Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-02-23
JACKSON L|MBLESS COTTON
Capt. j. A. Cook Replies to ID. j. nj.
man Has Right TO Reason :.
.."s.-5 able Opinion. ...

Capts Vs As CuUk lteDlIeS " De Js ms
man Has Right 70 Il Reason
,~5 able Opinion. ..~
EDITORS CoURIER: Your correspond
ont Cd. j. NJ Is little mistaken when
he says tive admit that all mon have a
right 10 their opinion" We think we
only said that wo supposed your CORES.
p0ndent from Return had the same
right to his opinion as we have to ours.
But we viii say now that neither of us,
nor any other man, has right to an
opinion unless that opinion Is q reason
abio ono. Now, wo arc glad to know
that whom wo say that seven average
bales of cotton cannot be grown OH one
acre of land that we speak tho senti-
ments Of nine-tenths of tho farming
GLASS Of people in our country. D. j. NJ.
says "tho idea is not to increase tho
number Of bales" Now, if we plant tho
limbless variety of cotton and mako
sovon bales per acre instead of one-half
balo how does ho oxpect to provert an
increase unless we could reduce tho
acreage? This Ia hardly probable. D.
j. NJ. is obliged to know that every effort
tho farmers have made to reduce the cot
! ton acreage in the South has beon mis-
crablo failure and results in an increase
instead Of doprease.
d. ]. NJ. tells us that Thomas T. Hill,
of Georgia, planted this limblcss variety.
lIe admits that it growod fourteen foot
high and made threo bales per aore.
We'll, now, according to his own state
mont, tho sum is put to us in this shape:
If an aero of land, planted in cotton, and
tho cotton grow fourteen feot high,
making throo bales, thon how high
would it have to grow to mako seven
balcs2 AS we havo never been to school
much wo arc not good on calculation
though it would probably have to grow
moro than thirty feet high, which we
think is an impossibility. We hope some
school boy will work this sum for us.
Now wo arc not surprised, nor me :
morizod, at the recent advance in tho
price of cotton. This is OH old dodge of
tho spectators, simply to induce the
farmers to plant another large crop of
cotton. The advance in prices always
hands OF tho farmer. No benefit &C
cruos to tho mon who made tho cotton,
but only to tho spectators. No ono is
to bamo for this state Of affairs except
tho farmer. Every man is precisely what
he has made himself, and his condition
is just rs he has mado it..
In tho summer, after our crops have
been about half cultivated and layed-by,
we sit around in tho shade, cat water
| melons, lot forty or fifty bales of the
best kind of hay fall down and rot in the
field, and tho noxt wintor wo havo to buy
hay to feed our cattle on or nearly give
them away, because wc have nothing to
feed them on.
In tho winter time, when we ought to
be hauling leaves, trash, etc., making
compost for our next crop, wo arc stand
ing around tho grocery stores, talking
| about hard times, cotton problems, price
| of guano, ctc., when, in reality, there is
no cotton problem, nor hard times. AS
to the cotton problem, just any common
scnso man, if he will only think little,
can SEQ tho whole trouble and solution.
just any of us can remember only few
years since when we only made six mil
lion bales of cotton and wo got ten to
twelve cents per pound for it, and now
we make twelve million bales and we
only get four and five cents per pound
for it, hence wo see we don't got as
much money for tho twelve million bales
rs We got for six million bales.
Now, docs it not seem real down right
foolish for tho people to make six mil
lion bales of cotton just to give away to
lot of speculators.
Our friend, j. W. Shclor, not long
! since, offered to sell us ono hundred
bushels of corn for sixty dollars cash,
and we arc obliged to acknowledge just
here that he is tho only editor we over
knew who had corn to sell. But now,
suppose he had told us that ho would
! rather give us two hundred bushels for
sixty dollars than one hundred; of course
we would have taken it; but we would
have thought he was a very strange man.
Now, this is precisely the way tho farm
ors arc doing. They rather give the
spectators twelve million bales of cot
ton than six millions for the Same amount
of money.
hs to tiio hard times, We know 1tlonoy
matters are tight. We have no money,
simply because wo have made mono, and
we cannot reasonably expect other men
to mako it and give it to us. The reason
we have not made money is simply be-
cause we have been spending all of our
time making cotton at prico below it's
actual cost. Under these circumstances
we think our condition is as good as wo
could reasonably expect. This is about
the best country in tho world after all.
Everything is cheap, people can 1.-Two here
cheaper than any where else.
Several days the first of last weok wo
had ice cream almost without cost. Our
COW gave us tho cream, God sont us the
ice, and first-class freezer from tho
Northeast, and we only had to mix and
flavor to suit our tasto. But we still
don't believe there is one acre of land in
our whole State that will make soven
average bales of cotton.
Yours, &C., j. A, COOK.
Fort Madison, S. G., February II.
Mrs. M. w. Coleman In Charleston.