The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-06-10
OUR ODDLY HERITAGE.

The International Recieso for June
contains an sble aad interesting article
from the pea'of Mr. Robert P. Porter,
showing the agricultural development
OF the United States during the past
four decades, aud picturIng the won
derful Industrial achievements of the
vast army of emigrants, 10000, 600
strong, that has landed on our shores
within q half century.
The leading staples have grown in
vo'ume with astonishing rapidity, each
year witnessing an increased surplus
seeking q market abroad. An encour-
aging feature of the exhibit is the equal
distribution OF this prosperity. The
Great West, receiving as it does the
largest reinforcements from this mighty
invading army Il yenmen, leads in the
ratio of Increase, but the South and
| Southwest present evidences of pro.
Rress that are equally encouraging.
In fifteen years the wheat production
of the country has trebled, while corn,
cotton and tobacco have more than
doubled. The cereal crops, which may
be taken as representing the increment
of growth Of the West and Northwest,
ten years ago aggregated 1, $50, 600, 600
bushels, while they are now 2, 17S, 900, =
900. The rate of increase for the de-
cade has therefore been so per cent.
Taking cotton as the representative
Southern staple, in ten years the in
crease has been 100 per cent. While
the Western corn crop has been aug
mented A per cent. since 1870, the
South has added go per cent. to her to-
baccn yield.
Southern agricultural development
within the last fifteen years, however,
represents far different element from
that of the new states beyond the Mis-
sour river. While ours spring main
iy from the reorganization of society
and adjustment of economic conditions
TO the new order of things growing out
Of the abolition of slavery, the North
western progress was the necessary and
normal result of the influx of popula-
ton, and we can present to the world
the most striking example of industrial
revolution, as radical as has been rapid,
to be found in history.
Texas and Arkansas alone have
gained materially in population by i'm
migration. These two states grew
900, 900 bales of cotton 1870, while In
1889 they exported 100000. The
growth of production there of ], 00O,-
600 bales has been supplemented by an
a,tor.arant of 0R0 nm hale. Z, al
other portions of the South. The 1,000,-
900 additional bales of tie Southwest Is
the contribution of 1,750, 900 new set
tiers. The other 1000, 600 bales in
crease east of the Mississippi represents
the normal growth of population, bet
ter organization of free labor and i'm
proved methods of culture. Indeed,
no small per centage of the cotton
growers of Arkansas and Texas came
from the Carolinas, Virginia and Ten
nessee. For several years following
the close of the war there was a large
movement from the worn out hill lands
OF the Atlantic cotton states across the
Mississippi. The planters who re-
manned at their old homes with better
culture and aided by commercial fer
tihzers are now doing about as we'll as
the ''soil skimmers" that moved to-
wards the setting sun.
The growth of sugar and rice has in
creased in even q greater ratio than
cotton. With dismantled sugar houses,
ruined levees. the impoverished plant
ers of Louisiana sent to market the
first year after the war less than II, 600
hogshesds of sugar. Last seasons
crop had grown to 808, 900, an increase
of over HOO per cent.
If the South does not present so re-
msrkable an example of growth in
wealth as the West, she has reason to
be proud of her post-bellum industrial
history. The record clearly indicates
her natural resources, and illustrates
the courage and energy of her people,
while foreshadowlng what we may ex-
pect when the tide of foreign immi-
grafton, no longer guided across the
continent by the great dyke erected by
slavery along Mason and Dixon's line,
shall be DETECTED across the Potomac
and Ohio towards the fair and fertile
section that has ample room for the
90, 900. 900 of people of the Old World
will probably send to our shores during
the next half century.