The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-07-08
FARMER AND PLANTER.
is COTTON STILL KING p

| eral dizziness OF the market mas TdlSeo
the suspicion in the minds of the aver
age cotton planter as to whether he
really possessed the monopoly SO long
accorded him, or had it gradually and
unnoticed slipped from his grasp, and
had other countries and people taken up
it's cultivation and supplied markets
which were once all his own. Cottoni is,
or can be, cultivated to the fortieth
parallel of latitude on either side of the
equator around the globe. That the
American possesses, or ever did possess,
monopoly of it's production was due
to causes not incident to soil, climate
or location. Other nations, and many
nations, can produce it quite as
well, and have, for genera
ton, made efforts to do So Our
civil war gave an impetus to its
production everywhere that it could be
grown The English, who felt more
keenly than any other nation the loss
of the American crop, melted and as
sisted their colonists in every quarter
of the globe to enter on its cultivation,
|
to be no longer dependent on the Amer
lean crop. In 1868 pound OF cotton
would buy five pounds of coffee in Lon
don. The vast coffee plantations OF
Borneo and Ceylon, and to some extent
those of Sumatra and Java, were sacri-
feed to make room for cotton. The
French urged it's production on their
colonists in Tonquin, and the English
sent seed everywhere that it was
thought it was possible to produce it.
In doing this they made curious mis-
take that, no doubt, had much to do to
prevent it's becoming a permanent and
successful industry in many places well
suited to it's production. Having con-
troll of the Egyptian crop. which is
the finest cotton in the world,
they sent the Egyptian seed to
every nook and corner of the world
where it was possible for cotton to
grow. But the Egyptian cotton is a
Sea island cotton, and has been grown
on low river bottoms with abundant
irrigation in q contracted section of the
country. By the same people and proc
esses and under the same climatic inf1u-
ences and changes, for period of more
than three thousand years, it has never
been acclimated elsewhere; and placing
it in the hands of ignorant people who
had never seen cotton grown, it was
hardly possible that they would succeed
in it's cultivation. No great agricultur-
al enterprise was probably ever frus-
trated by so curious mistake.
1t is, however; the opinion of well-in-
formed men, that had the war contin-
ued three years longer, it's cultivation
would have got a foothold in so many
different places and among so many
different people that it would have been
difficult for the American planter to
ever again produce or control the crop.
But the war came to an end, and
Johnnie came marching home again.
but when he looked out upon his de-
serted fields, overgrown with weeds
briars, his labor demorallzed and his
plantation a wreck, there seemed to
rise up before his misty vision mon
grel procession of Hottentots and Hin
docs, of Beers and Chinese, of Sou
denese and Fellah, of New Zealander
and Tonquinese, of Caesars, Zanzabars
and Arab, each with cotton stalk in
his hand and bearing aloft banner in
scribed, cts Our Crop" and as it dis
appeared he quietly pulled Off his ragged
gray coat, and jumped in the air and
cracked his heels together and gave a
shout that was heard around the world
as he cried: well see about that. y
And then John and Polly, Dave and
Betsey, little Pete and old man Tommy
seized their hoes and marched to the
, fields; and they plowed and they
hoed, they planted and cultivated
Ragged they were, and barefoot
and no doubt, often hungry
with hearts made heavy at the thought
of new-made graves; but they steadily
labored through summers heat anC
autumn's frost till the crop was gath
cred, when a magnificent price awaited
him. And this so delighted and en-
couraged him that the next year he
doubled the crop; and his zeal to gel
back his own has never deserted him
no argument that he was producing
more than the world required, or that
the price would be less than the cost Of
production has for a moment deferred
him. The vision of the heather trying
to steal away his birthright, at times
rises up before him; and with zeal
worthy of any cause, and an energy
that is never discouraged or defeated
he plows and plants, and cultivates
and gathers, determined to round out
the century with ten million bales
without regard to prices or demand.
| When we produced six million bales
the world gave lis ten cents for it
when we increased the crop to seven
million, they dropped the price to nine
cents, and it took no more money to buy
it. Now we ave produced eight million
bales, the same sum, at eight cents
will pay for it. And in '95, when we
pass the nine million mark, the same
money at seven cents, will pay for it,
And when, in the centennial procession,
we raise aloft our banner with "Ten
Million Bales" inscribed upon it, the
world will say to US: eve will give
you the same amount for it that we
gave you twenty years ago for six mil.
lion bales"
Well, what of all this? Has it taught
US anything? No-and it will not.
We are not seeking to be taught.
Cotton is still king. The crop
of the world is nroduoed IN Amer-