New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-24


The report which has Just been made by Dr..
Forbes TO the English government upon the cotton
crop Of the United States after an extensive tour
through all the cotton States is probably very
accurate estimate of the amount which will be
secured the present year. DR.. Forbes estimates
the entire crop at l.290,G00 bales. This testimony
is confirmed by the most intelligent gentlemen.
from the Southern States. Governor Pickens, Of
South Carolina, himself large cotton planter,
has published a letter on the same subject, in
which he estimates the whole crop at between
1900, 900 and 1 400 800 bales.
His calculation is made by comparison with
the crop of 1860, and the quantity of labor en-,
gagged in the cultivation of cotton prior to the
war. About 100000 bales were thrown upon
the market in 1850, the product of 200 900 labor
ers, black and white He estimates the number
of labOrers to have been reduced by the des0la-
tions of war and the change Of location of the ne
gro population, to 400 900, and the same average
production now as before the war would be $780,
900 bales, but 900 more than the amount con
jectnred by Dr. Forbes. Before we can estimate
the effect upon the price in England and in this
country by the shortcrops it is necessary to com
pare the cotton supply which is now drawn from
india with that of 1860. In that year we sent to
England 2 $50 900 bales, and India sent 100000
bales.
Under the stimulating influence of our civil war
the India supply rose steadily from 400 600 to
100000 bales in 1854, while that from the United
States was only 900 bales.
( According to the London Times of September
6, 1865 India now occupies, in regard to the cot
ton supply, place scarcely inferior, inprOportion
to that which was occupied by the United States.
| The small export in 1865 Of the surplus cotton
which has been stored during the war has hardly
caused any dminution in the crop of India, and as
100000 bales is probably the extreme limit of that
1 which can be spared from the domestic con
| sumption of this country for English manu-
facture, it may be estimated that the de-
velopment of the culture and production in
India has been constant, and more especially
as the agricultural production of India has
steadily increased in like ratio for several years
in the great staples'of jute, wool, tea and coffee
1t may, then, be fairly assumed that India vii
always be able to compensate for the deticien
crop of the Unted.State AT the same time thu
A change in the labor and social system of tht
Southern States renders it probable that largt
part of their agricultural industry will be pern1a
nently directed to the production of grain aat
the raising of cattle and those things which max
country self-sustainng. The plantation system
favored the monopoly of the producer of cotton
/ The farming system, which will now take it
place, will tend to do away with monopoly, an,
introduce greater variety Of crops.
Hence, even should the negro population be a
sedulously occupied in prodnctiveindustry IS the
were before the war, the amount of cotton pre-
duced will be permanently less than under the oil
system, and the prce1 in the markets Of the worl
less dependent upon the crop of the Unite
States, while it must be constantly higher than
was when we raised the enormous amount
100000 bales annually. 1t will then be Ion
before, if ever, the price recedes to eight and te
cents. Making up by increased price for III
of their agricultural labor in producing for the
own consumption much of what they formerI
bought, the cotton States will add to their sui
stantial wealth, which will hereafter be measure
by some more general standard than the mer
export Of cotton.