St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-11-02
MARVELLOUS SOUTH.
Best Crops it Ever Produced-Farmers
Less in Debt than Since the War.

| look for the South's future. The day of
! her poverty has passed, and she has now
! entered upon career of prosperity and
activity that is indeed dazzling. The
opening season of another cotton year
| finds her with crops such as never before
made giat the hearts of the tillers of her
soil. Nature has blessed the labors of her
people with almost more than they can
care for.
Fruits have brought millions of dollars
o the South this year, and still from the
| -ndng trees that could scarcely carry
their burden of peaches, apples and pears,
hundreds of thousands of bushels have
fallen to rot on the ground, because the
| yield was beyond the ability of the people
! to ship or consume. Such a corn crop as
has been raised was never known in this
section before, surprising even the great
yield of 1888, which up to that time was
the largest ever produced in the South. Of
cotton, it Is almost too soon to speak defn-
itely, but the yield will hardly, we think,
fall short of 1850 600 to $500, 900 bales.
even taking the most conservative esti-
mates. Moreover the increased consump-
ton throughout the world has caused
steady advance in price, and cotton is now
! brin g1ng very much higher prices than last
year. This means an increase in the value
Of the crop, added to the increase of pro
| duction of probably not less than fifty to
seventy five ulillion dollars. 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 any
year since the war, and that the farmers
are at the beginning of the picking season
less in debt than at at any time since 1865.
Corn, the Souths next in Importance
CROP has, like cotton, given the best WELD
ever secured, reaching probably fully FIVE
| hundred and fifty million bushels, against
! 800 705, 600 bushels in 1888. Oats, wheat,
tobacco, sugar, rice. vegetables have all
done better than for years, and it is con-
sentative estimate to place the increase in
the value of all Southern crops of 1889
one hundred and twenty five million o
| l-rs to one hundred and fifty million dol
lars mere than in 1888, and that, too, re-
mem bering that the aggregate value o
last year was the greatest on record up
| that time.
Letters from leading bankers and other
business men Of the South tell of degree
| of prosperity that the Manutactvrers Re-
cord has for years been predicting, but
| that few could be made to believe would
be realized so soon. These letters tell of
| immense crops, of freedom from debts, of
| the abundance of money, even now when
the money row-cotton-has ust COM
menced moving to market, of the activity
| that is seen on every hand, and OF the life
and enthusiasm which thrill the people of
| the whole South.
| L needs but moments thought to see
| the reason for this remarkable era of pros
| perry which has just opened upon the
South. In the last three and half years
the Manufacturers Record has reported
the organization IN the South of upwards
of eleven thousand new industrial estab
lishments, covering every line of manufac-
turing, from making pins to building loco
motives, and the building of over eight
thousand miles of railroad, and the pro-
duction of the largest crops ever raised in
this section, which yielded good profits to
the farmers A statement of the leading
crops for 1887 and 1883 and the estimated
weld for 1859 is of interest:
C CnGion 7o17ooo = ZOO ooo.ooo ' 10000
Coru, bus 49a 4 5000 500 7o5 900 $4,000 GOO
| Wheat - 81 3S4 600 Al POI. 900 so 10000
| Oas, g Sl,506,00O IS 254 600. e0,OOO,OOO
*Generally estimated at over Z 900 900.
Thus in three years the South has raised
about q, 500 900 bales of cotton, over
/, 500 000, 000 bushels of corn, nearly 15O,
OU0, 600 bushels of wheat, and $40 600, 900
bushels of oats, the total value of these
and other agricultural products, according
to official government figures, reaching
the enormous aggregate of upwards of
20 200, 100000, or an average of over eight
bundled and thirty million dollars for
each year. With this enormous agricul-
tural growth ADDED to the hundreds of
millions of outside money which have
gone South for investment in railroads, in
furnaces ; in mines, in mills, in timber and
mineral lands, in costly hotels. etc, we
can readily see why the South has reached
firm foundation on which to build great
prosperity.
c.The railroad mileage of the South has
been increased by the addition of over
81, 900 miles since 1879. Since that year
over $500, 000,0 U0 have been spent in
building new roads and improving old
ones. The assessed value of property has
increased over $1,000, 100000 since $780,
and the increase in 1859 over 1888 will be
S175 000, 600 or more. This does not show
the full increase in the value of property,
since there i1a very large amount of man
ufacsuring property created since 1880
which does not appear in the tax assess
ments, being exempt by law from taxation.
In 1880 the South made 1877 01 tons of
pig iron, in 1888 over 100000 and in
1889 it will produce about 100000 to
1,6J0, 600 tons.
In 1880. 604S,571 tons of coal were
mined in the South; in 1888 the output |
was $4,000, 900 tons, and in 1889 it will |
probably be not far from %, 600, 600 tons. |
Cotton mills have increased from 161, |
with Il, 1923 looms and 667 S45 spindles, in
1880, to 800 mills, with 40. 600 looms and |
2 035, 900 spindles, while many new mills |
are under construction, and many old ones
being enlarged In 1880 there were forty |
cotton seed oil mills in the South, with |
capital of So. 500, 600; now there are 1853,
representing an investment of over twenty
million dollars.
The value of the South's agricultural
products for 1888 was about eight hun
bred million dollars, against $57l, OS), OOO
in 1879, while 1889 will probably show
5000, UCO, 900 to $3.50 900 900. The value
Of the south's live stock is now 1916, OOO,-
600, while in 1879 it was $780,, 40O, OOO.
The production of grain rose from 431,-
ORA $50 bushels in 1880 to 632. 500, 900
bushels in 1888, and this year will prob
ably show over $50, 0n0,0 900 bushels, an
increase of nearly 25O, 200, 600 bushels.
Even these figures, which read almost
like romance, do not adequately express
the full measure of the South's we'll
rounded development. They do not tell
of the marvellous progress in many lines
of industrial growth, of the many new
enterprises constantly coming into exist
ence to Utilize as the basis of manufacture
materials hitherto considered worthless, OF
the rapid increase in diversified industries
to produce at home goods for which the
South has in the past had to depend upon