The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1873-06-07
NUMBER II
Hostile Advice.

hR. EDITOR.-lt Is said that it is
lawful to be taught by an enemy. At
least so says the Latin maxim. II may
be lawful to be instructed in this way !,
bat L prefer any other school teacher.
When one whose interests. to say moth.
ing of his prejudices, are autagonistic
to mine gives me advice, I always lock
out for mouse in the meal tub, and
what is more, generally find him, and
the more earnest the advice and tho
more emphatic the assurance that it is
gv,A from no other motive than affec:
tionate interest in me, the more
suspicious become, aud the less in
clined ani to adopt it.
A few days ago: read in North I'm
paper a long and labored letter, giving
great many figures and no end of
statistics, the object Of which was to
show US of the Cotton States that We
sh"uld devote all our land aud time aud
l'bor to the production of cotton and buy
all our provisions and everything else
we need from our Northorn friends, be-
cause We can raise cotton and they can
not. We are told that we should not
divide our energies; that oursoil and
climate are the very thing for cotton,
but not at all suited to corn or provision
crops; that fertilizers p,y pSodigiously
when applied to cotton, but are very
unremunerative from corn, &c. that an
acre in cotton will bring $10O cash,
while all acre of grain, hay, potatoes,
&c, will not bring mure than about
s15 worth Of food that cotton does not
exhaust the land, while the crops ruin
it; aud then VIC are told that cotton ia
such All interesting" crop, that it is SO
beautiful, that it is so easil haROrked,
''by the least efficient force of tEs Blanta.
tion, and then, that it is ''hie gentlensan's $
crop"
Now all this is as clear as mud. No
one. 90 dull az not to see that to raise an
acre Of anything but cotton would be a
waste OF land, of fertilizers, OF labor aud
OF moaey, and that besides the outrage
on the astheties by substituting hideous
corn, wheat, oats or clover for beautiful
cotton and abandoning an interesting
crop which can be raised by "the least
etiicient of the plantation force" we
should be giving up "the gsatlenan's
crop par tccetteace, and adopting one
oEiy tit for tho most abject of Doors,
This advice has of course, nothing to do
with the fact that New England wants
plenty OF cheap cotton, and that tho
more raised the cheaper it will be to
the Yankee spinner. Nor are we ad.
vifed to buy everything we need to eat,
wear and use at the North, because the
necessary consequence is that we aust
send back to the North every cent we
get for ouf cotton, and have to run in
debt besides. The man who wrote this
letter, giving this advive, must evident,
ly be disinterested. awe know he is a
friead, from remark he made"
once heard of a cavalry officer who
was sent with his company to attack a
party Of Indians who were sup pposed to be
concealed in some thick underbrush: he
dismounted his men and told them thai
"some men arc good for sBe thing and
some for another. am good for hold,
ing horses. You are good for fighting
60 ia aad kill the last one of the
Indians" He was disinterested. of
course, and as the probabilities are he is
alive yet. and perhaps owns cotton
factory in New England he may be the
very man who recommends us to plant
all cotton and buy from him and his
friends everything we want.
But / object, want to hold the
horses awhile. J.R.
BALDWIN Co, Ga, April 5, 1879.
Southern Farm and Home.