The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1881-03-04


A RECENT Bumber Of he Memphis
Ayalahcne contained iipsel, aud
sensible article which every planter
ought 10 read carefully ami profit by.
It's states our ideas SO clearly that we
copy largely from it. While it is yet
time. let our planters make their ar
engagements to raise full supply OF
food this year, and t!ien let cotton be
their extra crop for money. By so do
ing they wall become independent OF
tho buyers 10 i large extent and can
demand their own prices:
The cotton states must learn TO
guage their production OF cotton by
the demand for il and that il not a
question of machinery. The demand
is steadily growing with the steady
expansion of commerce. 1t IS truly
said that England conqucrrs aud an
neXes distant regions oaly to intro
duce its manufactures, and thus give
constant employment To its people
and capita! at home. Chief of these
manufactures are cotton fabrics; and
tlieir extent and value may be estima-
ted by remembering that England
consumes largely more than one-half
Of the American crop, while France,
GerInsny aud the continental powers
consume enough to make the total
foreign consumption equal to two
thirds of the whole of this'crop. The
more distant Esglsnd's colonies, the
more employment is there for It's ships
and sezmen, and the more assured Is
British supremacy on the ocean. 1t
is thus evident that the cotton produ-
cling states are deeply interested in
England's continued prosperity as the
great manufacturing heart of the
world. Should any trouble in Eu-
rope cause cotton to decline to or 8
cents in England. no buyer, no mill in
this country, eithe. at the north or
south, would bid any more. 1t is a
law of trade to buy as low and sell as
high as you can; and the price of the
articles in England is the standard
governing the market of other coun-
tries. She south can produce more
cotton than it can gather. The buyer
regulates his price, not so much by the
size of the crop that may be gathered
as by the crop planted. If the plant
ing has been fora crop ofsix million
bales, buyers know it by the time the
crop is in the ground, and fix their fig
ures accordingly they may think from
the past that not more than i've and
nns-half million bales will be saved.
Thus the south loses AZ the very start.
The price is always based upon the
crop planted, and though five million
bales may only be gathered, the price,
until the close of the =easnn. is gov
erned by the idea that the entire crop
will be saved. Whether the crop be
cut short by frost or insect, this is
Acver accepted as a certainty until too
late to benefit. Ifcut short by hard
winter, as now, the south not only
loses on account of the big promise
almost realized, but suffers the other
loss of millions OF dollars expended in
making half million or a million of
bales which rotS ungsthered in the
fields. a big crop planted has anoth-
err draw back. 1t causes factories 10
buy lightly if their supply is light.
They do all they can to make a small
supply hold out until the next season
opens, being confident that the large
planting will then bring down the
price. Daring the late war American
cotton went up as high as 81 so per
pound in Liverpool, but that was be-
cause none was produced in the great
cotton growing south, and no other
countries could supply the demand.
Now the case is different. The south
is producing more cotton than before
the war. and producing il SO abund
antly, and gathering it so full of trash
and dirt, as to effect irreparable dam
age through over-productiOn, through
the low price attending trashy and
dirty cotton. If planters would deter
mine to plant less instead of more
than the usual crop. they would soon
have the cotton market under their
control; and the best III not the only
way TO do this is TO produce all their
food at home.
In food matters, over production
brings no detriment, for no people
ever vet suffered for having made too
much corn, OF wheat, or any grain,
If apparently over abundant, grain
always has a good market st home in
hogs. cattle. sheep, mules, horses,
poultry, etc; and $l5 op 500 in corn
will, in two years, raise mule tor
which the planter now pays S75. So
of hogs, So of cattle, whose improved
breeds furnish more milk and butter
aud better bsef