The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-12-21
How to Grow Rich.

The sbortness of the cotton crop be-
comes more evident every day, 81.
whether it is to be considered blessing
or curse, dependsupon how the farmers
utilize it. That it has raised the
price of the article is evident from the
selling price of to day, compared with
the price of one month ago. That it will
90 up higher, despite the efforts of the
bulls and bears in their operations of fu'
lures, seems to us certain. That it will
reach 124 cents per pound is almost e.
certainty, ard with perhaps still higher
figures. That this rise is based upon the
law of supply and demand, notwith'
standing t5e gambling process of futures,
seems almost self evident The cotton
crop of the whole South is now practi-
cally gathered and housed, though much
of it has not yet been ginned. Every.
where through this country the cotton
fields are black and dingy, while cattle
roam over the fields, eating the frost bit
ten useless fruit, and nowhere do we find
anybody 80 sarguine as to say that the
crop will go over six millions Of bales
and it will lack perhaps quarter million
of bales TO reach that.
Now if our farmers would be governed
by these facts, and plant the crop of the
ensuing year by the standard which
Providence, in the seasons, has estab.
lished this year, cotton would be a profit
able crop, not only because it brings q
good price, but because the limited
acreage would leave ample foom for the
cultivation of all other crops needed on
Souther farms. What happy condi-
ton of affairs would this superinduee
we're it rigidly carried out? Six millions
of bales of cotton at ID or y cents per
pound, would make the aggregate sum of
three hundred or three hundred and
sixty millions of dollars to be divided
amongst the Southern farmers. With
this sum received from cotton, with all
Of their own pork or bacon, mutton and
beef, with all of their bread, both corn
and wheat bread, raised here amongst
US; with corn, aay, peas, turnips, pota-
toes, etc., all of which is within eur
province both of right and even duty,
what condition of country could.ibe
more pleasant and hopeful.
This is no far-fstched conclusion; it
is but the sequence of laws and privi-
leges within our grasp. All that We
have to do is to consult the laws of ma
ture and political economy, and the work
is done Experience is hard teacher,
but is q true enc that never makes mis-.
take. Will the Southern people, or at
least the Southern farmers, improve the
lessons of the past and the present? 1t
was law of ancient mythology that
Hercules helped those that helped them
selves. Those ancients struck on some
ideas that are now fully understood and
better established now than then. God
Almighty, under the Mosaic and the
Christian theology, teaches that we must
do something ourselves, before He ap-
plies his helping hand. So lock where
you may, Southern farmers, you are con-
fronted with the law that you must help
yourself first before you call on others.
We have the lesson of very short cotton
crop, when you planted for a very large
ole. Will you allow this short crop, ap'
pealing to your common sense, to 90 by
without improvement? In other words,
will you allow the lesson of q email mod.
crate crop of cotton, for which you re-
seived adequate prices, to plunge you
into the absurdity of planting another
large cotton crop, to the exclusion of
other crops, and bring the price down to
zero, as vas the case some weeks ago,
when it sold at five and six cents per
pound. Surely these severe and bitter
experience ofthe past should have learned
the most ignorant colored man that the
right way to keep cotton up is to raise
the minimum and not the maximum
crop. Try it, farmers of both races. Put
In light crops of cotton for big prices,
with everything raised at home, that en-
ters into your domestic wants, that is
suited to the climate and soil against
large crops of cotton at low prices, with
hardly anything raised at home, with
high prices for all you eat, which you
must buy if you do not raise the same at
home. To make the country rich and
happy, give us light or small crops of
cotton and big prices, with all home sup
plies, against big crops and low prices,
and almost nothing raised at home. You
have neither the land nor the labor to
raise great cotton crops aud everything
else that you need. Large cotton crops
and nothing else have impoverished this
country to degree uukuown.-Grenada
(Miss. Sentinel.