The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-02-25
One Cause of Southern Poverty.

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our continued poverty and want of progress the
fact, that we do not produce enough of what we
eat or wear, and buy too much on credit 10
present an elaborate argument in defence of
this position would require volume. One or
two practical facts will suffice to prove my as
sertion true, and the answer that every farmer
will give when applying the idea to his own case
will corroberate these facts
In 1859, the South produced over five million
bales of cotton, of four hundred pounds each,
which sold at an average Of eleven cents per
pound, realizing less thar S250,0O0,0OO.
In 1869, the cotton crop of the South was less
than three and a half millions of bales, four
hundred pounds each, and sold for an average
of twenty-five cents per pound, realizing s3OO,-
100000.
The cotton crop of 1873 reached considerably
beyond four millions of bales, and sold for less
than S275,000,000. And this has been the his
tory of our crops annually in the past; have we
any reason to anticipate that similar effects
will not follow the same course in future
Then if the all cotton policy, or large cotton
crop has actually tended to impoversh us as a
people, who will assert that the same policy
will not have similar effects upon individuals?
On paper it can be easily proven, that cotton,
as crop, will pay better then any or all other
products. But these figures are far more unre-
liable than the oft-abused labor OF the country.
There is no question but that individual FAR
mers, having lands peculiarly adapted to the
growth of cotton, can net more money growing
cotton and buying their breaJstuffs and prov
ender than by cultivating diversity of crops.
But it is an egregious error to think, that be-
cause A, B, or G, can do so, therefore every
Southern farmer can pursue the same course,
anticipating the same result
Through series of years, regardless of the
price of cotton, II reterate here what have
often asserted before in these pages) on ninety
nine out of every hundred Southern farms, it is
cheaper to grow oats for plough animals than
to haul corn from the nearest depot, because
oats will follow cotton with no cost but the seed
and harvesting, both of which can be paid for
every winter in the mutton that can be tatted
on the growing crops; it is cheaper to raise all
the pork the farmers family can consume an
nually than to buy bacon at ten cents per
pound; it is cheaper to grow pound OF wool,
up to a certain number of pounds, than the
same number of pounds of cotton; and it is
cheaper to grow anything that can possibly be
grown upon the farm than to buy it on
credit
Few farmers understand properly what is
meant by "buying on credit" They know
thev can get the article and pay more for it
than if they paid the cash, but they never once
calculate the premium or percentage theysage
paying for this privilege of getting tlme.er
'scredit" Let me illustrate. The average far
mer NAV raise meat enough to Go him Till the
1st of April. By that time he has to buy, but
having no cash, though good credit, he goes
to the store" and buys bacon at 10 cents per
pound, payable 1st November following. lie
=
but necessity compels him to buy on credit
He thus pays q cents per pound for the priv
ileee of buying on credit, or one-slXth the
price to be paid, which is simply 165 per cent
per annum for the use of money. But he buys
in April, and has to pay 1st November, only
eight months credit, and thus pays Twenty-Five
per cent per ane'tp for the use ofmoney. what
farmer can afford to do this and live? What
is applicable to bacon is equally so to corn, hay,
-four implements, mules, and every article the
farmer buys on credit.
It is estimated that the average increase of
the agricultural wealth of the United States
is about four per cent. per annum. The average
increase of agricultural wealth in any South
ern State, annually, since the war has not been
one per cent Indeed, some of the States have
travelled the other road, and are now lost in the
wilderness of debt; and there is no more potent
cause for this condition of things than that OF
buying on credit the necessares of life to en-
able them to grow cotton, and this, too, very
frequently at cost that exceeds its market
value. There is an infatuation about this Gull
tivaton of cotton that amounts to an halluclna-
ton. Can there be nothing invented, to so far
dispel it as to induce the Southern farmer to
live more within himself and less at the mercy
of the Shylocks of the land?
Col. D. WYATT AIKEN,
in Rural Cvrolinian for February.