Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-03
= A DISASTROUS SYSTEM.
The Cotton Planters of the South
and Their TribulatiOns.
VIII the Negro Handle the Crops OF
the Futuref

orally suppose. While North Carolina
and Tennessee, for instance, raise a
large amount of cotton, they cannot be
called cotton States; even North
ern Georgia is not cotton region.
Still, the great staple is raised SO far
north as Southern Virginia, Southern
Illinois and Missouri, but the fields are
scattered and small and the yield Is un-
satisfactory. The greater part Of the
crop is raised in South Carolina, in
three-fourths of Georgia, in
most of Alabama and Mississippi,
in half of Louisiana and Ar
kansas, and in a good portion of Texas,
If the whole of the State of Georgia
were IN cotton, the area would
be greater than the aggregate cot
ton districts of all the rest of the
States. This shows how limited is the
cotton region; but where soil and eli
mate are specially adapted to any pro-
duct, a comparatively small area will
furnish full supply. This is notably
the case with corn, for less than 100
counties furnish the surplus that en-
tiers into the commercial market,
Where cotton planting is 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, aud
some flour Ohio, Indiana. Illinois, and
Missouri send immense quantities of
corn, bacon, lard, agricultural imple-
ments, and manufacturedarticles, 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
jority 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 plant
ing is continued. A widespread spirit
of speculation, or of gambling, by
which wealth is to be acquired without
work, has been the outgrowth of this
system. The remedy that has been re-
peatedly proposed is that the planter
shall raise his own supplies, and thus
save the immense sums that now 90 to
merchants, railroads, and middlemen.
More corn and less cotton is the pro-
posed motto. And yet but little i'm
preston has been made, for money
must be had 10 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
Carolina, and Kentucky, which are
tenders to the Cotton States, complain
bitterly of thereactiOn of these adverse
conditions upon them; money is scarce
and business is dull, and those who
would seek remedy in going West"
are unable TODD 80 because theycannot
make sales of real estate.
There is no doubt that the system
which the cotton planters have estab-
hshed is 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 viii, in time, lead to dis
aster. There are, perhaps, no Stats
tics of the millions OF dollars paid
every year for supeFphosphate and
guano, but the total,is certainly enor-
nous, and fully equal TO the nm
mense sum paid Cor supplies.
Whether these fertilizers really re-
place what is distracted by the cotton
may be questioned; but the land does
not grow richer, and the effect of the
fertilizers ON the soil seem analogous
to that of alcohol on the human sys-
tem-stimulating it for time to
greater effort, and leaving it in a state
Of collapse. The trouble with all the
upland of the Cotton States is tnat it
is naturally thin, and a few years
cropping wears 1t out. The millions
upon millions of acres that are to be
seen, beginning even at Mount Vernon
and running down through the Caro-
Enas 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
Of. The absence of powders all
through the South is significant, for
they are evidence of rich soil, one
that endures long, and is highly
favorable for all the grasses. The
basis of the larger part of the South
ern sol Is sand rock, and the value Of
such material is nowhere great. In
those limited regions where lime rock
is the basis, the farms have great
value; for instance, in parts of North
ern Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee,
and notably in the Blue Grass region
of Kentucky. a'--'
Vicious and mistaken as the system
Of the cotton planter really is, great
and almost insurmOuntable 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 in.
experienced, 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 cot
ton is almost certain to bring from $40
to $40, individual planters will not SOW
another crop worth less than half as
much, in order that general prosperity
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 nipple
ments are bought, and even the mules
know when to go to work; the seasons
of picking and ginning areforeordained,
and the ships are waiting for their car
goes. Yes, cotton is to be raised,
whether or no. But who is to be the
planter of the future, is a question
which thoughtful Southerners are ask
ing themselves with no small solicitude.
Robert Toombs understands the i'm
pOrtance 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 million years. But when
he predicts that the white man is to
raise it, he ventures little too far into
the field of prophecy. Here the pros
poets of the negro, as much of prob
lem to-day as ever, confuse. the fairest
horoscope. 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