Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-26
rNsrrNors OF RACES.

,icle in the New Orleans Medical and Sur
sicsl Journal for July, 1866. Its congru-
ity with medicine or surgery cannot be
seen. He argues that as certain States OF
the Union can thrive only by the cultiva-
ton Of cotton, and as negroes will not
till the soil without coercion, they must
therefore be reduced to a condition Of sla-
very. He settles, as he thinks, the ques-
ton Of justice and humanity, BY his as
Stunning that the negro is inferior, intellec-
sually and morally, to the white /; and he
asks whether an attemp, to change "this
work of the Almighty" is anything short
Of cruelty and folly. We would ask, in
our turn, whether an attempt to revive all
the prejudIces of color and intolerance OF
caste, and to arrest the trials now being
made by good men of all political parties
to reconcile the claims Of humanity with
the practical teachings Of political econo-
my, i, not only mischievous and unpatri-
otto, but positively cruel and foolish. II
DR.. Mott is at fault IN his ethics, he is
equally 50 in his logic and use of facts,
By the oddes. tumble Of alleged cause and
contradictory sequence, he declares his
"opinion that the negro is, by instinct
opposed to agricultural labor, and that
this instinct can never be overcome except
by slavery !"
1t would be taking needless pains to
show the Inconsistency between the al
legged instinct OF the negro opposed to
agricultural labor and the means proposed
BY DR.. Mott for overcoming it. There il
no such instinct. The assertion is made
in entire oversight Of the habits Of the
many millions OF the people Of the Atri'
can race on their own continent Of Africa
The African is essentially an Agricultural
Unlike the American Indian and the Mon
COL of the yellow race, and the Tartar and
Arabian Of the Caucasian, he is never
nomadic, never leads q hunters life, and
is seldom strictly pastoral. He takes nat.
urally and instinctively to the Guilt
Walton of the soil for his support,
Agriculture is practised over the whole
Of Central Africa, the largest, most
fertile and most populous portion o.
the continent. Cotton is the great sta
pie, the chief region for the cultivation Of
which extends from Bigirmi to Timbuc.
too. Rice, both lowland, in the extern
sive districts watered by the Niger and it.
tributaries, and upland, is raised in count
less quantities. Indian corn Is common
throughout tropical Africa, and two
crops of it are often produced in thu
course Of a year in Yoruba. The people
of that country have a saying that "ln.
dian corn is the chief support OF man."
Millet, ground nuts, yam, cassava and ba.
mana are almost universal. Beans are
raised TO such an extent that, according to
Barth, they constitute a third Of the whole
Of the food consumed by the people
Wheat is less abundant, except in Hausa,
where two crops are harvested in the
year. Considerable pains are bestowed in
irrigating the land in this last-named
very extensive country. Indigo is pro-
duced in great abundance, and is most
largely and skilfully used in dyeing thu
cotton cloth. OF the extent to which cot.
ton is cultivated we may entertain somt
idea from the fact of its being used in tht
manufacture Of cloths, which constitutes
almost the entire clothing Of at least twice
the population of these United States, il
we include the inhabitants Of western At
RIGA, who are thus attired. The cotton
cloth is often beautifully woven, ano
shines with the richest gloss Of indigo
dye. The chief manufacture Of cottor
cloth, both plain and dyed, is carried &c
the greatest perfection in the countries &C.
cupied exclusively by the people OF The
unmixed negro race, as at Loggun, in the
east, and Nyffe, westward, on the borders
of the Niger. It may be said that a nc
small portion of agricultural labor is per.
formed by slaves. but if i, is done BY ne
gro hands, it is directed, controlled and
turned to profitable account BY negro
heads. In this respec, the relations o.
master and slave to each other undergo
frequent changes, from the forayS and
wars engaged in to procure slaves. Owing
to this same cause it was, as We learn
from Barth, no uncommon thing to see
overrun by tall grass and weeds extensive
plantations, and even districts, which had
pnce been in a state Of high cultivation,