Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-08-16
MISSOURI C0RRFspeNDENCE.


4
Editors Memphis Appeal:
l notice a communication signed
4" J. b. 81 ia your issue Of July 25th,
addressed to the consideration of all
classes" The writer's views diGer so
widely from my own that / have q few
words to cay about simple labor" If
& man had but eight acres Of land TO
| farm with he might cultivate it all in
cotton, by working the whole year, and
| employing another hand three month, to
help gutheT his crop. Were he to plant
| the same ground in corn of course he
could raise but eight acres, but the same
! time and labor required for the cultiva-
| ton Of the eight acres Of cOttOD, would
have snabled him TO make forty acres Of
co77l-quite difference. But We are not
| dOue-yet. The corn could 0e "laid by -
sfter, or with three months labor, SO the
farmer would have nine months OF his
years time left teKeepttwO weeks to gath
eF corn for the cultivation of other crops
and tor other farm labor Again, who
raises 500 pounds OF cotton to the acre [?
Did the crop OF last year average 800
pounds per acre? Fifty blshels OF corn
is quite low enough for an acre, for good
lands will yield seventy to seventy FIVE
bushels. &C. B. s." is the first writer
on political economy that / have noticed
to argue that 3 planter, by producing the
chief articles Of home consumption,
would become poorer and "lapse into a
state of society as useless as Indians.n
Without controversy, every bushel of
corn purchased in Memphis the past
year, for plantation use, has cost the
planter 81 50 per bushel at home, when
by arranging his crops, raising his
own feed corn and his own
bread corn, they would only have
cost ham forty cents per bushel.
Suppose then that planter saves 81 10
per bushel on all his corn FOR both man
and beast, how nice a sum he will have
saved to buy groceries and other traps
with. It Is but a small planter who
needs but forty acres OF corn, yet the
labor Of one man and two animals viii
produce this crop in three months. Forty
acres at fifty bushels to the acre will
produce 2O00 bushels, which st a saving Of
81 10 per bushel, is a clear gain Of 5000.
Tell us, J. B. S. how a planter who
sdUeS 5000 in the cultivation of only
forty acres will become poor, or get in
debt every year, as they now do, from the
culture of cotton.
1t is aD Undeniable fact, that the people
were at the time of the surrender. The
chief cause Of this poverty is the cotton
calture. A people who sell what they
raise AZ cost, and pay three times
the price OF cost Of production for
what they must hare for home
consumption, will always be poor.
Let no one say the planter raises
cotton TO get cash Does be not pay
cash for his corn ? and does he not Qet
oash for every article or produce he brings
to RldTketF Does il not cost twenty cents
per pound to raise cotton? and after
hauling TO market, paying govern
ment tax, commissions on sale.
does not cotton produce an Gct7tdg
loss, and bring the silly planter
in debt? True, planters who owe their
lands and teams make q living, while
rentors must Inevitably break. What
shall we do, then? is there no remedy
for southern people? Yes; merchant
dSres to tell planters what to do. Putin
one third of your ground in cotton, the
other tWO-tbirds in corn, wheat, oats,
potatoes, beans, stock peas, etc. By this
disposition OF crops, cotton will bring
forty cents per pound, the government
tax will be the same, and sc this price
will not stDdBlp ali mans earnings fer
the year, The price being forty cents,
the Onerous government tax will not fall
so heavily on the producer.
IS TO trade ianguishing in Menphis,
the conclusion ersWn from the premises
are b,fncOn6. Did not everybody plant
cotton last year. and as sequences has
not trade in Memphis been dDller this
summer than ever before knOwn2 Since,
then, the culture of cotton brings poverty
and suffering on the south, as q people,
let us counsel together, and act as men
having heads as well as hands. One word
more: The yankees are bound % get all
we have, and they won't eat corn, snd
they caHnot transport it and sell 1t as
easily As cotton. J. d.