The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-05-16
Does Cotton Planting Pay.

One hears onoll sides such express
sions as these: "Cotton planting
doesn't pay" "There's no money in
cotton" "Planting is played out,
etc. Now, if this is so, the sooner
it is known the better, that our peo-
pie may turn their attention to some
other branch of agriculture which
is moro profitable. But let us be
certain that those who say such
things are SO we'll informed in the
matter as to be safe guides. These
expressions, heard so frequently
among neighbors, on public convey
ances, among merchants in their
counting-rooms, and OH the streets,
are calculated to do harm in more
wayo than one. They dull the edge
of honest effort; for one labors
double hard who feels that there is q
strong probability of failure. They
prevent those who have money to
invest from putting it into business
where the profits are so doubtful.
Hence, we again ask, is it true that
"cotton planting doesn't pay?"
May not the same be said of this
business as Of all others, that it pays
if properly conducted-that it pays
some, and does not pay others. 1t
is reasonable to think 50. All do
not fill the conditions upon which
success is based. Some are con-
ducting their business in such away
as to make it almost certain that
they will fail. When you become
familiar with their plan sand calcu-
lations, and see how they carry on
their affairs, you at once say this
man must fail, sooner or later, to
achieve success. He would fail in
any undertaking if conducted in
this way. We all know that men
are continually failing in business,
and pretty generally from the same
causes.
There are certain business princi-
pies which must be observed in all
business They cannot be neglected
or lost sight af, without joopardizing
tho interest in question. For in
stance, no ulan can reasonably hope
to succeed, who carries on his bust
ness on borrowed capital at high
rate of interest. This is 80 well
known that whenever II man begins
to offer high interest, or is compel
led to pay high interest, capitalists
look upon MS paper with suspician.
Interest goes on night aud day, and
cats up profits, sooner or later, of III,
most ano BUSINESS. Again, men can
not pay high wages for poor labor,
either in money or by giving a share
in tho crop, without running great
risk of failure. When a planterbor-
rows money at high interest, and
then gets all the labor which he can
induce to come on his plantation, on
such terms as no one would pay if
he was using his own money, it does
not take much foresight to predict
4hat he will be among the number
who will say, "Cotton planting don't
pay"
Again, the planter who conducts
his business an borrowed capital,
and makes extravagant contracts
with his labor, is too apt to make
another mistake. He imagines that
that he can make it pay by planting
all the land he can possibly get into
cultivation, without regard to quail
ity, when it is well known by all
practical men, that to cultivate poor
land docs not pay, no matter what
the crop is in which it is planted.
1t never did pay to plant poor land
and never will. And yet how many
cotton planters arc breaking up the
same land year after year and put
ting it in cotton, without applying
manure of any kind. No wonder
they find that There is no money
in Cotton"
There is another thing which
makes failures almost certain. TO
employ large force of negroes, di-
vide them into small squads, give
them your mule, plows, etc, and
leave them to themselves, with the
vain hope that they will feel interest
enough in the crop to work persist
emily and faithfully; that they will |
be more careful of your interest than
you are yourself. And is this not
what too many of our planters are
doing? How can it be otherwise
than that there is no money in cot
ton planting under these circum-
stances. There is no money in any
business so conducted, and unless
our planters change their plans, a
more disasterous failure must follow
all their efforts.
Again, if planter, who has not
money enough of his own to work a
large force, or if he has, and has not
The experience and capacity to di-
rect more than eight or ten hands,
will insist on rushing headlong into
arge operations under the impress
sion that because his father and
grandfather worked forty or one
hands, and made money by
t, therefore he can do the same, and
indeed, is compelled to do so, or
ose position in the neighborhood as
/ large planter-what can we expect
put that he will fail to make it pay.
Are not many of our young men at
too much? Would it not
20 better for them to plant on a
mall scale for o few years, until they
earn the business, and then gradu-
lily enlarge their operations? So
heir fathers did, no doubt, But,
las! who OF rs acknowledge that We
n L I