The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-02-14
a Word to Our Planters.

tuition of labor, its time-honored
usages, its prejudices and, we may
add, its follies, its short sightedness
and its lack of sound judgment in
many things pertaining to the ma
nagement of that great interest which
supports all others-the agricultural.
We have to start anew, and we
might as well look the matter in the
face and promptly adapt ourselves to
the great change that has come over
our institutions. 1t is only over our
institutions, onr habits and usages
that this change has come, and it is
worse than idle to mourn over the
past, and lament that the former
times were better than these. We
say it is only i'll certain social and in
dustricus arrangements and organi-
cations that the change referred to
has been effected The conquering
armies of the Union, whatever else
they were able to do, could not affect
our soil or climatc-they are still left
to us, and it only requires willing
hands and active industry to avail
ourselves of the benefits which both
properly tender to the husbandman.
The cry that is coming up from our
sister State Of Alcnama, where it is
thought 40, 900 of her people will be
without the means Of obtaining food,
but through charitable efforts, toge-
ther with the scarcity of provisions
in our own and other Southern States,
should deeply impress our planting
friends with the absolute necessity Of
planting and raising sufficient provi-
sions-bread and meat-to render
them independent Of foreign sources
of supply, and to enable them to fur
nish their own people, neighbors and
friends, with the means Of sustaining
life. In times of ordinary prosperity
even, it is clearly the duty Of the
planter to be self-sustaining, while
making his future crop; but how much
more imperative is that duty upon
him now, when the cry for bread is
coming from thousands of his fellow
citizens.
The system Of large cotton planta-
tions is necessarily abandoned, there
being no reliable labor to work them.
1t is, therefore, the duty of all en-
gagged in cultivating the soil to use
their diminished labor to the best
advantage. Corn and other grains,
and stock of all kinds, should be pro-
duced and raised the present year,
for, # this course be not pursued,
bad as the times are now, they will
be ten-fold worse twelve months
hence. The planters ought not to
abandon entirely the cultivation OF
their former great staple; but every
consideration now pressing upon the
community drives them to the conclu-
sion that they ought not to yield to
it that supremacy it has hitherto held
among their productions. If they
attempt to pursue, as far as they can.
their old system of raising cotton,
and out of its proceeds expect to buy
meat and bread, they will find, to
their sorrow and suffering, that, in
this respect, old things have passed
away.
The season is here when arrange
ments are to be made, and we hope
and trust that the course Indicated
above will be followed. And where
landowners, either from scarcity of
labor or other causes, cannot cult
vate all their land, let them invite
any willing worker to occupy it, and
there will be bread enough and to
spare.
IMPORTANT, IF TRUE. A special
Iac,ootob to tho S,uoDnol, Do.,,IJ.