Litchfield enquirer., 1868-02-27
WHOLE NO. 2282
SMALL FARMS FOR COTTON CUI.
 TURF.

O4tI4s
 .;A:gentleman who has lately lived in Bra. zli, and IS familiar with the manner in when cotioa IS raised in that country.
 writes us: 'A''
 Tn reading the article in the Ep.n;nc
 Post or the 18th ultimo on Small Farms Tor Cotton Culture was struck with tbe extract from the Charleston Merc,,,,
 whish you quote. The Mercury says: sW;lil the EUening Post be pleased to tell us what system of labor cotton is cultivated in Bra gil, in Egypt and in India?
 "A long residence in the principal cot. ton port of Brazil enables me to answer the question as regards that empire, if not to the satisfaction of the Mercury, at least tp Its enlightenment, as had the writer of 5ne article been acquainted with the facts ne would nave been silent as to the system ol Prazll' which IS of such a character as to inake It Q very strong argument against the position advanced by hlm, that cotton cannot be proftably raised by small farm CTS. ts.cE
 First let ms give the. exact figures of the receipts at the port of Pernambuco with which place am best acquainted, promis. ing that the ratio of increase has, I believe been carried out pretty generally through out the empire. In 1860 the receipts at Pernambuco were 21, ,46l bales of only 16O pounds average; in 1884, 20, 53O; then came the rebellion, but, as you are aware, it took long time to establ cotton famine and consequent high prices; still an impe- tus to cotton culture was given and in 1862 oo' 2l! bales were received, in 1862, 47,O44 Tn this year and the next the very highest prices were reached, and in 1864 the re- celpts were 113,697; in 1865, 161,4l9. and in 1865, 200, 1894 bales being an increase of ten fold for the fifth year.
 "The stimulus for this extraordinary in. crease 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, if we ex. cept individual emigrants from Portugal and the Azores, nor was there any deporta- ton of slaves from the seaboard where the sugar IS grown, to the interior lands. where the cotton culture prevails. Large planta- | tons of cotton are quite unknown, and the insignificant quantity raised previous to the rebellion was grown principally by small planters who had very few slaves, say from one to ten each, and who were them selves laborers.
 But on the stimulus of the high price, the free country people, each of whom owns, hires or 'squats' on little patch of land upon which he raises his mandioca to make the almost universal food, .farinha,' and his corn or other vegetables, went in- to cotton planting, in which the whole family were able to assist, and there were soon about as many cotton planters in the province as previously there had been bales raised The slow and difficult native pro- cess of ginning had to be abandoned, and Ametlcan hand gins were introduced and scattered almost broadcast over the coun- try. Then the countryman sold his lot of cotton in the seed to 8 country dealer, if to small to make it worth while buying a gin: or had glnned at neighbours press and took 1t himself to town to sell. Frequently have seen such a countryman with his horse load g bale of cotton on one side and a basket of chickens, with perhaps 8 big stone as makeweight, or bag of corn on the other, and had conversed with great many who had raised some half bale, some one or two as they had the land to spare and the family to assist in their la- bors.
 am satisfied fhat two-thirds or the crop of late years have been raised by free la- Dor, and a large proportion by men who were without the means to hire labor. and who farmed their own patches of land.
 This class of free men in Brazil are al- most without exception, either of pure ne- gao blood or more or less mixed, freedmen themselves and the descendants of freed men; pure whites are very rare amongst them. Therekare to be contended against in Brazil, besides the natural and inevita- ble disinclination to labor of the lower classes of free people in slave country, the proverbial laziness of the natives of the tropics, where the merest pittance and the smallest conceivable amount of labor gives them food, and for clothing 8 few yards of cotton cloth is all they require. If with such material the stimulus of mon- ey getting alone enables country to in- crease the culture of cotton ten-fold in five years what shall prevent the South with Q far better, more vigorous laboring popula- tlon, 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?
 ''In Brazil, again, the bulk of the cotton is brought great distances to market or the seaport, and the only means of transport are horses, each carrying two bales over bad roads, through woods and brush, where the waste is very great indeed. A road into cotton district is literally lined with cotton. and the cost of transport is ire quently over six cents in gold per pound, and little enough you will say when you know it is a journey of two of two or three weeks from some points. Yet with all these difficulties to contend against, ths increase in cotton culture has been asI have stated and this entirely on system of small farms for cotton culture. Your article hits the nail on the head, and gives the only sensible solution to the question as to the future of the freed laborers at the South. and think the Brazil system strong additional argument in it's favor"
 We hope some of the southern journals like the Charleston Mercury, which have been persuading their readers that cotton can be proitably grown only on large plan tations and by men of considerable capital will print the letter of our correspondent, in which it is SO clearly shown that under far less favorable circumstances than those >f the people in the southern states, the Brazilian freedmen and small farmers have grown cotton to very great extent upon ,mall holdings, and with only the labor of their families.
 BE PROMPT IN CASES OF PARA1Ysrs.-At