New-York tribune., 1869-03-12


bundred hales next December at two bits
mound. But let us reason about it. You DO
not propose to move West. You know OF no
good cotton or tobacco land that is cheaper
than your own plantation. Besides you nave
no money to go on. If you leave your chiluren
anything, it must be in the acres over "nicn
you walk If you drain those acres Oh the lasC
tun of potash and phosphorus they contain
Won leave to those who come after you Wiue
waste Iof broom sedge and stunted plnes-a
heritage of briers and gullies, ana rotten
fences. No, gentlemen; you will be wiser anu
moro proyident than that You will see that
,vbile There is some money in cotton and tobacco,
there is in it little true wealth or power hI-
tle of that which makes nations great
and keeps them so. The South has never Oeen
sufficiently devoted to the production Oh ar
ticles of prime necessity Mankind would be
better off if frost or worms should destroy
every tobacco plant that sprouts this Spring
Cotton is n very important textile but nations
were clad. and well clad, before Eli Whitney
was horn. Agriculture means the culture OF
the fields, not sliimming and desolatlng them'
ENJOYING the best climate and plowng the best
soil on the continent, the Southron ate I'M
norted bread. drank imported wine, gave his
hands imported pork, shod them with imported
leather, and buckled an imported saddle on the
back of a horse that had travelled thousand
miles southwark to find a purchaser. when
sucb q neople went TO war with States that fed
and clothed them, the result was inevitable.
Jplius Caesar with his tenth legion could have
DELAYED that exchange of notes at AppomattOx
Court- House, but he could not have made 1t
impossible. .' IS
In profound peace, with strong, silent, Wig
liant man at the wheel, the country is entering
upon a decade of material prosperity and de-
velopment that will be more amazing than the
magnitude and the obstinacy of the recent
strife. What the South wants above all other
things, is not disfrancbisement or entmnchlse-
ment, or n man in the Cabinet, nor even mgh
price for good middng, but an agricultural
system that is true, just, and lasting. Her
land has had no Sabbath; there has been no
restoration. The balance between the
living and the dead products of farm
ing was destroyed and must be re-
gained No lands that arc not often re-
newcd by the mud of inundations can survive
such an exhaustive succession as the planter
has required of his cotton and tobacco fields.
A lost fertility must be restored. That saw
agery of brOom-scdgc and brier-thickets must
be abolished. But the purchase of few
thousand tuns of guano will not work the de-
sired change, Those phosphate stones on
Ashley River alone will not do it. The South
thinks she needs manufactwes-and so she
does. But artisans and operatives will not
move there till good food and good cloth are
less costly. These will not be more abundant
till there are more good barns and we'll
designed farm-yards; till those poor, wild cows
are replaced with Durhams and llercfords, and
Aldcrneys; till those razor back hogs are
killed, and Suifolks and Chesters take their
place; till they have fattcr chickens and more
of them; till potatoes, and cabbages and apples
are cheaper. Cotton always was weak king
lie was full of pride, and vanity, and weak
ness lie urged his subjects into an unequal
strife, and then showed no influence at courts
To make alliance or secure open ports. He
gave the planters family poclct-moncy, a
handsome carriage, and a heritage of barren
fields. If ever King at all he was King Storll
The South Of to-day does not need cotton fac
tories half so much as she does manure fac
tories. She thinks the Constitution a. it was
furnishes a panacca for all woes; but it is not
half so important to her just now rs the Herd
Book.