The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-03-17

time in getting stuff that turned out tt
be trash. So with these Southern peo
pie about cotton. They neglect othe
things too much for its sake, stimulated
as they are by the present high price
They give too little attention to cereali
and fruit, and, in general, to tht
permanent improvement of their ag
ricultural system. Their farming i.
still rude sort of tiilage. Yor
see the negro following his mule anC
shovel plow, and notice that he scarcely
more than scratches the land. You see
no manure piles, no lime kilnsI nc
compost heaps, but only the monoto
nous cotton stubble where the croI
grew last year, and where it has growr
thus unencouraged for perhaps ever Sc
many years. True, we did hear O
large impOrtntions OF guano, and it Is
possible more will be used this season
than ever before. But guano lasts Iol
only one year and then its power tC
stimulate is gone. But even 2uano is
an Improvement on the old slavery
habit OF wearing the land out and de-
pending solely on the clearings for vir
gin soil.
L presume from all we could see and
hear that there will be n great crop Of
cotton sOwn this season. Some of it, We
were told, had been sold ahead ut q
| cents, which is a remunerative price and
which will probably be above the aver
age If the year turns ont we'll. Last
year the crop overran two millions and
q half of bales. In 1S60 I think it was
about six millions. This year it may
reach two-thirds of that amount. If il
| does the South will be in funds. And
what will she do with her money? Let
me tell you a little speculation we
heard on this point: or course she will
not invest it, as in old times, in negroes
Then it was ali the go to raise as much
cotton as possible in order to buy as
many negroes as possible, in order
again, to raise as much more cotton as
possible. That was the ante bcllum
endless chain. But all that is changed
cr meceSSitdte rel, as the lawyers would
say. Sambo is no longer an article Oi
merchandise, nor even legal tender
for debt. My friend, who as you know
is both a philosopher and mathema-
tician, has speculated no little in his
money the South threw every
year into bottomless pit i'll
thus buying and selling their labor
ers to each other. Because it was just
precisely as il the North were to day
in the habit of buying and selling hall
its white population. Nothing of value
was added by their owning the
laborers, and, of course, all the money
received from England for cotton and
thus invested in buying and selling the
laborers, might as we'll have been
thrown into their rivers or burned In
their fires. 1t amoHnted to just the
same thing when put into slaves.
But, as said, all that is now changed, ,
and the question is what VIII the South
do with the money she gets from cot
ton? The answer is plain: She must
do as New England has done. AS
Wheeling has done. AS any commu-
nifty that accumulates wealth must do.
"a FNil
She must and will build cotton factories,
railroads, furnaces, rolling milla;H mai!
mills, and all other kind and variety OF
enterprises. Her cotton is the sub
stratum on which will arise wealth
more fabulous perhaps than that of
old "Ormus or Ind" and far SurpAss-
ing anything she ever knew in the days
before the war. Mighty resources are
in Tho soil waiting to be developed
when the money comes from the North
and from England for the cotton OF
the next few crops.
Another element that will assist and
hasten this coming development OF the
South will be the class of immigration
destined to ,go to it from the North.
From the nature of the case 1t promises
10 be a more advanced class than Inn
migrants generally. The millions from
Europe seeking our shores are nearly
all virtually committed to the West for
their friends have preceded them there,
and the current sets in that direction
too strongly to be diverted in any very
short time. Their prejudlces against
tho South and in favor OF the West
will only gradually abate. On the
other hand, men of Intelligence ana
means at the North who mOrereadlly
comprehend the situation will turn their
attention SOuthward. Already this is
the case to a limited extent. Your
readers have. perhaps, read OF
Sprague's purchases in South Carolina
and in Georgia, with view to cotton
manufacturing. And could tell them
of two furnaces that we vlsited in Shell.
by and Jefferson counties, Alabama,
owned and run for the most part by
Northern men, ono of them the COM
pletest affair of the kind I ever saw, and
at both of which Il grade of charcoal iron
that would rejOico The eyes OF Il cOnnOls-
seur, is mRdo at q cost not much eX-
ceeding fifteen dollars per ton. We
saw also near the same place, 81 little
cotton factory running night and day,
by water, that is said to net its owners
from fifty to seVenty-ive dollars every
twenty-fo four hours. The great draw back,
as you may imagine, in the case OF the
iron, as in all such heavy products,
Is in getting to market. For instance,
the iron that can be made for say. ITO
be on the safe side) sixteen or seventeen
dollars per ton, costs twelve or fifteen
more when it reaches New York via
Mobile and the Sea. When you add
these two items OF expense together
you see that il on is made very little, II
any cheaper, than at Wheeling and
Steubenyillc. But suppose they had
rolling mills, nail mills, machine
shops, or, in other words, a vast con-
suming population at their backs down
there, as our concerns in this country
have. what then do you suppose would
be their status2 That ID what they Will
have some day. And that is the future
of the South that l am talking about.
The stuff Is in the country there and
the stuff that will turn it to account
will sooner or later find its way into the
country. / should judge from what we
saw that Northern men and Northern
capital are pretty much controlling the
resuscitated improvements and enter
prises of the South at this time. For
| instance an Ohio crowd runs the Rome
and Selma railroad, and / am afraid il
they don't regulate that young man on
| their trains who sells lean sandwich
at fifteen cents, they will run 1t in the
ground. And while am about 1t, Will
Suggest further on behalf of the crying
children with whom we Travelled, ,as well
rs those who are to follow, that the
water be passed round about Twice as
often as at Present.
In respect to the neSio labor of the
repions we visited you will hear con-
fiicting accounts. 1t depends some-
what on who you talk to: You will
notice very few idle negroes. They
| seem to be doing their share OF all the
work that is going on. Some OF them
crop on the shares, while others hire by
the year or month. OF course their
wages are low, and low wages and gem
| y0rjnna HNnSf wall tnVpthar.