The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-03-04
Food and Cotton Production.

There are many intelligent people in
the South who thoughtlessly maintain
that the cotton section of the country
would be ruined without its unrivalled
OPACITY to produce cotton.
We propose here to show the utter fall
lacy of this opinion. In the colonial
period of this State, before one pound of
cotton was made here, the colony was
one of the most prosperous, if not the
most prosperous, of all, and Charleston
the grandest city of America. The city
was described by the elder Adams as one
of flowing wealth, Inhabited by rich and
courtly people. All things considered, it
was the finest community in the whole
country. So much for the day when
there vas not a pound Of cotton grown
on the continent.
We by no means mean to decry the
value Of our great staple prudently
handled. We only mean here to dispute
the opinion that without cotton the
South would Ego to pot" By the census
of 1890 the thirteen Atlantic States, from
Maine to West Virginia, and the District
of Columbia, with and area of 250, 325
square miles, and q little YER twenty
one million people. produced a little over
FIVE hundred and fourteen million dollars
farm products. About $24.19 per head
OF population aud S2,054 per square mile.
Now, let US take up the four Atlantic
States Of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida, with about four
million people, in 1890, and we would
number two hundred thousand square
miles. The farm product of these States
for the census year was about one hun
dred and ninety-seven million dollars.
In round numbers, these four States
made about q thousand dollars to the
square mile, and about $40 to the inhabi-
tant. About III million of this farm pro-
duct was cotton money therefore, there
was some eighty million of farm product
other than Gotten. This shows just SIX
teen dollars to the inhabitant or some IS
to inhabitant less than the Northern At
lantic. States.
Is there a shdow Of a doubt that should
we quit the culture of cotton these. States
could q%uadruple this SIG a head so as to
make it $64? When we take into con-
sideration the time we could devote to
the improvement of the soil upon the
dismissal of cotton from our farm pro-
duction, we think there can be no reason
able doubt that our system of cultivation
would go up so rapidly that in less than
a decade our lands would increase in
value beyond all precedent. And it
would not be long before we would look
back to our present stumbling system
and it's products with wonder aud amaze
ment that we should have so long shut
our eyes to u plain possibilities.
Texas is going to drive 10 to this,
whether we would or no. In the census
year Texas was making very nearly q
million bales less than the four Atlantic
States. In the big crop of 81 she made
about three-quarters of a million bales
more. Texas, with her 2G0, 600 square
miles and three million people, is going
steadily forward in cotton production,
so that the old States of the Atlantic shore
will be driven to the wall as cotton pro-
ducers. If Texas should proceed in her
cotton production at the rate she did
from go to '94, by 1900 she will be pro-
ducing nine million bales. Her cotton
production in 1890 was 1,470. 900. In
1895 it was 3,ll4, 900, some 81 fold,
which in '9S would show nearly eight
million and a half bales for Texas.
Plainly the cotton game is up with us,
and we had better be looking round for
some other production actively and at
once.-COtumOiG Register.