The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-22
Correspondence OF the Richmond Dispatch.
Peculiar EmbarrassInents I'm North
CarOIina-Kuin Of Cotton Planters
Great Depreciation Of Property.
PETERSBURG, January 81, 1868

PETERSBURG, January II, 1913.
Petersburg, you are aware, is nearly as
much North Carolina as it is Virginia
city. Half Of our merchants are natives
of that State, and half the produce brought
to this market comes from thence. The
intercourse, therefore, between the two
places is, as you may readily suppose, very
intimate, both socially and commercially.
Hence we are nearly as well informed of
the state Of affairs in our sister State as Of
the neghboring counties along the border.
Not week passes that some of our bust
ness men do not 60 to see after their inte-
rests, and the accounts they uniformly
bring Of the sutterings and embarrassments
which meet them on every side exhibit
state of restitution which we have been
slow to realize.
A year ago, when the price Of cotton
was from thirty-three to thirty-five cents
q pound, and nobody expected it to be
lower, every planter, as if 10y common
consent, determined to make great eff
fort to relieve themselves from the diff
culties pressing upon them. They bought
largely Of fertilizers, hired hands ut rather
extravagant wages, and went to expense
in other ways. The result is that cotton
enough was not raised to pay one-half the
Indebtedness, so that either the merchant
or the laborer had to suffer seriously-in
most cases it has been the merchant. A
house in Norfolk which had given credits
to the amount Of 5000, 900 for fertilizers is
consequently unable to make collection of
more than small portion and hear of a
gentleman of this city who, in spirit Of
benevolence, Having made large fortune
out of the Carolina trade-furniShed plan
tiers with $4,000 worth of fertilizers, and
who now says he will be we'll satisfied if
he ever gets half the money back. In the
cotton counties, it is stated on good au-
thority that nineteen-twentieths of the
planters are utterly ruined, and without
the means to hire and feed laborers an
other year. Hands are, therefore, seeking
employment on almost any terms, provided
they are fed, and the highest rate of wages
is from Ave to six dollars whereas last
year it was not less than fifteen dollars.
There is, consequently, very little money
in circulation, and property at forced
sales will not bring more than one-tenth
of it's value. A splendid estate was sold
q few days ago in Johnson county, under
decree of the Federal Court, at SIS 900,
which could not have been bought previ-
Gus to the war for less than 100000. And
perhaps the most melancholy part of the
matter is that most families have not pro-
visions enough to carry them through the
spring. The lower or eastern portion OF
the State is great corn and bacon coun-
try. 1t is from thence that much Of what
goes under the name of Southampton
bacon" comes. The finest mast abounds
in all that region, affording the best range
until the time for penning. But now
the breed of hogs is fast becoming extinct,
in consequence Of the depredations Of the
negroes. But the picture is too sad to fill
up with details. S.