The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1871-06-22

society. ,r-. MINISTER
CROCKETT, Tex, Feb. End, 1871. n
." ----a 49,
Cotton and Corn.
Careful analysis of the agricultural reports
from the Southern States, show that the crop
of cotton this year will fall far snort of that
Of 1870, while the corn crop will probably
be the largest ever raised in that section.
In the middle and Southern parts of Geor-
gia, according to good local authority, the
quantity Of cotton grown this year is not only
below the average production, but the plant
is backward and sickly, a cold rainy season
having caused serious injury. In Northern
Alabama, in part Of Mississippi and Ten
nessce, the reports concerning cotton are
still more unfavorable. In the Mississippi
valley, on the Arkansas and Red Rivers, the
country is flooded and all the crops are de-
fcient,. but cotton is especially feeble.
These reports, derived from authentic
sources, indicate the coming change in the
character of the Southern productions Cot
ton ceased to be king when the war opened,
and although at intervals during the past FIVE
years, the yield of the crop has been 50 abun-
dant as to revive the memory of the old
days when.a single staple produced ample
fortunes, the want of resources and the pau
city of labor have been nearly fatal to con-
tinued and profitable production. The plan
ters and small farmers of the South begin to
understand the position they occupy. They
see that it is idle to devote the greater part
of their lands to raising one staple, and that
the wiser course is to give attention to food
crops and other products which can be- grown
without fear of total ruin through tho acci-
dents Of unfavorable weather or insufficient
supplies of labor -
It is not surprising to hear that in all parts
of the South an Increased -l+s--4buen
planted in grain, and that the prospect Of an
abundant yield Of homo byeadstufs this year
is satisfactory. The adaptability Of South
ern land and climate to the growth of grain
and other crops, which are almost sure to
yield good returns, is sufficient reason for
reducing the area of cotton culture; and the
planters who arc now trying this experiment
will find their accountin it. The labor pro.
blem, however, is yet to be solved. The
South invites immigration, and it appears
from, the frequent applications made to the
Labor Bureau at Castle Garden, that farmers
arc in great demand; but the inducements
offered aie coupled with condition that the
emigrant shall pay his own expenses from
the port at which he lands to the points in
the interior where work is waiting for him.
This unwise economy prevents the accession
of the desired element, and as natural re-
suit the lands of the South do not yield the
crops which systematic and careful culture
would produce.
1t does not appear that the unskilled
freedman is more competent than his late in
experienced master to conquer the difficult
ties which obstruct the proper development
of natural resources; and the process of edu-
cation is necessarily very gradual. What
the South needs is an abundance of intelli-
gent labor, capable of making its rich fields,
mines ofwealth, through steady industry and
the best appliances of inventive skill. The
day of cotton, as the one great product, has
long since passed away, and although there
must always be a steady average yield Of
that crop for requisite supplies, the safer and
far better resource of the majority Of South
ern farmers will be found in the direction 80
successfully taken by the agricultural pro-
ducers of the West. .,-
The opportunities for useful labor were
never so good in the South as now, and the
new generation of its people, freed from the
disasters and trammels which have put back
that section for the past ten years, should
understand that their first duty is real re-
construction, and that hard work is not only
honorable but profitable. The Southern
States want fair start, more labor, more
capital, and, above all, more thoughtful care Of
there present and future interests The
young men, not the old, are those by whom
the task Of thorough rehabilitation must
be performed. They have splendid oppor-
tunitics before them, and the fault will be
their own if the South does not win newer
and better glorics through their industrious
work than it ever enjoyed in its-. palmiest
days. Immigration is wanted, and will be
welcomed now; but the: men of the South
must have their own burden. to carry ia the
end, and their education in essential profess
es of practical industry should not be delay
ed -NeD York Daily Bulletin.
IT.. c>.1:,h ,,,,,,or IN. ,vhi,h monnV 10