Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-07-03
SMALL GRAIN CROPS.

lHe uOGlou lS very CoiiilIou dhonS oeA
people that there is no money to be made in
this country by raising small grain for market.
This may be true, or it may not be true. The
fact is, no one in this region of country is pre-
pared to give an opinion on the subject that
is worth very much. Our people have so
long been engaged in the cultivation Of cotton,
almost exclusively, that generally speaking,
no one understands how to make dollar in
any other way. 1t is no doubt true that
money is, at certain seasons of the year, more
abundant in section of country which is en-
gagged in cultivating cotton, than it is in re-
gion which raises grain for market; but when
we look at the final results, we see that people
grow more permanently rich in grain-growing
and manufacturing countries, than they do in
cotton-growing countries.
The southern section of the United States
is superior, both in climate and soil, to the
northern and western. We mean that the
soil of the South, on an average, is better than
that of either the North or West, and the
climate more favorable for agricultural pur-
poses, The southern section was settled about
the same time that the northern section was,
and much sooner than the western and north
western sections. The South has been devoted
almost exclusively to the raising of cotton !;
and the North and West to the raising of
grain and manufacturing. In point of wealth,
the balance is all in favor of the northern and
western sections. Southern cities grow slowly
and with great effort. In the North and West,
cities spring up as if by magic. Land and
property of all kinds increase steadily and
rapidly, whilst property in the South is not
much more valuable to-day than it was fifty
years ago.
The state of things which is here only sug-
gested, must be owing to some cause, and we
do not see anything so probable as the fact
that our people have neglected to engage in
the raising of grain and to manufacture.
Perhaps there is no crop that can be cultivated,
that is so expensive as that of cotton. 1t re-
quires whole year to make crop, and from
the time that the first fnrrow is drawn until
the crop is sold, there is continual drain
going on. Nothing escapes. The soil is ex-
hausted, and, in few years, almost ruined; !;
stock of all kinds is neglected, and the result
is that all that the majority of exclusive cot
ton-cultivators can do is to keep out of debt.
On the other hand, while the gross income
from grain crop is not so large as that from
cotton crop, the direct expenses and &cident-
al losses in producing it are far less, and the
balance sheet is in favor of the grain crop.
1t costs comparatively nothing to produce a
crop of oats, and if the land is not pastured
it will be improved. The same is true with
regard to wheat, rye and barley. To sum up
the whole in few words, it costs every man
who is engaged in agriculture, at least three
times as much to buy his small grain and
provender, as it does to raise it at home on
his own farm. The same principle holds good
in respect to the raising of pork and bacon.
On cotton plantation, every living creature
that cannot work, is an expense. 1t costs
actual money to feed it. Its food has to be
bought and paid for out of the proceeds of
the cotton crop. Some one will, no doubt,
ask, "Do you advocate the abandonment of
the cultivation ofcotton Weanswer, most
emphatically, "No"
Two wrongs will not make one right. 1t is
bad policy to run into extremes. The true
theory of accumulation, as demonstrated in
the history of the past, is found in what is
called diversity of labor, which results in di-
versity of products. All corn, or all of any
one kind of grain, would be just as bad as all
cotton. Cotton, and almost all the cereals,
can be produced in the South. Nature has
made provision for this, both in soil and eli,
mate. There are some kinds Of soil that are
not adapted to the cultivation Of grain, but
are to the cultivation of cotton. 10 plant
thirsty, sandy lands in corn, is not attended
with favorable results; but to plant all our
lands in cotton is violation Of the laws Of
nature
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