The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1875-03-12

them to us in Charleston, as some bav,
heretofore done, but directly to MI
Dodge, as that will ave trouble ant
expense.
ONE CAUSE OF SOUTHERN POVERTY.
First, then, I assign as INT of the
reasons Of our continued poverty anC
want of progress the fact, that we dc
not produce enough of what we eat OF
drink, and buy too much on credit. To
present an elaborate argument in de,
Tense of this position would require a
volume. One or two practical facts
will suffice to prove my assertion true,
and the answer that every farmer will
give when applying the idea to his own
case will corroborate these facts.
In 1859 the south produced over s.
600, 900 bales of cotton of 400 pounds
each, which sold at an average of eleven
cents per pound, realizing less than
$3.50, 600, 600.
In 1869 the cotton crop of the south
was less than three and half millions
of bales, four hundred pounds each,
and sold for an average of twenty-five
cents per pound, realizing over $780,
OOO, ZOO. -
The cotton crop of 1873 reached con
siderably beyond four millions of bales,
and sold for less than 1926, 900, 900.
And this has been the history of our
crop annually in the past !; have we any
reason to anticipate that similar effects
will not follow the same course in the
future i? Then if the all cotton policy,
or a large cotton crop has actually
tended to ~impoverish us as a people,
who will assert that the same policy
| will not have similar effects upon in
dividuaIs?
On paper it can be easily proven that
cotton, as q crop, will pay better than
any Dr. all other products. But these
figures are far more unreliable than the
oft-abused labor of the country. There
is no QUESTION but that individual
farmers, having lands peculiarly
adapted to the growth of cotton, can
net more money growing cotton and
buying their breadstuM and provender
than by eultiyating a diversity of crops.
But it is an egregious error to think, |
that A, B, or G, can do so, therefore
every southern farmer can pursue the
same course, anticipatingt the sameresult.
Through a series of years, regardless
of the price of cotton q reiterate here
what [ have often asserted before in
these pages), on ninety-nine ont of
every hundred southern farms, it is
cheaper to grow oats for pillow animals
than to haul corn from the nearest
depot, because oats will follow corr
with no cost but the seed and harvest
both of which can be paid for
every winter in the mutton that can be
fatted on the growing crops =; it is
cheaper to raise all the pork the farm.
ers family can consume annually thanto
buy bacon at ten cents per pound it is
cheaper to grow a 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 a credit.
Few farmers understand properly
what is meant by "buying on a credit"
They know they get the article and paw
more for it than if they paid the cash
put they never once calculate the pre-.
MUM and percentage they are paying
or this privilege of getting time or
credit. Let me illustrate. The aver
lge farmer may raise meat enough to
10 him till the LIST of April. By that
he has to buy but having no {
ASH, though good credit, he goes to
he store and buys bacon at Is cents {
'er pound, payable LIST of November
GLOWING. He learns the cash price is I
~ cents per pound, but necessity COM l
'els him to buy on credit. He thus
lays q cents per pound SSfor the priv !
eye OF buying ON q credit, onssone-sixth t
he price to be paid, which 10 simply
6$ per cent. per annum for the use of i
money, But he buys in April, and has /
o pay. first November, only eight a
nonths' credit, and thus pays twenty 4
per cent. per annumf for the use of q
money. What farmer can Afford to do i
his and live? What is applicable to 8
is equally SO to corn, hay, -four, G
mulesrand every article d
he farmer buys ON q credit. Il
Lit is estimated that the average in 8
rease OF the agricultural wealth of the Il
United States is about fonr per cent. a
Or annum. The average increase OF a
gricultural wealth in any southern I
late annually since the war has not il
cen one per cent. Indeed, some Of the d
have travelled the other road, and j.
re now lost in the wilderness of debt is
40 there Is no more potent cause for :
lis condition Of things than that of q
1y1ng on a credit the necessaries of q
to enable them to grow cotton, and q
lls, too, very frequently at a cost that W
Zceeds its market value. There ia an a
about this cultivation of 81
,tton that amounts to an hallucination. Il
an there be nothing invented TO so far d
spell it as to induce the southern 81
rmer to live more within himself and d,
IS at the mercy of the Shylocks of the AZ
3C0r. Rural CGrolanSan.