New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-03-19

lfr ,>,s tho Anglo Brazilian Times. |

iFf >a Tho Anglo Brazilian Tincs.I
~ oh'y 'hrf-o or four years ago, when the great
NORM h'heSlcan struggle was developing itself,
ana tle binds of all persons interested in the abb
ssof<tng question Of the day-the future supply OF
LAT cotton on which 80 much Of Engand's manu-
featuring supremacy was based, we're eagerly ex
! plorng all the known countries of the world II
quest of new cotton growing regions whence to
derive present supplies and render the manu'ac
turers released from their almost total dependence
upon rival country-in oracling upon the SUBJECT
| tile general conclusion of writers on the Cotton
| future was that India is the only country possess
ing sufficient extent of cottongTowinG di5tlicLs u
| be practically u competitor WIN hte 7ouuIeri
States for the possession OF the fnarkeIa o.
| Brazil being summarily classed among the mlnol
cotton regions and cursorlly set down as capable
| of furnishing perhaps 100000 or 800 600 bales.
| Yet, though it was not altogether unknown tha
cotton of fine quality vas lndigt it, IN many
tcles useful to them in their rude life, due atten
ton was not paid to the circumstance OF 1t being
| found so commonly disseminated in Brazil, tt
mining and secluson from free commercial inter
| course many small manufactures of coarse cotton
clothes were located here and there even in the
| scantiy populated regions of Malto Crosse and
Goyaz, some OF which still exist, which supplied
| the nsybaritic wants of the BraZans of those
days, before the cheapening of the imported
article, the greater luxury Of tastes induced by
more extended acquaintance with European wares,
and the great demand for Brazilian products,
turned attention from manufacturing pursuits and
gold washings to the agriculture of the country as
the most rapid means Of acquiring wealth.
| Now, however, through the increased impor-
1 lance which its culture assumed in the eyes of the
Brazilian fazendeiros, in view of the high prices
| obtanable in the marts of Europe, prompted and
| encouraged by enlightened gentlemen both native
| and foreign, who saw in the growth of cotton a
source of emolument and prestige to Brazil, juster
| ideas can be formed Of its capacity as a cotton
| rntriu ptru oil IVA 80
culture has been revived in some localities, widely
| extended in Others essayed and found lucrative
| in many before unthonght Of, and not province,
| save perhaps war-troubed Matte Crosse, but con-
| tributed to the largely increased expectation
| during the past year to the markets Of Europe ;
and it can now be rested on as established fact
that from the region directly under the equatorial
sun to the souhernmost and therefore coolest pro
vinces from the low lands bathed by the waters
of the South Atlantic to the high plains of the
west-in almost the totaity of the three millions
of square miles comprised in the superlicies OF
Brazil, the culture of cotton may be successfully
pursued and morc-that the climate is so emf
nently favorable to its growth and harvesting that
were Brazil as practsed as the United States in
the employment of labor saving implements and
means of conveyance such IS its superiority in the
quality and yield of herbaCeous cotton as COM
pared with the growth in the best cotton districts
| OF the latter country that Brazil could afford to
| undersell the producers OF the Southern states
even in their own home ports.
Some Of the cotton exported during the past
year was gathered a thousand miles away in the
interior was freed from its seeds by the slow and
costly operations of the Anticipated churka gin,
and was transported on mule back on a journey
occupying two months Of steady travel, yet price
of some AID pound in Rio was sufficient to in
duce the farmers Of that region to gather it from
the cotton trees that grew around uncared for, and
to submit to the slow process of their inefficient
and primitive cleaning machinery.
The culture of coffee has for many years been
tba Fav nf
enormous profits under a system Of hoe labor aad
rapid exhaustion of the soil, but it is the opinion OF
many experienced men, that, with the general en-
pioyment OF modern implements OF husDaIdry and
improved gins for separating the fibre from the
seed, cotton would rapidly surpass coffee on all
lands adapted to the use of such Implements that
when the labor Of the negroes is supplemented by
that OF animals of traction, and the work and in
telHgence Of one man thus represent the brute
force alone Of five or six under the present mode
the profits derived from the culture Of the her
baceous annual, cotton, will be greater and surer
than from the perennial, coffee. For the demon.
strating OF this proposition we look to the labors
Of the American planters now coming into Brazil
rather than to Brazilian tazeHdeiros who, mostly
used to q system of hand labor under which large
profits are attainable not, as body, prepared
TO give up old habits and prepossessions without
having the demonstration wrought out before
them.
But with this in sight; with the plough and the
harrow in the field staying exhaustion, increasing
the yield and, besides the breadth OF the land il
cultivation; with improved cotton gins saving time
and labor; with wagons on the farms and roads
facilitating and cheapening transport; with twelve
hours labor-it may reasonably be expected that
even with the present number Of producing hands
in Brazil the export of cotton could be enormous
increased without trenching on the production Of
coffee on its present scale.
Cotton, moreover, is staple when IS well
adapted to the capabilities Of white labor and
small proprietorship. It's cultivation and gather.
ing exact no excessive toll, or exposure to iniu-
rious Influences. Children and women can assist
in planting and harvesting without tasking their
powers too strongly. The presses are matter OF
homo manufacture, and the outlay for a gin could
he distributed among several individuals of the
same settlement. And, what il Of prime i'm
portance to this class in selling the ligncous fiber
OF the cotton plant they do not send away the
most valuable constituents of the soil and there
fore, do rot need like the coffee planters, to main
tain large tracts of virgin soil to substitute for
their rapidly eXhausting fields.
To the extended culture of this crop valuable
results of a social order may arise. The great
ta2en8ero will not find it then his interest to eX
tinguish the small proprietors to obtain new soil,
nor to hold huge tracts of wild lands such as
obstruct the march Of improvement about Rio de
Janero and in all the most accessible points. The
Interior districts, unsuitable to coffee, can be re-
claimed from wilderness, or the pasturage of a
few Thousand cattle, for the cultivation of crop
bearing the cost of transport; the colonies, borne
down by their property and the inability of their
puihy 70 DeaT tACeSSlSe lielSHtS, may
take fresh root and thrive. The half negotiating
poor Brazilian now living miserably in some puny
roca in the woods, little better than slave Of his
rich and influential neighbor, or following the three
parts savage life of a troupeiro," may settle in
the government colonies and become a freedman
and producer Of wealth-the industrious Portu-
guese that carry their earnings and their labor
home again, may be induced to devote these earn
ings to profitable culture, and form homes for
themselves-and agricultural immigrants will find
in it that desderatum of the Glass; the means of
procuring money with the annual first fruits of
their labor.
Cotton has two-fold value in the eyes of the
political economist Not merely does its growth
support and remunerate the agricultural producer,
but its manufacture gives employment to many
hands and many trades, stimulates many sciences,
calls into action the powers of many minds, and
brings wealth and comforts to all and if we can
not yield it the place of king of all the world it
cannot be denied that it has proved one Of the
mightiest engines OF modern progress
Louisiana Intelligence.
CADDo.-Most of the planters with whom we
have conyersed give US favorable opinions of their
ND EnJ ,I,,+