The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-05
The Cotton CrOp.

BEFORE the war the pro. slavery leaders of the
South were arrogant enough to assert aud
stupid enough to believe that cotton was king
They had gradually worked themselves into
the conviction that slavery was the only true
cornerstone of government, and cotton the
only true basis of American commercial pros
perity. They regarded with indignation any
attempt to question this fallacy, and were con-
temptuously Indifferent to arrays of statistics
which proved that the real value of the cotton
crop fell behind that of number of other agri
cultural products, and that it scarcely
amounted to one-tenth of the
gross returns Of the manufacturing
industry of the country. Another
favorite Southern theory was, that cotton
could never be produced in any considerable
quantity by free labor, the deduction from
these premises being that slavery was abso-
lutely essential to the industrial welfare of the
United States. II these absurdities had no
gained credence, it is extremely doubtful
whether the secession leaders could have fired
the Southern heart by their denunciations of
imaginary wrongs.
The actual facts are that in 1850 the cotton
crop of the South was 2, 445, 1893 bales, and in
1860, an unusually favorable year, 5,307,052
bales. Since the war, the yield, as
nearly as can be ascertained, was
in 1866, 2,l5l,043 bales; in
1867, 1851, 1888 bales; and in 1867-S, the
present season, about 2, 10000 bales. This
is undoubtedly large reduction in the cotton
crop Of this country, bat is by no means tanta-
mount to the absolute destruction of the crop
which was predicted. In a pecuniary sense it
is indeed more valuable than the crops pro-
duced before the war, on account of the large
increase in the price; and the prospects are
that in the present year the South will derive
a revenue of at least two hundred millions OF
dollars from her favorite staple.
Considering the devastations of the war; the
loss of implements, capital, credit, and popu-
lation; the prevailing disorders and insecurity
of life and property; and the many warn.
ipgs which widespread famines have
given to Southern districts OF the i'm
portance of diversfying their crops by
raising at least sufficient food to supply their
most pressing necessities, the yield Of cotton
is much larger than could have been fairly
anticipated. Free labor, in spite of numerous
disadvantages, raises nearly as much cotton in
1868 as slave labor raised in 1850, and receives
richer reward for its toll than was ever OBJ
tanned for a slave labor product. An addi-
tional proof is thus given that freedom
has not converted the freedmen, as
a class, into unproductive idlers. In
deed, they remain in their new condi-
tion as they were before emancipation, the use
full class Of Southern population. The Con-
federate Generals and politicians who recently
responded to the letter of General Rosecrans,
alege that the negroes "stiU constitute the im
pOrtant part of mOir IabOring population. With
out their labor the lands of the South ,Oould be
comparatively unprOductive." The authors of
the impressive testimony thus presented to
the public seem to be totally unconscious of