The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-01-23
READING MATTER ON EVERY PAGE.
A stitch in Time Saves Nine.

S"'Ss"i PciusSi VI our iaTMeIS IL Is certainly
coached in words of wisdom. We are all too
prone to pitch into" anything that will pay
us a handsome dividend, and sometimes, too,
to use a. common phrase, we ego it blind"
good and successful farmer told us, few
days since, that he would not sell a bushel of
his corn for less than two dollars per bushel.
We knew he had made a splendid crop of this
: grain, and were surprised, until he said, he in
tended to plant the whole of his crop this year
in cotton. He had made corn enough to do
min ior the next Two years. others nave told
us the same thing, with this difference, that
they did not have more grain than would carry
them through this year. In the first instance
we cannot but think it bad policy, and in the
second ruinous in the extreme. AS the arti.
Gle below states, 1--WE have made money by
the cotton crop of 1868, because cottor was
not. our first and principal care''-and, if we
follow tho same great principle in the future
we twill grow rich" and strong, and "Old
Carolina" become a mighty lever in the stride
of progress towards making our bright South
ern JhAill-tops, mighty city to dwell in" and
her plains to blossom as the rose"
OUR DANGER
The cotton crop of 1868 has been Godsend
to the South. We have money m abundance,
our credit is rapidly improving, the chains are
broken which bound US, our future is bright
with hope. And yet all this will be an evil,
rather goei, II gecdo not pefsevore in
that wise agricultural policy whose first fruits
we now enjoy.
Our danger is that the planters may be temp
ted by high prices-the result of a moderate
crop, growing trade and reckless speculation
to pitch huge crops Of cotton. Each man who
sold upland cotton at 25 or q or % cents a
pound, doubtless wished that he had twenty
bales instead of ten, or hundred in place of
fifty. This feeling, however natural, we must
conquer or be undone.
We have made money by the cotton crop of
1865, because cotton was not our first and
principal care There had been two seasons
of anxiety, disappointment and loss, which
forced. the planter to acknowledge that his on
ly safety lay in securing, at any cost, what
bread and meat he required. The dullcst and
most wrong-headcd could see this necessity,
and, as consequence, the South produced all
the breadstuffs she needed. the corn crop of
South. Carolina alone being 1000 900 bushels
more than it was in 1857 Cotton was a
secondary consideration with the planter; but
the two-and-a-half million of bales which form
the crop of the year have still brought us
more money than four million bales would
have done at the prices Of before the war.
Had the whole strength of the South been
directed to the culture of cotton the crop
would have been three million bales or more,
and then our fortunes would have been stak ed
upon one cast Of the die, prices would have
fallen nud the pur ',ass cf Western grain
would have swallowed up the greater part of
the net proceeds Of our cotton. AS it is, we
have been independent Of outside help. We
have not eaten into the morrow we have not
been obliged to throw our cotton upon the
market, and we approach another season with
distended purses and the fairest prospects of
success.
But the lessons Of this year aud of the years
which have preceded it will be worse than
shrown away, If high prices induce our plan
tiers to make cotton their king and not their
slave. The first labor, the first thought the
FIRST pains, should be given to wheat, corn and
provisions; and then, and not before, might
the reign Of cotton begin. We should have
the best seed, SO as to improve the staple fer.
tilizers should be used freely, so as to Increase
the yield per acre; no more land should be
planted than can be cultivated regularly and
we'll. And cotton crop made in this manner
will repeat the lesson Of 1868, and realize for
us far moro money than larger yield at low
er prices with millions Of dollars TO pay away
in buying our daily bread. = 'iTe1
There is, we repeat, but one safe plan i:
PLENTY OF PROVISIONS FIRST AND NEXT a
McpEhATE cRop or COTTON. If our planters
win tstick-ao this policy, they viii grow rich ;