Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-29
THE PLANTING PROSPECT.
The Sources Of DeceptiOn-The Ont
look for Is6s-NegrO Politics and
Northern Sharpers vs.. Cotton.

The Sources Of DecepGiOn-The ont
look for Is6s-NegrO Politics and
Northern Sharpers vs.. Cotton.
From the Macon Telegraph, March %.
The North being the manufacturing sec
! tion of the Union, and interested in keep
ing down the price of cotton, has invdria-
bly, overestimated the crop from planting
| time down to the close of receipts at the
ports. The New York Herald comedies
that it overestimated the crop of 1867 by
several hundred thousand bales, and that
the supply is so small that the price is not
| likely to undergo any serious abatement
from present figures. This system of guess
ing, based Oh interest, has worked great
hardship upon the Southern planter, caus-
ing, IN the present instance, large major
ity Of them to sell their crops at prices that
did not remunerate them for the cost of
production. 1t is one of the tricks of trade,
| from which, we fear, the South is destined
always to suffer. New York estimates are
authority in Liverpool, and as cotton spe-
| culators and manufacturers may choose to
misrepresent the facts, Just to that extent
is the market controlled, and our planters
made TO suffer. Some idea of the full ex.
tent of the injury that may be brought on
them by this disreputable game, may be
gathered from the history of the last crop.
Planters, or the few who held their cotton,
are getting more than double the sum paid
for il three or four months ago, a fuctua.
tion unparalleled in the trade. A few pro-
ducers benefit by this appreciation, while
spectators and manufacturers have gath
cred in their profits by millions.
Under ordinary circumstances the South
ern planter might protect himself against
this nefariOus system Of plunder bv holding
bis crop until the brokers and manufactu-
rers are willing 10 pay him a reasonable
profit on the cost of production but, un-
fortunately for the South, she is impoyer-
ished, without capital to employ in agri-
culture, and dependent upon loans at heavy
interest and on short time, in order to make
a crop at all. This makes the planters the
slaves of the money changers, who take all
control over the products of labor ont of
the hands of the former. Nor can we see
any remedy for this state of things until
the South shall have again worked its way
to commercial Independence tardy pro-
cess, indeed, IN view of the many embarrass-
ments that fetter her energies. But still
she will do it in time. Another moderate
crop of cotton, with an abundance of pro-
visions and frugality in every department
will go far toward perfecting the desired
revolution. Our people must keep out of
debt, except for the necessaries of life, avoid
all excesses of living, stay at home, put
every energy TO work, and all will vet come
ont right.
Regarding the prospects of the coming
crop, we perceive that Interpretations are
already beginning to find their way into
the Northern press. Everything is report
ed as favorable, while exactly the converse
of the proposition is true True, our plan
ters have gone 10 work with a good will,
Notwithstanding the reyerses that have
happened to all who were compelled to 60
in debt last year; but they yhavennmerous and
formidable obstacles to contend with, such
az will require material changes for the
better and most propitious seasons, to admit
of a crop at all larger than that of the year
just past. We have the strongest reasons
for the belief that the amount of cotton to
be produced will not exceed the production
of last year, even should it reach these
figures, which is doubtful In the first
place, the season is nearly a month later
than last year, and the plantation work
nearly a month behind The excessive
cold and wet weather of January and Feb
ruary, months when nearly all preparation
is usually completed, closed in most cases
without the running OF a furrow or plant,
ing of seed. Then, fewer hands are
employed than were last wear. at
more reasonable prices we grant, but
that will not affect the production, ex-
cept, perhaps, favorably. Again, in
all the cotton States, except Alabama, in
the very midst of the planting season, and
the busiest of the year, we are TO be
scourged with elections and all the various
devices OF demagogues to take negroes
from their work, and make idlers of those
that remain. From now until the Goth of
April and for some days thereafter, in this
military di3trict, but little steady, honest
labor is to be expected from the negro.
Candidates have taken the field in every
part of those States, and we are TO have
an exciting campaign, in which the negro
is 10 act prominent part. We see that
"mass meeting" is called in this city to-
morrow, and probably we shall have from
four to six thousand hands drawn from the
plantations for thirty miles around, with
consequent loss with many of from two to
three days labor, all TO listen to the politi-
cal diatribes and fooleries of such dema-
gogues as Bullock, Blodget q Co. Perhaps
we shall have one or two more elections
during the summer, and wind up in the
fall, in the midst of the gathering season.
the most critical of all to the cotton planter
with a Presidential contest.
We submit these facts, and would ask all
reasonable men everywhere to judge for
themselves of the prospect for heavy crops
in the South, allowing everything to con-
tinue peaceful, for the year. 1868.