New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-30

q fovv w. RS cropping wears 1T out. The mil
I;.ns n,or millions of acres that are to bs
aeon ho,;rr;,o even at Mount Vernon and
runn;no down tbro,, III the Carolinas into Geor
,;, Which woro once in o. ltivation, and have now
grown up to pine, are sum, leu. evidence OF
thin soil. Nor are the supply states such az
Tennessee and the like, much bet, er on The
absence of powders all through the south
significant, for they are evidence of ricl. soil
one that endures long, and is highly favora-
BILE for all the grasses. The basis Of the IargeI
part of the Southern soil is sand rock, and the
value of such material is nowhere great. In
those limited regions where lime rock ia the
basis, the farms have great value; for instance,
in parts of Northern Georgia, Alabama, and
Tennessee, and notably in the Blue Grass re.
gion of Kentucky.
Vicious and mistaken IA the system Of the
cotton planter really is, great and almost in
surmountable obstacles oppose the raising of
his own supplies. In the first place. it hardly
pays to raise ten and fifteen bushels of corn.
five and eight bushels of wheat, and ten and
twenty of oats to the acre and secondly, the
proprietor himself is inexperienced, while the
negro help is decidedly untrustworthy. A
varied industry implies and demands varied
capabilities, which neither master nor man
possesses. While an acre of cotton is almost
certain to bring from $50 to $40, individual
planters will not sow another crop worth less
than half as much, in order that general pros
perity may be produced and that the ideas
of the theorists may be carried out. One thing
the planter and the negro both understand,
and this is how to raise cotton. The land is
ready, the implements are bought, and even
the mules know when to go to work; the
seasons of picking and ginning are fOreordained,
and the ships are waiting for their cargoes.
Yes, cotton is to be raised, whether or no.
But who is to be the planter of the future, is
q question which thoughtful Southerners are
asking themselves with no small solcitude.
Robert Toombs understands the Importance Of
cotton and the wonderful capacity of the South
for producing it, as well as any other man, and
he likes to predict that their fields, poor and
wasted as they are, can furnish the staple for
a million of years. But when he predicts that
the white man is to raise 1T, he ventures
little too far into the field of prophecy. Hero
the prospects of the negro as much OF
problem to-day as ever, confuse the fairest
boroscope. If the freedman liked to work
more and fish less, if he had a realizing sense
of the shortness of life, he would stand
much better chance Of taking the money
for the cotton bales grown in the next
century than he has now. The Anglo
American, on the contrary, is what he
is by reason of the work in him, though
possibly it may have been done two or five
centuries ago. His is no mushroom fami y,
that dated its origin with the landing of the
first slave ship. 1t bears within it centuries OF
pluck, and the bones and muscles and brains
have grown from English soil. The white man
may be fearfully demoralIzed with whisky and
dog-leg" tobacco, and his children possibly
may eat clay; but it will require as many gen.
erations to breed out as it required TO breed
| in. and the freedman must be in remarkaole
hurry, if he is to handle the cotton crop thirty
or forty years hence.