Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1891-07-16
FARMER AND PLANTER.
is COTTON STILL klNo9


Farmers ARE Asking Themselves.
Tho low price of cotton and the gem
eral dullness OF the market has raised |
The suspicion in the minds of the aver
age cotton planter ms TO whether he |
really possessed the monopoly so long |
accorded him, or had IL gradually aud
unnoticed slipped from his grasp, and
had other countries and people taken up
its cultivation and supplied markets
which were once all his own. Cotton 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 its 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 colonsts in every quarter
Of the globe to enter on its cultivation,
for they were determined, if possible,
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 its 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 its becoming permanent and
successful industry in many places well
suited to its 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
Sea island cotton, and has been grown
on low river bottoms with abundant
irrigation in contracted section of the
country. BY the same people and proc
esses and under the same climatic infiu-
ences and changes, for a 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 its 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-
ned three years longer, its cultivation
would have got foothold in 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 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 Eellah, of New Zealander
and Tonquinese, of Caesars, Zanzabars
and Arab, each with cotton stalk in
his hand and bearing aloft a banner in
scribed Its 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: "We'll see about that. u
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 and
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 tha
the price would be less than the cost O.
production has for moment deferred
him. The vision of the heather trying
to steal away his birthright, at times
rises up before him; and with a yea
worthy of any cause, and an energy
that is never discouraged or defeated
he plows and plants, and cultivateI
and gathers, determined to round ou
the century with ten million bales
without regard to prices or demand.
When we produced six million bale,
the world gave us ten cents for it
when we increased the crop to sever
million, they dropped the price to min,
cents, and it took no more money to bu,
it. Now we ave produced eight million
bales, the same sum, at eight cents
will pay for it. And in '95, when w,
pass the nine million mark, the SAM
money at seven cents, will pay for it
) And when, in the centennial procession
: we raise aloft our banner with "Tel
Million Bales" inscribed upon it, tn
world will say to us: eve will Civ
you the same amount for it that w
gave you twenty years ago for six mil
lion bales"
, Well, what of all this? Has it laugh
us anything? No-and it will moi
: We are not seeking to be taught
| Cotton is still king. The GRO
of the world is produced on Amer
lean soil. Free, intelligent, well
paid labor produces more and bette
r cotton than slave labor ever could; w
: know how TO raise it. it is the expe
? rience of an hundred years; the worl
? must move up to us; new markets, ney
: uses must be found, and are bein
r found every day. Think of the make
+ millions Stanley found in Africa; a