The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-09-19
GLORIOUS PROSPECTS.

After summer Of what seemed
devastating floods, it is glad sur
prise to find that the crops are goo /.
Mother Earth has smiled as e
has rarely smiled on the South
fore, and our people can celebrate
next Thanksgiving day with unusual
gratitude. The SENTINEL has
carefully watched all North Carolina
papers and has received many letters
from ten counties in Piedmont =.
c., and al bring cheering news.
The Baltimore Manufacturers
Record has gathered from the whole
South, just as THE SENTINEL has
gathered from Piedmont n. O.,
accurate information in regard to
our financial condition and it puts
on a pair of rose-colored specta-
cles and fairly bursts into song.
Hear it:
""Brilliant beyond description is
the outlook for the South's future.
The day of her poverty has passed
and she has now entered upon a
career of prosperity and activity
that is indeed dazzling. The open
ing season of another cotton year
finds her with crops such as never
before made glad the hearts of the
tillers of her soil. Nature has
blessed the labors of her people
with almost mere than they can care
for.
Fruits have brought millions of
dollars to the South this year, and
still from the bending trees that
could scarcely carry their burdens
of peaches, apples and pears, hun
dreds of thousands of bushels have
fallen to rot upon the ground, be-
cause the yield was beyond the
ability of the people to ship or con-
sumo. Such corn crop as has been
raised was never known in this sec
ton before, surprising even the
great yield of 1888, which up to
that time was the largest ever pro-
dueed in the South. OF cotton it is
almost too soon to speak definitely,
but the yield will hardly, we think,
fall much short Of 7,25O,OOO to
100000 bales, even taking the
most conservative estimates. More
over, the increased consumption
throughout the world has caused q
steady advance in price, and cotton
is now bringing very much higher
prices than last year. This means
an increase in the value of the crop.
added TO the increase of production,
OF probably not less than $4,000. :.
600 to S75,OOO,OOO. The import,
ance of this can be better understood
when, in connection with it, it is
remembered that the crop was raised
at lower cost than in any year
since the war, and that the farmers
at the beginning of the picking
season are less in debt than at any
time since 1865.
Corn, the South's next in import
ance crop has, like cotton, given the
best yield ever secured, reaching
probably fully 100000 bushels,
against 5O9,7 O5, 900 bushels in 1888.
Oats, wheat, tobacco, sugar, rice.
vegetables have all done better than
for years, and it is IA conservative
estimate to place the increase in the
value of all Southern crops of 1889
at s125,OOO,0O0 to S15O,OOO,OOO
more than In 1888, and that, too,
remembering that the aggregate
value OF last year was the greatest
on record up to that time"
Such statement, based as it is on
reports carefully made from each
section, is as cheering as day-dawn
after night of darkness and pain.
We are going to be rich in the
South. Magnificent crops, excellent
timbers and water powers and con-
stantly increasing industries are
going to make this land of wealth.
Thank God for it.