The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-07-16
How to Esmpoverish "a Country.

An exchange makes the follow.
ing statement.
The Southern planter gives a ZOO
pound bale of his cotton for a West
ern mans hog weighing less than
400 pounds-cotton @ bacon Iz5.
Perhaps these figures DO not rep
resent exactly the relative values of
cotton and pork, but they are near
enough to give emphasis and point
to few observations which are
suggested by them. Let us premise
that the crop of cotton this year will
be six million bales, and let us take
notice Of the fact that the ten States
which produce this cotton, the
States of Alabama, Arkansas, Flor
ida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi,
the two Carolinas, Tennessee and
Texas, contains population of
very nearly twelve millions. Now,
if we should estimate for the annual
food consumption of these twelve
millions of people, half a hog or
two hundred pounds of pork each,
and further, supposing that all this
pork were bought from the packers
Of the Northwest, it is plain that in
order to purchase a years's supply
of meat, the entire cotton crop would
be req quired at the rate of bale of
cotton for hog.
This would be poverty indeed,
for our people in order to purchase
the bare necessities to keep from
starving, would then be forced to
sacrifice the last bale of their great
staple, having nothing left to repre-
sent reward for their years labor
or profit on their capital.
Fortunately, the case is not nearly
so bad as it was represented above.
The Southern people raise a
great deal of their own pork, proba-
bly, quite two-thirds of it; neverthe
less, they pay out an enormous pro-
portion of their earnings if they buy
from the Northwest, the eq uivalent
of two millions of hogs in the shape
of pork and bacon. Let it be also
understood that when a Southern
planter buys barrel of pork, he
buys manufactured article which
has paid one profit to the farmer
and another to the packer, therefore
he is at double disadvantage, since
hei is building up two Northern in
dustries and only one in his own
State. This, however, is not the
whole of the story, for the drain
does not stop with the money sent
out of tie State for pork. The Sou
thern planter sends away also for
his breadstuffs and his horse feed.
A few weeks ago in an address
before the Association of the Cot
ton Planters of the Mississippi Val
ley, their president, Col F. C.
Morehead, with the aid of carefully
prepared statistics, showed that
these ten cotton States annually
consumed in breadstuffs and horse
feed ISo, ,ooo,o 900 bushels of grain
more than they produced and that
this excess of consump ption was
purchased from the farmers Of the
Northwest This, then, is what
goes with the balance of the cotton
which remained after the pork had
been purchased, leaving probably
very little to represent the savings
of the people.
The strangest part of this history
is, that probably the bulk, if not the
whole, of the entire food supply
could be easily produced in this
country, with all its profits incident
to its production, saved to the peo-
pie who now pay away all tneir
hard earnings for them to others.
Now when all its points are consid-
cred, the transaction seems mon
strous in view of the fact that it is
not of occasional occurrence, but is
a regular practice that has without
any good reason prevailed for
half century.
The wealth of an individual or
country is not what is earned, but
what is saved. 1t is the.surplus over
and above necessary expenses.
Wealth is seen in the permanent
improvements of a country, in the
improved farms and stock, in the
comfortable houses of the people,
in the magnifcence of the cities, in
the splendor of the public buildings,
in the number and grandeur of the
churches and schoolhouses, in the
excellence of the roads and the
means of communication and in the
happiness and prosperity of the
people. These constitute perma-
nent wealth, the results of mems la
! bors SO fixed in the country and
/ fastened to the soil that they can
not be taken away The people on
| the contrary who spend ali they