The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-04
FIvE-CENT COTTON.
1t Has Taught Southern Farmers Not
to Rely Upon u Single Crop.

New York Mail and Express.
Five-cent cotton has taught the farmers OF
the South a harder lesson than they have
tural Dixie sounds of lamentation have gone
up and STRINGS of discomfort have Indicated
the unstable dynasty of the erstwhile King
Cotton. Yesterday an extensive planter OF
South Carolina talked freely to q reporter
over the condition of the farmers of that
The amount of cotton in the South
brought into sight up to the end OF 1894
the entire crop OF any year, previous to 1887.
and not near all this years yield has yet
been marketed: As a result of the glut
figure which scarcely covers the expense OF
getting the cotton into the ground and pick
South Carolina farmers began the season
IN debt to the merchants for advances of
provisions. tools and fertilizers. Now they
are unable to clear I'D their accounts and
In some sections mortgages on the land
have been foreclosed and cattle, fodder and
satisfy liens. Farm rents are far above
their value, in some instances amounting
to half the market price of the land. The
blacksmiths and wagoumakers have been
crippled with the rest.
How the 'colored people are going to
make out / cannot say. They are relying
left for them to do MOI more than SIS q
farm work. Some of the smaller negro
planters intend to abandon their Improbable
noI0ingS ana work out. This VIII swell the
to get along with less hired help the COM
ing season. AS a matter OF fact. however.
the only ones who have made money have
been the men on salary-the merchants
clerk and the negro ploW1nan.
The season ends for the farmers with
unpaid debts and empty bank accounts. but
with bursting barns and full larders. They
will not starve and they are not discour-
aged. Already you may hear the cheerful
gee haws'' as they drive out their mule
teams TO break up the ground for another
season.
There will be a reduction in this years
cotton acreage in my vicinity OF perhaps
20 per cent. The planters cannot afford to
for one thing. they will be unable to hire
a great deal of help for another. and for a
salra ehey yas aTs taking Ths OF cr going In h for di,
hominy' has been raised IN my State. and
the old hog-killing days are coming back
again.
II believe that it is not correct political
economy but 1t Is the hardest kind of agri-
cultural sense never to buy for consumption
on the farm what can be raised upon the
farm Our people will raise more grain,
more truck, more cattle and hogs this year
than last. They viii feed themselves and
cotton will simply be the surplus crop.
More, / am told. than in any year since the
war. But the farmers went in for raising a
few pampered big hogs instead of drovers
we want packeries in South Carolina; we
should not rely for our meat on the Chicago
stock yards.
cotton and the farmers may go in for some
of the profit that now accrues to growers Of
the weed in Kentucky. Virginia and Ten
mealons; they viii set up bee gums and
make their own honey: they will crush out
more sorghum; they will get rid of the In
furious credit system and Will learn to- rely
on their own brains rather than on special
legislation"