The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-08-06
EXCLUSIVE COTTON CROP QDES
TI0N.

and Mechanical Society, but which
being unfinished at the time was
not read at the last Spring meeting.
The Essay is a very. excellent pro-
duction, replete with judicious OBJ
servations and practical suggestions,
and not less interesting that it as
.sumes and maintaips with very
strong arguments the affirmative
of the question, "Is an exclusive
cotton crop good policy for any
single farmer or planter in South
Carolina?"
That it is to the interest of a sin
gle farmer, or many single farmers,
TO plant cotton exclusively, the
writer urges by statement OF the
results of his own experience and
observation during the past five
years. He states that he has
known several instances where the
farmer has purchased his farm at
pretty fair prices out of the pro-
ceeds Of a single erctustue cotton crop,
and also many instances where a
net profit of fifty dollars per acre
has been realized from cotton,
when no other staple could have
yielded anything like such results.
These results have been attained
repeatedly by himself and neigh
bors, during the past four years,
upon lands, which when planted in
corn. wheat or oats, would not have
produced with the same manure
more than twenty-five or thirty
dollars per acre gross. His expe-
rience and that of his neighbors,
demonstrate, "that one thousand
"pounds of seed cotton worth any
"year since the war from $50 to
1850, can be produced more GER
s'tainly and. easily on an acre of
"thiu upland, at cost of $40, than
"twenty bushels Of corn at a. cost
"of $12, being the least profitable
T'crop grown on the uplands of this
State" Cotton he regards as the
the specially of this soil and eli
mate, and those who have failed in
its culture would have failed in
any other pursuit, and on the con-
trary those who have grown rich in
raising their corn and bacon with
moderate crops of cotton, have
prospered in spite of their system.
Yet the writer holds, what in
deed needs no demonstration, that
it would be exceedingly injudicious
to cultivate cotton generally to the
exclusion of other crops. Under
that system the production Of a
crop of seven millions of bales
would not enable US to realize more
~
than crop of three and a half
millions, out of which we would
be forced besides to buy our food.
Again by such an exclusive culture
we lose all the benefit of the i'm
provement Of our worn out lands
which results from the rotation of
crops and a mixed husbandry.
There is doubtless good deal of
sound wisdom in the suggestions of
the writer, and that to require a
farmer to produce his corn and
bacon regardless of expense would
be as rational as to make him cul-
tivate his sugar, rice and tobacco.
without reference to the capabilities
of his lands. The true rule is to
r,ise what you can produce cheap
er than you can buy.
But after all that has been said,
there is no question that the pri-
mary need of the South is d;versi.
fed industry-mixed husbandry in
the fields and varied industry i'll
The shops. With every variety OF
soil and climate there is every in
ducement to cultivate variety OF
crops, and not to devote ourselves
to the exclusive culture of one ex-
haustive staple. Let US cultivate
more grain whenever circumstances
are propitious, and devote more
attention to stock raising, and we
WI not be called upon to pay away
our hard earnings.in the purchase
of the very necessities of life. Let
us foster especially the establish
ment of manufactures of all kinds,
and we give new impetus to the
progress of material development
attract population, and attract
capital, and create a demand for
uans-,aSaducts at. home,