Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-10-25
rhe war and the Cotton crop.

From the N. Y. Tribune.l
While every week Of European wa
and business arrangement buoys th'
hopes of the wheat grower and sustaini
his price, in the same ratio is cotton de
pressed The declaration of hostilitiei
in July, followed by the amazing vigol
of the Prussan advance and the col
lapse of the French armies, has made il
more and more certain, that thousands
and thousands of spindles must cease tc
run; that millions who had money to
buy cloth last year will have no money
this year. Navigation became timorous
and capital oyer-cautions. The result
is Just what all the South fcared--cotton
hardly over a shilling pound; in fact
less than twelve aud a half cents, gold.
1t is now quite well ascertained that
cotton gives no profit worth mentioning
when the price goes below fifteen cents,
and none at all when only ten is the
price Of good mrddling At the New
Orleans fair, in April, the cost Of a
pound of cotton was discussed and the
conclusion reached that on the best
alluvial soils, in good season, and with
close management, ten cents will make
pound. But ON the average upland,
and with the average economy, the
planter loses who does not receive fif-
teen. Southern prosperity, which has
for two years gone beyond all precedent
in the days Of the old regime, has received
blow; the planter is disheartened; the
merchants are afraid to buy, and South
ern goods are gathering dust in the lofts
of New York warehouses.
We have again and again counseiled
the cotton-growing States that devotion
such as they have given to single pro
duct, for marketing which they must
look TO foreign countries, is bad economy,
and can result in no lasting and perma-
nent thrift A community that lives by
cotton only, or wheat only. os tobacco,
or rice, or sugar, will run over great
surface with low and exhaustive tillage.
Nothing is returned to the soil for crops
taken off. Prosperity is measured by
the dollars that come over seas-not by
such true tests as the condition Of roads,
houses, bridges, ohuschas, and stock. A
foreign market is a precarious market.
When it is good it throws abundance of
spending moneyin the planter pocket,
and he scatters it for things that perish
with the using He buys a saddle-horse
from Kentucky, Q carriage in New York;
his family indulge In expensive silks,
rare china, and velvet carpets.
Then comes n crash the merchant
has advanced several thousands on
crop that hardly pays for picking, and
holds mortgage on the land. Expenses
must be reduced, the old luxuries are
partly abandoned, and retrenchment
throws a gloom over the family and
broods over the neighborhood. Another
year the price goes up, end with it the
profusion of living. This agriculture,
instead of proceeding with the wise
calmness and grand uniformity of nature,
becomes speculation, almost game.
If the planter becomes gamester,
what wonder that the merchant, the
lawyer, the politician follows in his
wake, and he'whole social fabric IL con-
vulsed by sudden telegram from Lon
don. Cannot our Southern brethren see
that composed, well based, established,
yet progressive civilization is incon-
sistent with their misplaced confidence
in a single product? and will they not
take lesson frog the gloomy expe-
rience of this year, and no longer prop
all their hopes on a cotton bale? Though
the planter makes only his living this
year, he is by no means poor, The
crops of '6S and 60 paid him handsome
retlrns, and he can command the means
for engaging In varied culture and diver
sifed industry.
First of all, he should arrange to pro-
duce all the. wheat, all the corn, oats,
pork and beef he consumes. He should
examine new methods and learn whether
his long, suGDy auHj Wers c9nnot do
something more for him than merely to
open boil Of cotton. lie can grow figs
and dry them; he can raise sweet pota-
toes in large quantities, pare and slice
them, and, by drying in kiln, give the
soldier aud the sailor ard the poor of
cities cheap and nutritious food. On
his rough land the Angora goat will
prosper. His forests can be made profit
able for bark, for tanners ooze, and for
lumber. On his sunny Southern slopes
the grapes will gather sweetness. Thus
bis land viii heeome attractive, and its
value will greatly enhance. II th6 ad-
versity of this year can be made TO utter
an impressive lesson on true thrift for
the South, the cloud that now over
their industry really has a silver
lining.