The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-10-28
The War and the Cotton Crop.

While every week of Eurorean wal
and business arrangement bouys UP
the wheat-grower and sustains his price,
in the same ratio is cotton depressed.
The declaration of hostiIities in July,
followed by the amazing vigor of the
Prussian advance, and the collapse OF
the French armies, has made it more
and more certain that thousands and
thousands of spindles must cease to
run and that millions who had mon
ey TO buy cloth with last year, will
| have no money this year. Navigation
became timerous and capital over-cau-
| tiOus. The result is just what the South
| feafed-cotton hardly over shilling a
pOund-in fact, less than 12l cents gold.
1t is now quite well ascertained that
cotton gives no profit worth mention
| ing when the price goes below ID cents,
and none at all when only 10 is the
price of good middling. AT the New
Orleans fair in April, the cost of Il
pound of cotton was discussed, and the
conclusion reached that, ON the best al
luvial soils, i'm good season, and with
close management, 10 cents will make
pound. But on the average upland,
and with the average economy, the
planter loses who does not get Is cents.
Southern prosperity, which has for two
years gone beyond all precedent in the
days of the old regime, has received a
blow; the planter is disheartened; the
merchants are afraid to buy, and Sou
thern goods are gathering dust i'm the
lofts of New York warehouses.
We have again counseled the cotton
growing States that devotion such as
they have given to single product,
for marketing which they must look to
foreign countries, is bad economy, and
can result in no lasting and permanent
thrift. A community that lives by cot
ton only, or wheat only, or tobacco, or
rice, or sugar, will run over a great sur
face with low and exhaustive tillage.
Nothing is returned to the soil for crops
taken off. Prosperity is measured by
dollars that come over seas-not by
such true tests as the condition of roads,
houses, bridges, churches and stock
A foreign market is a preca7iOus mar
ket. When it is good it throws an
abundance of spending money into the
planters pocket. and he squanders it
for things that perish with the using.
He buys saddle-horse from Kentuc-
| ky, a carriage from New York; his
family indulge i'm expensive silks, rare
China and velvet carpets.
Then comes a crash the merchant
has advanced several thousands on q
crop that hardly pays for picking, and
holds mortgage on the land. EX-
penses must be reduced, the old luXu-
ries are partly abandoned, and retrench-
ment throws gloom over the family,
and broods over the neighborhood.-
Another year the price goes up, and
with it the profusiOn of living. Thus
agriculture, instead of proceeding with
the wise calmness and grand uniformi-
ty of nature, becomes a speculation, al
most a game. If the planter becomes
gamester, what wonder that the mer-
chant, the lawyer, the politician, fol-
lows in his wake, and the whole social
fabric is convulsed by a sudden tele-
gram from London? Cannot our Sou
thern brethren see that composed,
well based, established, yet prOgres-
sive civilization is inconsistent with
| their misplaced confidence in single
product, and will they take lesson
from the gloomy experience of this
year, and no longer prop all their hopes
ON cotton bale? Though the planter
makes only his living this year, he is
by no means poor.
Tie crops of rs and '69 paid him
handsome returns, and he can COM
mand the means for engaging in vari-
ed culture and n diversified industry.
First of all, he should arrange to
| produce all the wheat, all the corn,
oats, pork and beef he consumes. He
| should examine new methods, and
learn whether his long sunny Summers
cannot do something more for him than
merely to open boil of cotton. He
can grow figs and dry them; he can
raise sweet potatoes in large quantities,
pare and slice them, and, by drying in
kiln, give the soldier and the sailor
and the poor of cities cheap and nutri-
cious food On his rough land the An
CORA goat will prosper. His forests can
be made profitable for bark for tanners
ooze, and for lumber. On his sunny
Southern slopes the grape will gather
sweetness. Thus his land will become
attractive, and its value will greatly
enhance. If the adversely of this year
can be made to utter an impressive les
son on true thrift, for the South, the
cloud that now overshadows their in
dustry really has silver lining.-MeD-
! phiS 4Udldncitc.