The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-01-20
CHI A r I. ES TON.
MONDAY MORNING, JANUARY 20, 1868.
Prospeets OF Cotton.

causes. 10 Qlscrlmln0le petWeeh eueee
causes is of prime importance-at least to
distinguish the permanent ones, which must
henceforth enter il all our calculations for
the future.
The fact is patent that the present price
of cotton has in most instances not remu-
nerated the labor employed in its produc-
tion. While the farmer who, with his chill
dren and few domesties, titled the soil,
succeeded, the planter failed. With rare
exceptions, those who cultivated large
tracts were unabl. to repay the loans they
contracted at tho beginning Of the past
year, and can secure no capital for the hec-
essary expenditures of this. We have in
mind, for example, the owner of thousands
of acres who last year re-established his
agricultural interest by the mortgage OF his
plantation, and who eventually received as
his share of the crop three bags of cotton
and hundred bushels Of corn He is q
ruined man-ruined by permanent causes.
Others have not recovered from their fields
the worth of the seed planted there;-these
for the most part have been ruined by local
and temporary causes. In foreoasting the
future, we need to set aside whatever en-
barrassments anil distresses arise from the
latter source. Taxes may be changed into
bountiss; the army worm may cease to in
wade; the clouds of war may drift away
from Europe; a capricious nature may be
conciliated, and turning to us her long
averted face may smile upon our fields in
sunshine and enrich our impoverished acres
with largesses of rains and dews but none
of these changes can affect the laws of po-
litical economy steadfast, ine1orable
power, which has decreed henceforth the
low price of cotton, and has authoritatively
assigned limits to its production. This
"shrinkage" both in quantity and in value
it becomes our people carefully to consider.
The quantity of cotton that we can raise
is now much less than it formerly was.
Once the Southern farmer (or we eschew
the contemptucus phrase imported from
abroad-"the poor Whitley who labored
with his family in the cotton field, gathered
about as much cotton in proportion to the
number of hands, as the planter who en-
ployed slaves. This parallslism no longer
exists. The manial labor hired by the lat
ter, has deprecated, say about fifty per
cent. in productive power. 1t reaches the
old proportion only where the employer
and the hireling labor together in the field.
Besides this, large number Of persons
previously enlisted in the work I'VE refer
particularly to the women and boys) are
now detached to the cabin and the school
room. Until, therefore, immigration in
creases the nun ber of Southern farmers, tits
impracticable for the South to raise the aver
age crop of former years. General sooTT's
estimates to the contrary, we can accept
simply as an evidence of his good wishes;-
they are wholly incompatible with the pain
full facts which the Bureau itself pleads as
its claim to prolonged existence. Until
years have elapsed, suoh hopeful exhibits
and prognostioations cannot be realized.
The yield of the whole South in 1855 was
about double what was raised by the single
State of Mississippi sixteen years before.
But the Gotten monopoly Of the South has
been affected by other than political causes
causes which have been in operation for
half century which would have operated
in the course of time just as they now do,
but which were stimulated into unwonted
activity by the privations of manufacturers
during the late war. The cotton crop of
Brazil, India and Egypt, has been steadily
increasing, and improving in quality as
well. The Egyptian cotton is long staple
nearly equal in quality to our Sea Island.
That Of Brazil, which is also long staple,
il superior to Mddling Orleans, which last
commands the price of but I'D. or I'd. above
carefully picked and we'll ginned Surats.
Thus the superiority whether Of our long
staple or shors staple cotton, is not so pro-
nounoed as to enable us to sway the market
Of Liverpool or the looms of Manchester.
The active mpetition--perhaps We should
say the dangerous rivalry-of other lands,
imposes limit at the South upon the re-
munerAtive production of her chief staple.
The day has gone by when it was pru-
dent to neglect the culture Of corn and the
smaller cereals, and the rearing of stock,
the establishment Of factories, the opening
Of mines, thu planting Of orchards and
vineyards-when the South needed no other
wealth than the white blooms that over.
spread her fertile acres Development of
resources and variety of employments are
essential to our prosperity. Whatever new
industry is established now is public ben
eft. We need to become independent-and
this we nevec can be while our fortune de-
pends entirely upon the cotton crop-that
is to say, upon product which industrial
disorganizatlon, hostile legislation and for
eign competition conspire at once to limit
and depreois,te.
tuyIane au1r DANES ~,