Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-09-30
GOOD ADVICE FOR FARMERS
l.. Cotton Planter Talks Of the Inde
pendence OF the Southern Farmer.

pendence OF tho Southern Farmer.
One of tho most extensive planters
and merchants in the upper tier ot
counties was in the city yesterday
and talked with a reporter for the
News and Courier about tho business
outlook in his part of tho State, and
the South in general. His views as
to the commercial future of the
South was hopeful in tho extreme,
and he advanced number of excel
lent arguments to sustain them, but
of exceptional interest were his ex,
pressions in regard to the future OF
cotton and the prospect of q return
to the high prices for which the cot.
tontot has never ceased to hope.
81 am sorry in the bottom of my
heart for the Southerner who re-
mains blind to the fact that we have
seen the last era of good prices for
cotton; ne said. "Such thing has
forever passed away, and the dreamer
who is simple enough 10 hope for its
return chases rainbow, the end of
which is bankruptcy. We are
charmed with the suggestions made
every year to reduce the output of
cotton by q combination on the part
of the planters who will bind them
selves to plant less, but the man who
seriously hopes for any material re-
duction in acreage from such move
ments as this has an amount of
confidence in human nature that
would put a little child to
shame. In the first place, it would
be we'll nigh impossible to get
the four or five hundred thousand
farmers in the South into any such
combination, and in the, second it
would be utterly impossible to get
them to stick if they were. We
count therefore on the production
keeping ahead of the demand, which
of course means low prices. 1t really
pains me to make these admissions,
for | am q cotton grower and have
been one all of my life and attach
a sort of sentimental regard to the
industry as one of the survivals of
ante-bollum times. But | think it
best for us to own up like men and
meet the situation as we find it.
"But do not think we should see
in this an altogether unmixed bless
ing, for there may be undiscovered
features to offset this. With our
great and growing milling Industries
we cannot think Of abandoning the
cultivation of cotton, for upon that,
moro than anything else, depends
tho upbuilding of the South. We
must prepare, therefore, to reduce
the cultivation of the staple to such
a science that we can produce it
cheaper than any other part Of the
world, and control the worlds sup
ply. High prices would be welcome,
but they would encourage the indus
try in other countries and build up
competition. What we want, with
our experience in the cultivation of
the plant, is to monopolize it and
bring mills enough here to manufac-
turc all we grow, 30 thot our profits
can come from that source. The
world must have cotton goods; more
and moro of it is needed every day,
and we must try to supply it and
retain the profits of tho manufacture.
That will more than repay the South
for the difference between cheap and
dear cotton.
"But to look, at the matter from
the cotton growers standpoint, ono
would think that he had very little
to hope for from such an arrangement.
lie could not be expected TO share
tho profits Of the manufacturer, and
if he is to continue to receive low
prices for his cotton it does look
like / am proposing that he is to be
the lamb of tho altar. But his
hope is to be found in an effort to
make the farm self-supporting. Since
the war the South has been buying
like $100,OO0,OOO worth
OF corn and meat and flour from
the Northwestern farmers. That has
boen big thing for tho merchant,
broker and factor who advanced to
him, but experience has shown him
how suicidal it was for him. With
the exception of sugar and coffee
theTo is practically nothing that the
Southern farmer uses that he cannot
raise at homo, and when the day
comes that he can say at tho begin
ming of the year, Il have my years
auppliea ont ttnrn in the smoke house
and crib,' tho question will be solved
and cotton will be a surplus crop. I
have heard it sail that it was cheaper