T.