The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-01-21

planting Wdrders american P0mology
Prospective Dependency of the North upon
the South.
Henry G. Cary, Of Philadelphia, (he great
political economist) has addressed and published
to Senaoer Wilson of Massachusetts,, some inter
esting letters on the past and present condition
Of the Agricultural and Manafacturing interests
of the country. He predicts that the day is not
fas aktant when the North win be dependent on
the South for grain, and shows that the southern
planter can do better business than cultivating
cotton. We copy the following from one of the
letters
Even before the war great change had al
ready commenced in regard to the sources from
which the northern supplies of cereals were to
come, Tennessee and North Carolina furnishing
large supplies of wheat greatly superior ia quality
to that grown northern lands, and command
ing higher prices in all our markets. From fur
ther SOUTH and almost to the Gulf, We now learn
from an important public document before re-
ferred TO- that
''Wherever the United States cavalry camped
in Louisiana, during the war, wheat rye, oats,
and barley sprouted from the seed scattered where
headed finely and ripened well-the extraordi-
nary size and weight of the wheat and barley
heads showing that the soil was peculiarly adopt
ed to their growth. A gentleman, residing in
the swamps Of Assumption, assures me-" says its
author, that he has raised wheat and rye for
twenty-five years, and that he has never had a
failure; both grains frequently made forty bush
els to the acre. have cited these instances to
show that wheat has been raised, time and again,
under all sorts Of circumstances, and on every
kind of soil in Louisiana"
In other cases as many as 60 bushels to the
acre have been obtained. 1t ripens in May, and
its market value may be judged from the facts
that while
THE daily quotations show that Southern
-four, raised in Missouri, Tennessee, and Vir-
ginia, brings from three to FIVE dollars more per
barrel than the best New York Genesee flour;
that Of Louisiana and Texas is far superior to
the former even, owing to the superior dryness,
and the fact that it contains more gluten, and
does not tOment so oaeily Southern flour makes
better dough and maccaroni than Northern or
Western -four; it is better adapted for transpor-
tation over the sea- and keeps better in the tropics
1t is therefore the flour that is sought after for
Brazil Central America, Mexico, and the West
India markets, which are at our doors A barrel
Of strictly Southern -four will make twenty
pounds more bread than Illinois flour, because
being much dryer, it takes up more water in
making up. In addition to this vast superiority
of our grain, we have other advantages over the
Western States in grain growing. Our climate
advances the crop so rapidly that we can cut out
our wheat six weeks before a scythe is put into
the fields of Illinois; and being so the Gulf,
VIC avoid the delays i'll shipping and the long
transportation, the cost of which consumes nearly
one-half of the product of the West. These ad-
vantagcs, the superior quality of the -four, the
earlier harvest, and the cheap and easy shipment,
enable US absolutely to forestall the West in the
foreign demand, which is now about 100000
of bushels annually, and is rapidly increasing and
also in the Atlantic seaboad trade. Massachu-
sets, it is calculated, raises not more than one
months supply of -four for her vast population.
New York not six months supply for her popu-
lation and the other Atlantic States in like pro-
portion. This vast deficit is now supplied by
the Western States and the trade has enriched
the West, and has built railroads in every direc-
tion to carry towards the East the gold producing
grain. We can if We choose, have monopoly
of this immense trade, and the time may not be
far distant when, in the dispensaion of Provi-
dence, the West, which contributed so largely to
the uprooting of our servile system and the de-
Ss oe'ioh VI puA PiopS'by; ha'N c'ieo 0AiS 1869
forced us into rivalry against which she cannot
compete, and that she will have to draw not only
her supplies of cotton sugar, and rice, but her
breadstuffs from the South"
Is it, however, for breadstuffs alone that the
North is likely, with our present exhaustive cul-
tivation, to be compelled to look to the South?
1t is not; the sweet potatoe, which can be grown
on ''every acre in Louisiana" and of which the
yield at present, averages 200 bushels to the
acre." having, during the war, been fully tested
in feeding hogs, and having quantity and quality
of the pork considered, been found, pound for
poulu7, fully equal to Indian corn, of which the
average yield of the States north and west Of the
Ohio is less than third as much. With care
fnl cultivation it has been known to yield more
than 600 bushels, or six times as much as can,
with equal care and close to Eastern markets, be
obtained of the great staple the North, thereby
enabling those who are in the future to cultivate
those rich Southern lands wholly to supersede
the Northwest in the work of supplying animal
as well as vegetable food to the people Of the
tropics and of Europe.
Sixty acres to the hand, it is said, may be cul-
tivated in grain Combining with this the rais-
ing of cotton the effect of dyersifcation of agr-
cultural pursuits is thus exhibited
with one-fifth of our former labor, it is, there
FORE clearly practicable to put every inch of clear
ed land under cultivation. Thus, under the pre-
Of labor oofto,, or ntati