The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-05-14
OUR AGR1cuLTuRAL FUTURE.

Disastrous as has been the result of the late
civil war in this State, there can be no doubt
that other countries have passed through politi-
cal conyulsions equally severe. Indeed, IN the
last two centuries there arc portions of Europe
now covered with fruitful fields and thriving
cities. which have been over and over again the
battle fields of contending nations, the camping
ground of large and devastating armies.
We have seen it stated on apparently trust
worthy authority, that upon the Restoration of
CHARLES II. in England, the real estate of that
kingdom had largely increased in value in
spite of civil war, of sequestration and contis-
cation.
1t is worth while to inquire into the cause
why South Carolina, two years after the close
of the war, offers 80 little evidence of returning
prosperity.
Of course there are two prominent causes,
the effect of which is evident, and upon which
no action of ours can have any wholesome in
Auence.
One is, that most of the surplus capital made
and accumulated by the industry OF the State
was invested not rs in other countries, IN vari-
Gus modes of industrial employment, but IN the
purchase of labor When that labor, there
fore, was destroyed, the whole surplus capital,
which in other countries was by confscation,
consequent upon civil war, simply converted
from one possessor to another, was with us abb
solutely destroyed. 1t was just as if so much
accumulated wealth had been sunk into the
sea.
The other reason is that the compensating
benefit consequent upon emancipation, which
ought naturally to have been sudden supply
of cheap labor to the agriculture of the coun-
try, was prevented by the political agitation
over this very labor. The ordinary laws Of
supply and demand, the natural relation be-
tween capital and labor have, in this State,
been violently interfered with, and nothing but
the extraordinary prices of the great staples OF
rice and cotton has given even chance to the
exercise of agricultural energy.
Now these prices, it is very evident, will not
be maintained, and the question of the agricul-
tural future of the State is fast becoming very
grave one.
The first cause to which we have referred,
that is, the absolute destruction of all OF our
| accumulated capital, can never be corrected.
The second cause, the political interference
with labor, will gradually disappear, but 1t is
very doubtful whether it will not before its dis
appearance have too seriously affected the
character of our native labor to allow us to rely
upon it for the future. For even if the present
generation oflaborers are found to be tolerably
efficient as field hands, we think that every
planter of practical experience is disposed to
admit the very great improbability Of the fit
ness of the 'srising generation" of freedmen for
field work. No one, we think, familiar with
the old habits and discipline of plantation life,
and who has observed the present condition Of
things carefully, can have much doubt upon the
subject. If it is so, the old plantation system
will die out, and although cotton will be made
in large, not impossibly in larger quantities, it
will be as the surplus crop Of hundred farm
ers instead of the main crop Of one large
planter. .@i q"
Owning the labor and finding in the increase
Of that labor source of wealth, the planter
might safely perhaps disregard the small farm
ing economy which has made elsewhere the
agricultural wealth of the country; butwith the
greatly increased rate of wages, with the
sources of wealth from the ownership of labor
dried up, with the uncertainty of the character
of the labor, and with the foreign competition
in cotton, which is now an established fact, it
is very questionable whether very large invest
ments will be profitable. The result Of this
years work will aid us in reaching better
judgment.
1t, is also, we think, certain that white labor
will never be successfully employed in large
force upon cotton, as the sole crop 1t would
take us too much time at present to give the
grounds for this opinion, but we think it equal
ly certain that both white labor, and even the
black labor in its present condition, can be
successfully employed upon mixed crops, fair
proportion of land being devoted TO cotton as
surplus.
We believe that this is the only plan by
which white immigration can be attracted to
our cotton lands at all, and the only way in
which it can at once be made profitable.
We shall endeavor before long to lay before
our readers fuller Investigation Of this in
teresting subject, but in the meantime COM
Al. Of 1nr