The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1869-02-25
AGRICULTURE.
NEXT YEAR,

There are signs on the wharvcs and
in the streets and at the railroad depots
that thcre is to be this year a large crop
of cotton. The warehouses and store.
rooms arc piled up high with guauos,
superphosphatcs and fertilizers Of every
description, and the railroads are fairly
staggering under the load of their uu-
savory fertilizer business. Every farm
er and planter has been encouraged by
the results of the operations of the year.
Wherever the caterpillar did not make
its appearance, the planters have made
money, and the net profit On the cotton
crop of South Carolina, now in the
pockets of the producers, would be more
Than enough to pay off our whole State
debt of FIVE million of dollars. This is
making good beginniug.-thc better
Because our people had almost made up
our minds that they were undone to all
eternity, and the Micawbcrs of the
State had we'll nigh ceased to hope that
something would turn up. What we
have made will be taken care of, not
wasted. There is abundant proof of
this in the way that the farmers are
going te work.
Free negro labor is not yet reliable.
Il is the best that we have-all that we
have; but the aim of the planter now is
70 economize labor by limiting the are.
in cultivation and'to give tie freedmen
such money wages or share in the profits
efthe crop as will enable him to reject
all but the best hands. There is 10 de-
sire to rush headlong from one extreme
to the other, and cultivate fifty acres
instead of FIVE thousand. Nor is there
any idea of d-ubling the area in culti-
walton because cotton has sold for twen-
ty-eight and thirty cents. The plan
is to till the land thoroughly and to in
crease the crop by the free use of fer
tilizers, not by adding to the number of
seres to be handled during the season.
The wisdom cf this policy is very
evident. 1t costs no more to cultivate
five hundred acres, which will produce
two bales to the acre, than the same
area which will produce one bale or half
bale to the acre. The only addition
al cost of any consequence is that Of the
fertilizers that may be usedj and this is
as nothing in comparison with the in
crease of the crop. Last year the quan-
tity Of fertilizers used in this State was
very small but this year it promises to
be larger than in any year since or be-
fore the war. The people have the
money. They know how well it pays to
invest that money in fertilizing mate
rial; and we may look forward to pro-
ducing in this State, with average sea-
sons, at least 25O,OO0 or 100000 bales
of cotton, to be sent to market in the
spring Of 1870. And there will be no
commensurate increase in the cost of
production. If, as we believe, the in
crease in the crop should be entirely
due to improved cultivation and plen-
tcous use Of fertilizers, the net profits
will be enormously large. With cot
ton at twenty cents, an increase of fifty
thousand bales obtained 10 this manner
wJu'd be al addition o. at least three
and half millions of dollars to the net
income of the State. This is what we
are driving at. We are working, not
for an increased acreage, not for break
ing up of new ground, not for q head,
long plunge into huge farming opera,
tions,i bet to cultivate thoroughly every
rood of land, and to encourage, strength,
en- and quicken the soil, so as to obtain
from one acre the ordinary product of two
This can be done, and if there be any