Litchfield enquirer., 1873-08-28

for other comparisons; the aggregate val
 ne of all live stock in the 13 States in 1860 was S433, ,646. .S38 III gold, and in 1S7C only $356, 747, ,679 in currency, loss in gold value of nearly 40 per cent. With increasing population, the supply of meat has decreased, for, scarcity having caus- ed the price of meats to be much higher Tn 1870 than in 1860, the entire value oi slaughtered animals was still only $89, 433, 139 in currency, against value in 1860 of $93, ,316, ,24S in gold.
 DECREASE IN CROPS RAISED.
 1t may be supposed that the decline ir agriculture in these States is due only to the diminished production of the few great crops formerly raised mainly by slave labor. But statistics show gener- al decrease in products. We find, com pairing the crops of 1860 and 1870, not on.
 ly loss of l, 300, 900 bales of cotton, but of 100000 pounds of wool; not only g loss of ITO, ,O00, 900 pounds of tobacco, but of 15, ,O00. 900 pounds of ofbutter-one-fourtl
 of the production ill 1860-and 57o, ,OOC pounds of cheese; not only loss of 167, U00, ,OOO pounds of sugar and 5000, COG gallons of molasses, but of 21, 600, ,O0C
 bushels of potatoes, nearly one-half o1 the crop of 1860 ill those States; not only loss of 113, 900, 900 pounds of rice, but of $500, ,O00 bushels of wheat, 500, COG bushels of rye, 11O, GOO tons of hay, 53.. 900 tons of hemp, and 109, ,O00, 900 bush. els of corni In view of decrease in pro-
 duction so general and so startling. is il strange that Southern farms depreciate ir value, that half the wealth of these great agricultural States, has vanished. and that one-thirtieth of the entire popula. tiOn has already fled from a region SC blessed by nature and so cursed by mani . .- CAUSES OF REGISTRATION.
 It is plain that this prostration of in. dustry cannot be ascribed to the waste and destruction of war, for it has been greatest in States where the injury infict- ed by war was least. No ravages of wal explain the loss of values, of live stock, and of products in South Carolina, Ala bama, and other States. Neither can il be ascribed to the change in the system of labor alone, for in the border States, and especially in Missouri, we find re. markable progress and prosperity instead of decline and prostration. In the bor- der States, if colored labor has lost any of it's efficiency, the loss has been more than made up by immigration. Twenty. three per cent of the population of Mis-. souri is of foreign birth. But some cause has virtually excluded immigration from the other Southern States. Louisiana, indeed, has IS per cent, including some of French and Spanish blood; but Texas has but 13 per cent, Kentucky but II West Virginia but 10, Florida but pel cent, and no other State of the South has to this day 3 per cent of foreign born pop ulation. The Southern States are thus left largely dependent upon colored la- bor. and while the number of colored per- sons has increased, so that, with equal effic1ency of labor, a much larger produc- ton than that of 1860 might have been expected, there has been an enormous de- cline in production and loss of values. The cause must be sought, therefore, first in those influences which have diverted colored people from productive industry, and second, in systems of local govern ment and rates of taxation by which not only capital and immigration from with out have been repelled, but the labor of the most industrious and enterprising has been deprived of fair reward.
 coLoRED PEOPLE THRoNGINa TO THE TOWNS.
 Some glimpse of one cause of these great losses may be found in those weary columns of figures in the census reports which tell us of the population, with sex and color, of ''civil divisions less than counties It is true, the very general change in civil divisions in Southern States sInce 1860, and the impossibility in most cases of separating the colored from the white population in the returns of that year, prevent that thorough con- parison of the population of towns which alone could fully disclose change mo- ticed by every observer But the returns nevertheless suffice for comparison as to IA of tte most important towns in the formerly. slaveholding States, and in these towns the colored population ill 1860 was 232, 337, and in 1870 it was 471,- 305. It is not enough to say that the in- crease in these towns has been more than 100 per cent, while the general increase of the colored population has been barely 10 per cent. For it appears that during the last decade nearly quarter of mil lion of colored persons, more than one- sixteenth of the entire slave population of 1860, had vanished from the country when their labor was most sorely needed, and drifted into these towns entirely If similar comparison were possible for all towns in these States, how large loss of agricultural labor would then be disclosed? In the enumeration of the above, fourteen towns from States not of the thirteen under consideration have been purposely included, in order to show that this tendency does not operate only in those states in which the colored people may be supposed to have sought the cities for protection. Ever since the war they have been as safe in Missouri as in New York; yet in the ten chief towns in Missouri increased from {, S,O99 to &, ,374;; m four towns in Maryland, from 31 ,461 to A, III, and in Wilmington, Del, from 2,232 to 3,211. Deducting these, we have for ninety-nine towns in the thirteen Southern States Washington included) colored population of 19O,545 in 1860 and 3S4, 7O9 in 1870. From some cause the increase is much greater in Western than in Eastern States. In Virginia, five towns, the increase has been from 30, 536 to 4, ,565, and adding Washington, whith- CT many of the Virginia colored people have gone from 4 ,521 to S1,O20. In North Carolina, ten towns, the increase has been from 15, ,234 to g, ,305; in South Carolina, three towns, from 21, ,126 to g, ,2S4; in Florida, seven towns, from 4,573 to 9,613; in Georgia. nine towns, from 2, ,S31 to 41,14O; in Alabama, five towns, from 16, ,516 to 26,O32; in Missis- sippi, five towns, from C, ,S05 to 18, ,349; in Louisiana, ten towns, from 27, ,684 to 59, 381; in Texas, four towns, from 3,115 to 10, 4S0; in Tennessee, five towns, from 9,767 to g, ,264; in Kentucky, thirty towns, from 19, 337 to 43, ,1O2; and in Arkansas, seven towns, from 1885 to S,649. In these are included, beside State capitals and large cities, all considerable towns in which the returns permit correct com parison of the colored population The tendency toward towns of political i'm portance, State capitals, and county seats, is very striking. When we consider that there are oyer one thousand county seats, beside other prominent towns, in these thirteen States, some conception of the effects of this tendency may be obtained. Nor has this change ceased. On the con- trary, accounts from Southern Stotes or dlnarily agree in the statement that the a0lNrn1 p,oo~,Io 1o~ns