New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-08-22
A CR6P MADE WITHOUT LABOR.

Edmond About, French materialist,
writing Of the advantages of science ap-
piled to the practical arts, predicted ''that
q time would come when man would be
bat directing intelligence, and when the
crops would be made and harvested by q
few well dressed young men knowing
how to read, write and vote
| We have seen all the magical wonders Of
Sindbad the Sailor reproduced by the ma
terial agencies Of science as applied by
Jules Verne, but we have to state that
there is far more remarkable miracle
presented in the crop reports Of the South
ern States. It seems to have been pro-
duced by the planter and the rains. II
moreover seems to be picked and secured
without the aid of a single laborer great OF
small.
This miracle is THIS presented by a
couple of columns of crop prospects,
compiled by the Picoyune. The rains
Jupiter Pluvius pours on the Alexandra
district:
The whole face of the earth is flooded by
| rain water, and the vast and promising
fields of the parish may be said to be inun-
dated and almost a vast lake; when and
| where this will end We are not prepared to
state. All the wheels of every branch of
agriculture are clogged. and nothing but a
quick cessation of this rain food can re-
lieve or save US.
! In Catalonia tie Rain G cd is not more
propitious: -.
| The damage to the cotton il serious and
irreparable; the corn is not much Injured.
! In Madison
/ If the rains continue there is danger OF
! rot to the lower crop, which is now opening
a little and would open rapidly with fair
| weather.
! This unfavorable disposition of the
weather seems to have affected the crop
prospects throughout the Red and
Ouachita regions. but it has not pre-
vented the planters and the soil from do
ing their duty. "None have commenced
picking" in one district, but "most Of the
fodder has been pulled by the mysterious
agencies to which we have heretofore re-
ferred. In one place the dry weather has
not been conciliated, and ''not more than
a bale to eight or ten acres will be
gathered" Then the unaided acres begin
of themselves to ''make' crops:
For every acre that will mako twenty
bushels there are, in our 0pjn on, ten acres
that will not make one bushel, extravaganza
as this estimate may seem.
Here there has been an apparent strife
between rain and drouth, which last.
Has been rendered more destructive by
almost constant breezes, which dry up
vegetation very nearly as effectually as che
rays of the sun.
The crop, however, is determined, and
now the mysterious process Of self-pick.
ing will commence. In one place
Picking will commence pretty generally.
Then the planters quit the portico and
begin to pick:
The planters along the river will soon
be picking in good earnest.
The sugar planters have secured much
fodder, and are providing wood to take off
the crop, working roads and finishing up
odd jobs preparatory to picking cotton.
The planter. are jubilant over the pros
poets
In Mississippi the same mysterious
agency is ct work. The planters, without
the aid OF laborers and in spite of the
weather wars which have disturbed their
production in Louisiana, have fine pros.
poets. Then they have CALAMITY gone to
work. Planters have added twenty per
cent to their farms by clearing and ditch.
ing, and they are ''still at work." What
will the critical North say now? Here
are these resolute planters, scorning to
rely upon colored laborers, up to their
hips ditching in the swamps, cutting down
rail cuts, splitting rails and bearing
them on their shoulders under the torrid
sun Of July and August. Not negro in
sight, none apparently in existence. The
:'best cotton crop since the war; has
been made by the planter and the rain
gauge. The weather, becoming jealous
of the planter, has compelled him to adj
NIT that although he can dispense with
his negro laborer. he can not reg.
ulate the rains. So we suppose the
planter need only make his co-partner.
ship with Old Probabilities, and his negro
laborer may be counted out Of the crop
prospects altogether.
Let it not be supposed, however, that
the politician has no further use fer the
negro. The paragraph succeeding the
planters crop announces the negro con-
spiracy in Georgia. Other columns have
been employed to exaggerate the assault of
a negro woman upon white lady, and the
biting off of the ear Of white lady by an
infatuated negro woman. There is also
the narrative of negro man who was shot
and drowned near New Iberia by a vigilance
committee. 1t seems, therefore, probable
that the whole negro race has quit work,
and are engaged in conspiracies, in biting
off the ears of white ladies. and in insur-
rectionary flight from vigilance commit
tees.
We ask the Picayune if this systematic
suppression of all labor agency in the
crop production of the South is wise or
magnanimous? Is this persistent exag-
garation of negro disorders just repre-
sentation of the negro respect for law and
order?
It may aid in campaign document at