, 1874-05-27

all of which are paid for with cotton.
The disastrous results Of this system
after a lapse of more than forty years
are now fully apparent. A great major
ity of the planters are said to be in debt,
and there does not seem to be the slight
est prospect of their de!iverance SO long
as the present mode of planting is con-
tinued. A widespread spirit OF specula-
ton, or of gambling, by which wealth
is to be acquired without work, has been
the outgrowth of this system. The RENE
dy that has been repeatedly proposed
is that the planter shall raise his own sup
plies, and thus save the immense sums
that now go to merchants, railroads, and
middlemen. More corn and less cotton
is the proposed motto. And yet but lit
tie 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. Mean
while the Border States of Tennessee,
North Carolina, and Kentucky, which
are tenders to the Cotton States, COM
plain bitterly of the reaction OF these ad-
verse conditions upon them money IS
scarce and business is dull, and those who
would seek a remedy in "going West"
are unable to do so because they cannot
make sales of real estate. There IS no
doubt that the system which the cotton
planters have established lsa vicious one
and that it is only a question OF time as
to when it shall be superseded by q bet
ter. Even the annual purchase OF tertlI-
izers for raising cotton will, In time, lead
to wide disaster. 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 tor
supplies. Whether these fertilizers real
Iy replace what is distracted by the cot
ton may be questioned but the land does
not grow richer, and the effect OF the Ter
~tilizers on the soil seems analogous to
that of alcohol on the human system
stimulating it for a time to greater effort,
and leaving it in q 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 Carolinas
into Georgia, which were once in c%ultiva-
ton, 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 signih-
cant, 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 material is
nowhere great. In those limited regions
where lime rock is the basis, the farms
have great value for instance, in parts of
Northern Georgia, Alabama, and Tennes-
see, and notably in the Blue Grass region
of Kentucky.
Vicious and mistaken as the system of
the cotton planter really is, great and
almost i~nsurmountable 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 pro-
prietor himself is inexperienced, while the
negro help is decidedly untrustworthy.
A varied industry implies and demands