Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-22
Cotton Culture sincethe War.

Before the war, one of the difficult problems
presented to rs vas the future of the so-callcd
exhausted lands of the northern belt of the
cotton country and after the war. with the
termination Of the compulsory labor system,
another seeming difficulty was the obtaining
of a sufficiently reliable labor supply to admit
of our again controlling the markets of the
world in respect to this great staple. The
first problem has been in n great {, gree solved
by the greater degree of intelligence which
under the pressure of necessity has been
brought to the business of cotton cultivation ;
and also by the discovery in South Carolina,
in the form Of immense beds of mineral phos-
pilates, Of fertilizer, which not only supplies
the very element which exhausted cotton land
seems to need but is also said TO modify the
character of the cotton-plant itself. ms to ad-
vancement, by more than degree OF latitude,
of its limit of northern cultivation. The
change noted in the relation of labor to the
cotton product may perhaps be better illus
trated by the following story nther than by
any argumentative statement.
In the late fall of 1874. New York banker.
prospecting the crop, got ont of the cars at a
small station ON the line of one OF the Alaba-
ma railroads. Noticing at Il little distance.
just emerging from the wooded road, II cart of
the most primitive character. drawn by a
horse and a mule. containing two or three
bales of cotton he sought an interview with
the driver and proprietor, and originated the
following piqlant and instructive oonyersa-
ton =
''Your cotton looks good" said the inter-
rogator. Have you been troubled with
drought the season having been unusually
dry.
Drought: Z" responded the owner of the
remarkable team, while feeling of disgust
seemed TO steal over his face; no. We wa
tered the plants -
Then, how about the worms = which had
also been very destructive
"Why, hang it. man, we picked them OFF -
while the deepening shade of disgust ON the
countenance of the respondent seemed TO
round oil the sentences, by asking, in return,
if the visitor was so green as to suppose they
the man and his family going to al
low the drought or the worms to interfere
with the supply of hog and hominy, 10 say
nothing of whiskey, and other things, in the
cabin of that cotton planter for the ensuing
winter. And in this last surmise was the key
of the situation.
The proprietor was what is termed ''p00r
trHie," who, before the war, had probably
thought il beneath him TO attempt any regu-
lar labor but who, since the war and the I'M
poverishment of his great neighbors, had
found so many distractions i'll the way of get
ting living oil nom others, that he mad
been forced to learn that the easiest and most
certain method of making himself comfOrta-
BILE to degree never before experienced was
to raise little cotton, and raise it good. And
having come to such a conclusion, it was not
in that sort of human nature to allow what
would have been insuperable obstacles to the
cultiyator of a hundred acres, to impair the
product of his one or two acres.
And what was true in this instance is known
to be true to a very great extent throughout
the South, especiallyn the older cotton States,
giving these noticeable results
lst. The building up of a class Of small
white proprietors, cultiyating the soil, which
never before existed, giving promise of the
attainment of such higher manhood as will
ultimately greatly strengthen the State.
I'd. An annual cotton crop more reliable
and certain in quantity, yet not so capable as
before of being closely estimated.
Sd. Cotton better in quality and at a low
er average cost-so low, indeed that nothing
can be more certain than that the control of
the cotton market of the world by the United
States will ultimately be more complete than
ever.-DdDd 4. Wells in International Re
Uielr.