The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-02-06
FIVE.CENT COTTON.
The Lesson That Gold MOnOmetal.
lism Prices Has Taught South
ern Planters.


farmers of the south a harder lesson
than they have received since secession.
All over agricultural Dixie sounds Of
lamentation have gone up and stir
rings of discomfort have indicated the
unstable dynasty of the ers twhile
King Cotton, Yesterday an extensive
planter CT South Carolina talked free
ly to Mail and Express reporter over
the condition of the farmers of that
section.
The amount of cotton in the South
brought into sight up to the end Of
1894 reached 6:S72,5l7 bales. This is
more than the entire crop of any year
previous up to 1887, and not near all
this years yield has yet been market
ed. AS result of the glut prices
have fallen to cents pound, figure
| which scarcely covers the expense of
getting the cotton into the ground
and picking it of of it.
| South Carolina farmers began the
season in debt to the merchants for
advances Of provisions, tools, and
fertilizers. Now they are unable to
clear up their accounts, and in some
sections mortgages on the land have
been fOreclOSed and cattle, fodder,
and grain have been sold out of the
country to satisfy liens. Farm rents
are far above their value, in some in
stances amounting to half the market
price of the land. The merchants are,
of course, embarrassed, and black
smiths and wagon-makers have been
crippled with the rest.
How the colored people are going
to make out cannot say. They are
relying on employment as hands, but
there is little left for them to do.
Not more than S. month will be
paid for the best class of farm work.
Some of the smaller negro planters in
tend to abandon their unprofitabl BILE
holding and work out. This will
swell the labor supply, while white
planters will try to get along with less
hired help the coming season. AS a
who have made money have been the
men on salary-the merchants clerk
and the negro plOWman.
The season ends for the farmers
with unpaid debts and empty bank ac-
counts, but with burS ting barns and
full larders. They will not starve
and they are not discouraged. AL
ready you may hear the cheerful gee
| haWS' as they drive out their mule
teams to break up the ground for an
other season.
"There will be a reduction in this
years cotton acreage in my vicinity OF
perhaps 20 per cent. The planters
cannot afford to buy so much guanC
and other fertilizers for one thing:
they will be unable to hire a great
deal of help for another, and for a
third they are talking of going in fol
diversified farming. The cry Of hog
and hOminy' has been raised in my
state, and the old hog killing days are
coming back again.
Il believe that it is not correct DO
litical economy, but it is the hardest
kind of agricultural 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, more hogs this
year than last. They will feed them
selves and cotton will simply be the
surplus crop.
I'VE cured a good deal of bacon last
year, More, l am told, than in any
year since the war; But the farmers
went in for raising few pampered
UlS mugs luSGedu VI uIOfeS VI pigs. we
want to produce more pork; we want
packeries in South Carolina; we
should not rely for our meat on the
Chicago stock yards.
| Tobacco would have paid us better
than cotton, and the farmers may 20
in for some of the profit that now &C
crueS to growers of the weed in Ken
| lucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. They
will raise Georgia WatermelOnS. they
will set up bee gums and make their
own honey; they will crush out more
sorgum; they will get rid of the in
furious credit system, and will learn
to rely on their own brains rather
than on special legislation"
An exchange notes the fact that it