The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-05-08
A DISASTROUS SYSTEM.
The Cotton Planters Of the South and
Their TrfbuIatiOns.

The Cotton Planters OF the South and
Their TribuIatiOns. .-
From the New York Tribune
The cotton region embraces a smaller
area than northern people generally
suppose. While North Carolina and
Tennessee, for instance, raise a large
amount of cotton, they cannot be called
cotton states even Northern Georgia.
not cotton region. Still, the great
staple is raised so far north as Southern
Virginia, Southern Illinois and Mis-
souri,, but the fields are scattered
and small and the yield is unsatisfactory.
The greater part of the crop is raised in
South Carolina, in three-fourths of Geor-
gia, in most of Alabama and Mississippi,
in half of Louisiana and Arkansas, and
in a good portion of Texas. If the
whole the state of Georgia were in cot
ton, the area would be greater than the
aggregate cotton districts of all the rest
of the states. This shows how limited
Is the cotton region but where soil and
climate are especially adapted to any
product, q comparatively small area
will furnish full supply. This is no
tably the case with corn, for less than
one hundred counties furnish the surplus
that enters into the commercial market.
Where cotton planting is a business,
little else is raised, and provisions of all
kinds, manufactured articles, and even
the necessary hay and grain, are
brought in from the outside world.
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ken
lucky furnish butter, eggs, fruit, and
some flour Ohio, Illinois, and Mis-
souri, send immense quantities of corn,
bacon, lard, agricultural implements,
and manufactured articles, all of which
are paid for with cotton.
The disastrous results of this system,
after lapse of more than forty years,
are now fully apparent. A great ma
Jorlty Of the planters are said to be in
debt, and there does not seem to be the
slightest prospect of their deliverance
so long as the present mode of planting
is continued. A widespread spirit of
speculation, or of gambling, by which
wealth is to be acqrired without work,
has been the outgrowth of this system.
The remedy that has been repeatedly
proposed is that the planter shall raise
his ewn supplies, and thus save the i'm
mense sums that now go to. merchants,
railroads, and middlemen. More corn
and less cotton is the proposed motto.
And yet but little impression has been
made, for money must be had to pay
debts, or, at least, interest, and nothing
brings ready money but cotton. So
more money is borrowed to raise more
cotton there is no time, no skill, no
taste for other crops. Meanwhile the
border states of Tennessee, North Car
DINA, and Kentucky, which are tenders
to the cotton states, complain bitterly
of the reaction of these adverse condi-
tons upon them; money is scarce ard
business is dull, and those who would
seek a remedy in 60 going west" are IN
able to do so because they cannot make
sales of real estate.
There is no doubt that the system
which the cotton planters have estab-
lished is a vicious one, and that it is
only question of time as to when It
shall be superseded by better Even
the annual purchase of fertilizers for
raising cotton will, in time, lead to dis
aster. There are, perhaps no statistics
OF the millions of dollars paid every
year for superphosphate and guano, but
the total is certainly enormous, and
fully equal to the immense sum paid
for supplies. Whether these fertilizers
really replace what is abstracted by the
cotton may be questionable but the
land does not grow richer, and the eff
feet of the fertilizers on the soil seem
analogous to that of alcohol on the
human system-stimulating it fer time
to greater effort, and leaving it in
state of collapse. The trouble with all
the upland of the cotton states is that
it is naturally thin, and a few years
cropping wears it out. The millions
upon millions of acres that are to be
seen, beginning even at Mount Vernon
and running down through the Caro-
hnas into Georgia, which were once in
cultivation, and have now grown up to
pine, are sufficient evidence of a thin
soil. Nor are the supply states, such
as Tennessee and the like, much better
off. The absence of powders all
through the south is significant, for
they are evidence of a rich soil, one
that endures long, and is highly favor
able for all the grasses. The basis of
the larger part of the southern soil is
sand rock, and the value of such ma
terial is nowhere great. In those limi-
ted regions where lime rock is the basis,
the farms have great value for in
stance, in parts of northern Georgia.
Alabama, and Tennessee, and notably
In the blue grass region of Kentucky.
Vicious and mistaken as the system
of the Gotten planter really is, great and
almost insurmOuntable obstacles oppose
the raising of his own supplies. In the
first place, 1t 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 second
~, the proprietor himself is inexperi-
enced, while the negro help is decidedly
Enthusiastically. A varied industry i'm
plies and demands varied capabilities,
which neither master nor man possesses.
While an acre of cotton is almost GER
tain to bring from 500 to $40, individu-
al planters will not SOW another crop
worth less than half as much, in order
that general prosperity may be pro-
duced, and that the ideas of the theo-
rists may be carried out. One thing
the planter and the negro both under
stand, and that 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.
The Registered Letter Business.
On the first of January the pOstmas-