Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-03-23
WHITE LApoR AND COTTON.


DR.. I. G. Mott, whose namo has been
before the public for the last twenty-five
years, no. only a. physician in Mobile
but q q writer on the subject OF tho races
Of mankind, has just published an article
to prove what has generally been oontro-
verted heretofore, !. g., that a. far south
even a. Mobile itself there is nothing in
the climate to prevent white laborsr' from
c~ultivating cotton. While he thinks It
impossible that the negro should ever
flourish in the North, the white race possess
a much greater degree Of pliabilisy. de
thinrs that even rice will be cultivated oy
white laborers at some future day, though
be feels ZONE doubt about it now, and un-
til the land is more perfectly drained. But
with regard to other staples he has no
doubt. In regard to the cotton region
especially he says it cannot properly be
called a hot, though it isa warm climate.
It is not the mere heat, he thinks, but the
diseases which the sun eliminates from the
soil, that makes it unfriendly to European
constitutions. The billy pine lands, for
instance, are healthy enough, and, where
exempt from the influence Of marsh mala-
MA, are resortsd to for summer residences
by the whites.
In tho January number Of the American
Journal Of Medical Science there 10 q most
valuable discovery announced by DR.. J.
H. Salisbury, which may have much bear
ing on this subject. He has satisfied him
self that the real cause Of fever and ague
in what are called malarious districts is to
be traced to q plant called the Aqua Pal
mella," n Of the lowest known forms Of
vegetable organism. The spores and OBJ
long cells Of this plant are, it seems, eleva-
ted by the exhalations rising up from the
heated earth in the night, when tho atmos-
phere has become cooler. The breathing
in Of thes. spores 10 said to DO the cause Of
the fever and ague. Indeed. it would
seem that they possess q powerful medical
effect, useful to some-constitutions pre-
disposed to consumption, for instance
yet destructive to others, through the fevers
produced. 1t 10 supposed that, BY proper
arrangements, the knowledge Of these facts
will lead to the sx.irpation Of the plants in
many regions, aud . moro proper treat
ment Of the disease. It viii thus tend TO
render places habitabls BY white men
where before they could not subsist.
Apart from all this however, which was
not extensively known at the time when
| DR.. Mott wrote his article, there 10 an i'm
mense proportion Of the cotton lands on
which white laborers can and will live
with = reasonable degree Of health-psr-
haps, taking into view the many diseases
incident to dense populations. with as
much health % in most parts Of Europe.
Facts, he thinks, prove that whites can
live, labor and make cotton in the South
ern climate, and the temptation may Be
too strong to be resisted. "As thirty
cents q pound for cotton, n industrious
laborer can live, make his food and cloth
ing, and, besides that, put by money
enough to make him independent in a very
short time" There are farms Ill through
the Carolinas, Georgia and the Gulf
States, where poor white families do, and
have always, raised cotton and corn.
These have been driven of, 50 far. he
says, by their richer neighbors. But
nearly all the market gardens around No
bile and New Orleans are cultivated BY
white laborers, although these localities
are among the most insalubrious in the
South, being the marshy suburbs. "Who
have built the Southern towns?" Dr..
Mott asks, "Northern and foreign car
penters and b%rioklayers," he says. sin
the full blaze Of q Southern SUM-" While
Germans, Irish and Northernsrs can live,
no thinks that emigrants from France.
Spain and Italy would seem most adapted
to the climate.
Perhaps it should b remarked that
while this article gives every evidence Of
being eolored by the prepo,sessions Of DR..
Mott, most Of the facts are substantially
true. Heretofore the opposite has always
been said, and now many Of the South
are bent on introducing immigrants as
laborer.
In De Bows Review Il 10 elsewhere
calculated that the cost Of planting a
thousand acres Of cotton and $50 Of corn
Is now $4,000. The income derived
from this is reckoned at $4,000, and
the profit $4,000. II the profits are any
thing in this proportion, we believe there
are many farmers and young men from
foreign countries, and from the North,
too, who can and will try the experiment
Of cotton-raising at the South. It will be
. work Of time. There may be prejudiesS
and opposition. but BY the Constitution
and by just right. every man who will
has the privilege of trying for himself.
That Northern men will do 30 wehave no
doubt. and IL necessary. in suoh numbers