The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-02
From HdrpT's Weekly.
Crops and the EInnncea.

Inhabitants of the South were starring,
and the North, out of its abundance,
sent them shiplOads of food and hun
dreds oTthousands of dollars. Such u
wall of absolute and extreme necessity
was never heard before in our land; yet
there WIS no deception. The distress
was real, and nobly was 1t relieved.
To-day every one of those Southern
States is teeming with food, either har-
vested or rtpening in the tieldsl There
are exceptional localities where indo-
have sown, and whose poverty -pinched
-inhRbitants will continue to appeal for
aid. But the universal testimony Is in
favor of Overwhelming crops.
From Texas to Virginia it is the
same. The two thousand barns which
were destroyed in the Shenandoah VAL
ley two years ago are rebuilt and wait
ing for the products OF ten thousand
fields. Cotton is growing with excel
lent promise where the floods inunda-
ted the bottoms OF Louisiana. The
famed Sea Islands of the Georgia and
ready to contribute their precious long
staple to the hungry markets of the
world. Texas, always thrifty, thrives
as she has never done before. The ne
groes, Shiftless by nature, are rapidly
acquiring habits of industry, and the
WuOS6
was indolence, are taking their
sons. into the fields with their
hoes. This is the beginning OF pros
perity. The South has taken a new
lease of life, and henceforward will
press forward in the race of improve
ment to the development of wealth.
One letter from Louisiana says. with
success full cotton this year, the planters
will be eindependent." !" Another remarks:
"Corn constitutes three fourtbs of a liv-
ing at the South. We shall only have
to make up the other fourth" The
Raleigh North Carolina) Standard
says :: "From what we can learn, a
larger breadth will be planted in cot
ton in this State than in any former
year. Cotton will pay well at fifteen
cents" For the first time in many
years, before the war as well as since,
there is a ready acknowledgement that
the prospect for a large crop of cotton is
good. Croakers about short crops, rust,
worms, etc., are nowhere heard. The
season is backward, but this makes an
abundant harvest the more certain.
Bnt fortune has poured its plenty
into the lap'o the North as well as the
South, and blessed 1t beyond precedent.
All the accounts from every State agree
that such crops have not been promised
for ten and twenty years. It's remark
able that we hear nothing of weevil,
rust and midges. The eyes of the
whole country-we might say, of the
world-Rre intently fixed upon the ma
turing fields: To them there is con-
fiding and hopeful looking for relief
from present distresses. They are the
potent means to set in active motion
the sluggish machinery OF trade. All
kinds of business wait on their devel-
opment. A successful harvest from
Maine to California would add at least
81 SOC, 600, 900 to the wealth of the coun-
p Tho Huhnnt last
valued at 1888. .T73, GAG, and the corn crop
at 1891, ,666, ,295. An estimate OF this
years crops gives thirty million tons of
grain against twenty-five millions last
year, and nineteen millions in 1860.
With such an influx of wealth the
South will provide for its present needs,
which are distressing, and have large
surplus to begin business with once
more. 1t will have this advantage, too,
that it can commence with clean
ledger. In former years, before the
war, the South was-Rl ways i'll arrears;
it anticipated its ineone at least year.
Now, both the necessity and the temp
tatiOn to live beyond its means are
gone. No longer burdened by huge
family of slaves to provide for, and OBJ
livious to the craving desires which
idleness begets, the planter joins his
efforts with those of the freedmen and
works out the more abundant reward.
Cheered by his good fortune, his heart
will enlarge with kindly feelings to-
ward his flag and his countrymen, and
the good work of reconstruction will
be hastened.
In the West the present striugency In
the money market and the scarcity OF
currency, which is attributed to power
ty of resources due TO former crop fall
ures, will disappear, and an impetus
be given to all departments of trade.
The earnings of railroads and steam
boats multiply fourfold.
At the North, capital, now idle, will
seek Investment in numberless enter
prises which now receive only a shrug
and suspicious shake of the head.
Stocks and securities of all kinds will
improve, and we shall go on prosper
ously as we have done-only business
will be tran sacted on somewhat diff
ferent basis. Speculation has had its
day and will have to stand aside. There
! is to be nomore fatteningou the exorbi-
tant profits e1torted from customers.
The dry-goods men, the manufacturers,
and the cotton dealers, have all had
their day of high living and their day
ofdiBcomfture and distress, and now the
grain and provision dealers must take
their turn. The laborer will no longer
be obliged to starve because his scanty
purse Will no longer purchase flour at
81 per barrel, aud pork at $50; but
prices will come down to nearly what
they were before the war. In IKE man
ner an abundant cotton crop viii lower
the price of dry goods. With food and
clothing cheap, wages must either tall
and the employer be the gamer, or the
workman will be permitted to pu: aside
| a large portion OF his earnings which
now 90 for actual necessaries. In either
case, the revenue ofthe Government is
increased. and the country relieved of
a aproportionate amount ntofindebtedness. of
The value of an overf1owing harvest
is beyond estimate at this critical time.
We will not say that the solvency of
the country hangs upon II, although 1t
has been so affirmed. We do not go to
that length, Notwithstanding the stag
zation or business, the pecuniary dis
tress, and Secretary M'Culloch's omi-
nous letter. What we see now Is only
patient waiting for the rising of the
tide, which when taken at the Hood will
lead on 70 fortune. Our cotton crop in
Its quantity and quality, and the grain
crop in its abundance, will bring MS
larger returns than We have ever enjoy
red before.
WHY are radishes like telegraphic
despntehes The most natural reply
is, because both are re(a)d. The real
answer, however, Is, because both must
be taken cum 0rGHo sails.
r H.'