The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1874-07-29
LABOR IN COTTON CULTURE.

A well-considered article in the July
number lof the Overland Monthly dis
cusses the relations of labor to the cotton
culture of California; and though many
of the facts and arguments are OF
local interest, yet most of the conclu-
sions have wider application, and the
suggestions a more general Interest.
The writer announces very early in the
discussion, his conclusions that the AL
eNments in favor of large farms are all
deceptive fallacies, and that it is only
by the cultivation of small areas, that
there can be a development of varied
Industries, to bring about the highest
prosperity, Individual and aggregate !;
and that white labor not only can be
proftably employed in the culture OF
cotton, but that it is superior to any
other, and can alone achieve satisfactory
results. These conclusions furnish but
the confirmation of views which we
have seen elsewhere presented, that the
extension of the area of the cotton cul-
ture of the South has been made by the
small farmers, who have alone made its
cultivation profitable, whilst the large
planters of the Mississippi Valley and
elsewhere have landed into bankruptcy
and ruin.
The writer shows that ip California,
white labor enjoys a monopoly of that
bestowed upon the crop-except that of
hoeing and picking-and that the har-
vesting of the crop, occurring in the
interval between the close of one grain
crop and the beginning of another, fur
nishes such ample employment to the
labeters OF every nationality rs to pre-
clude any conflict between white and
Asiatic 4abor. The Write ;laborer, from
his familiarity with teams and tools,
and his skill with machinery, achieves
results not possible to the Chinaman,
and which are impossible to the produ-
Ger of any other locality. AS an instance
of what may be done, the writer cites
the case of two men who cultivated 13O
acres, doing all the work except hoeing
and picking, and making thirty-five
bales of 500 pounds each. The cost of
production was fifteen dollars per acre,
leaving a net yield of ten dollars per
acre, where grain in the same locality
rarely averaged a net retsrn of one dol.
dar per acre. Compare these results
with planting In the Mississippi Valley,
where the average value of the product
per bale, delivered at the shipping
points upon the rivers and railroads,
would not exceed sixty dollars, whilst
the cost of production, at l4a cents per
pound, is $6s.5s per baIe-a net loss OF
iSls.4s per bale-and an actual loss upon
the whele crop of sl12,725, 900. This
statement is enough to justify the decla-
ration of the Memphis factors, that the
country is bankrupt, and that the people
of the cotton States are in worse con-
,dition than at any time since the close
OF the war.
The writer fortifies his views by ref
;erence to the report of Mr.. David
Wells, o Special Commissioner of
Revenue in 1869, in which he states the
per capita product, must be sufficient to
meet these requirements-wages S275;
subsistence S125; waste $50; interest
$50; total $50; whilst the product of
each agricultural iaborer is only s266,
leaving deficiency of S244 per caloita-
deficiency large enough almost to alb
sorb the item of wages. What a con-
trast this is to the profits of the two
farmers on Mariopsa creek, who each
realized $97S.5O, as the net result of the
years cropping! With such facts be-
fore us, we can scarcely doubt that the
bankruptcy and ruin to which we have
adyerted are fruits of deficient system
-overgrown plantations, and INSULT
cient labor-yielding the minimum of
production at the maximum of cost
and that the true corrective is to be
found in small farms, controlled by
skilled white labor, in varied crops, in
diversified industry, and in all the arts
which stimulate andsatisfy the demands
of civilized life. *