The Sumter watchman. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1855-1881, 1870-05-18
DEVOTED TO LITERATURE MORALITY AND GENERAL INTELII

manY OF the advantages OF each. 1t Is
precisely in such climate that the
utmost diversity of industries can most
easily flourish, provided only the mar
kets of the world be open to it, and
there be population sufficiently dense
to make division of labor possible
Indeed it may be safely said that no
other climate but one offers equal
opportunities for divcrsifyipg labor
The natural products Of our country
exhibit this diversified character we
have here side by side, the animals and
plants of the tropics, and those Of tho
temperate zone, pines by the side of
palms, wheat growing in sight of rice
fields, apples ripening in tho same
orchard with oranges, crows, and bears,
ond foxes inhabiting the same swamps
with the ibis, the vulture, tho parokeet
aud the crocodile, though our forefath-
ers, unacquaintcd with tropical animals,
gave them the names Of cranes, buzzards,
aud alligators, which make us forget
their equatorial character, and prevent
us from rejecting when VIC read of such
things in books of foreign travel that
they are, i'll truth, nothing but what we
see about US every day. In our waters
is found equal variety. The herring,
which is peculiarly Northern fish is
sold in our market by the side Of the
fishes Of the Caribbean Sea, aud the
muscle, the clam and.the oyster, all
useful as food, are found even where
the Peninsula Of Florida is built up cf
coral reefs, like the South Sea Islands.
Even in the domain of the miner there
is something to remind US Of this COM
mingling of temperate and tropical
features in the aspects of nature by
which we are surrounded. For does
not the guano Of the equatorial islands
find its counterpart in our phosphate
beds? And does not the coal, which is
rather characteristic of temperate eli.
mates, show itself not far from these
highly priced deposits?
In short, the climate OF the Southern
States, their geological structure, their
great rivers, and the seas by which they
arc washed, offer every incentive which
climate can offer to development Of
tho utmost diversity of physical and
intellectual labor.
But it is perhaps feared by some that
a climate like this may be incapable of
supporting such diversified industry
in consequence of the very variety of its
products that what yields everything
with facility will yield the best Of moth
ing. Such conclusion, however, IS
forbidden by a simple array Of facts.
The cotton aud the rice We produce are
the bcs. in the world, nevertheless the
whoa! has likewise been recognized as
having no superior. Aud in tho opinion
Of your Committc there can be no doubt
That the difficulty Of obtaining tho best
of any grain product in climate Of so
catholic a character, is precisely such
difficulty as is necessary to incite the
human intellect to the exercise of pa
ticnt and minute observation, coupled
with reflective ingenuity.
But that such climate as VIC possess
is really capable of developing and sup
porting this diversity Of occupation may
be established in another way. There
is no climate in Europe exactly compa-
rably with ours. II we travel Eastward
in search of counterpart, we shall pass
over tho whole of tho Old world until
VIC reach China and Japan. Hero alone
do we find all our chief characteristics
repeated, though of course informs
which, belonging to the old world, arc
so far different from those of the now.
But our extremes Of temperature, our
cold winters and hot summers, our
comminglc tropical and temperate fauna
and fora, are as familiar to the Chinese
as 70 ourselves. The United States
and the 1owcry Kingdom arc what the
physical gcographcrs might call homo-
logous parts of the two continents. The
same relative situation to the equator,
the same coast confyuration, the same
great rivers, the same warm oceans,
current ike the Gull Stream flowing
Northward along tho coast, the same
system Of hurricanes, which the scalncn
of those seas know as typhoons
And what is the aspect which indus
trial pursuits present in that country,
physically so like our own. We sec
there, the dcnscst population OIL tho
globe, whose existence in their crowded
state is only rendered possible by the
diversity Of their industries. There is
not land enough in China for it's hun.
drcds of millions to cultivate, and the
consequence is that millions are cmga.
gcd in manufactures of many kinds of
rare excellence, ard when even so, ali
cannot find tho means of living, the
rivers, and the seas arc made to yield
their harvest, whole villages arc bull,
upon the water, and on the water whole
populations arc born, live and die, as
their nciglbors are born, live and die
upon the land.
Now such is the similarity Of climate
that it is not too much to say that there
is hardly an important product oi China
which not may be equally we'll produced
in the Southern States We have already
surpassed the Chinese in the culture o
cotton, rice and sugar cane, and without
doubt, whenever, with the proper mean,
we set ourselves seriously to tho task,
we will surpass them in tho culture of
tea and silk, both which ii has been