The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-19
Small Farm. for Cotton Culture.
From the New York Evening Post.l

A gentleman who has lately nved IN 6raZli
and is familiar with the manner IN which cot
ton is raised in that country, writes US:
SIN reading the article IN the Evening Post,
of the 18th ultimo, on Small Farms for Cotton
Culture. I was struck with the extract from
the Charleston Mercury, which you quote.
The Mercury says: will the Evening Post be
pleased to tell US by what system OF labor
cotton s cultivated in Brazil, in Egypt and IN
India p
"a long residence in the principal cotton
port Of Brazil enables me to answer the ques-
:ion as regards that empire, if not to the sat-
isfaction Of the Mercury, at least to its en-
ightenment, as had the writer Of the article
been acquainted with the facts, he would have
been silent as to the system OF Brazil, which
is of such character as to make it very
strong argument against tho position advanced
BY him, that cotton cannot be proftably raised
by small farmers.
First let me give you the exact figures OF
the receipts at the port of Pernambuco, with
which place l am best acquainted, promising
carried out pretty generally throughout the
empire. In 1860 the receipts at Pernam. .uco
were a, ,461 bales (of only 160 pounds average);
In 1861, 20,5S0; then came tue rebellion, but,
as you are aware, it took 8 long time to es-
tabhsh cotton famine and consequent high
prices; still an impetus to cotton culture was
given, and in 1862, s., ,211 bales wore received !;
IL 1858, 47,044. In this year and the next the
very highest prices were reached and in 1864
the receipts were lis, ,697 in 1865, 161 419, and
in 1866, 200 994 bales, being an increase of ten
fold for the 9th year.
'sThe STIMULUS for this extraordinary increase
is self-evident; now for the means. You
should know that during these years no slaves
were imported into the empire, nor was there
any immigration, il we except individual emf
grants from Portugal and the Azores; nor was
there any deportation Of slaves from the sea-
board, where the sugar is grown, to the nte-
rior lands, where the cotton culture prevails.
Large plantations Of cotton are quite unknown,
and the insignificant quantity raised previous
to the rebellion was grown principally by small
plant ers who had very few slaves say from
one to ten each, and who were themselves la
borers.
but on the stimulus Of the high price, the
free country people, each OF whom owns, hires
or 'squate' on little patch OF land, upon which
he raises his mandioca 10 make the almost
universal food, 'farinha.' and his corn or other
vegetables, went into cotton planting, in which
the whole family we're able to assist; and there
were soon about as many cotton planters ID
the province as previously there had been bales
raised. The slow and difficult native process
Of ginning had to be abandoned, and American
hand gins were introduced and scattered al
most broadcast over the country. Then the
countryman sold his little lot Of cotton In the
seed to country dealer, II too small to make
it worth while buying gin; or had 1t ginned
and baled at neighbors press and took 1t
himself to town to sell. Frequently have I
seen such a counnyman with his horse load Of
bale of cotton on one side, and basket OF
chickens with perhaps big stone as make
weight) or q bag Of corn on the otner, and
have conversed with great many who had
raised, soma half q bale, some one or two
bales, as they had the land to spare and the
family to assist in their labors.
ar ,Ga II &loS fppn sr1o oP
of late years have been raised by free labor,
and large proportion by men who were with
cut the means to hire labor, and who farmed
their own patches Of land.
oThis class Of free men in Brazil are almost
without exception either Of pure negro blood
or more or less mixed, freedmen themselves
and the descendants OF freedmen; pure whites
are very rare amongst them. These are to be
contended against in Brazil, besides the ma
tural and inevitable dislnclination to labor Of
the lower classes Of free people ip slave coun
try, the proverbial laZiness OF the ma
tlves Of the tropics, where the merest
pittance and the smallest conceivable amount
Of labor gives them food, and for clothing a
few yards OF cotton cloth is all they require.
II with such material the stimulus of money
getting alone enables country to increase the
culture Of cotton tenfold in five years, what
shall prevent the South, with far better, more
vigorous laboring population, who must labor
or die, from not only becoming again the great
cotton producer Of the world, but being able
TO furnish cotton to the world to the exclusion
Of all others.
SIN Brazil, again, the bulk OF the cotton is
brought great distances to market or the sea-
port, and the only means Of transport are
horses, each horse carrying Two bales over bad
roads, through woods and brush, where the
waste is very great indeed. A road into cot
ton district is literally lined with cotton, and
the cost of transport is frequently over six
cents gold per pound, and little enough you
will say when you know it is journey Of two
or three weeks from some points. Yet with all
these difficulties to contend against, the in
crease in cotton culture has been as ! have stat
ed, and this entirely on system Of small farms
for cotton culture Your article hits the nail
on the head, and gives the only sensible solu-
tion to the question as to the future of the
freed laborers at the South, aud I think the
Brazil system strong additional argument in
its favor"
We hope some of the Southern journals, like
the Charleston Mercury, which have been per-
susding their leaders that cotton can be prof.
table grown only on large plantations, and by
men of considerable clpital, will print the let
ter OF our correspondent, in which it is so
clearly shown that under far less favorable
than those Of the people in the
Southern States, the Brazilian freedmen am
small farmers have grown cotton to very
great extent upon small holdings, and with
only the labor OF their families.