The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-13


 idyilic agricultural lfe of the Old South.
 As a result ef this eocsal revolution one of the most noteworthy changes h regard 10 the production of cotton since the Civil War is in the source of large eie- uient of the labor now employed.
 MT. Carnegie -in a recent utterance is pleased to asorabe the 100000 bales of the annual crop to the labor of the negro. If the man on the ground may differ with the one so remote from the conditions under discussion, I should say that the amount of cotton made by negro labor grows gradually Nss every year. It IS the universal opinion of those who should know, that as the generation trained ih the school of slavery passes away, negro labor becomes in the mass, less effioient. Moreover, large numbers of negro labofers are drawn annually from the fields to the ] large industrial enterprises developing so extensively In this section. Now the fail. ing off in negro labor Is made good in part by a gradual increase in white labor, small farmers Of the tenant class with two or three blows, who are entering governmental lands, or subdividing the larger plantations. Statistics on the re- lative amounts grown by the two races are difficult to secure, but the geieraliza- tions made are based on close personal observations and wide inquiry. a As every one knows. this was fEnpossi- ble under the old oraer of thinGs. With a system of slavery, agricultural labor, In fact, all manual labor was badge of social inferiority. Moreover, there was a gradual acquisition of all desirable lands by the landed aristocracy--the large wealthy planters, with the inevitable re- suit of the rapid emigration Of the mid de and lower classes of the white popu- lation from the agricultural sections of the South. For example, up to 1880, ac- cording to census reports a larger num- Der Of people had et1igFated from South Carolina Ia sn1ail and stationary comfnu- nityl than had moved into South Carolina from all the other States of the Union. This change to white labor has been greatly facilitated by the introduction Of new factor Tn cotton culture that Is worthy of note-@I refer to the use of coln- tAefeaal fertilizers, the greatest agfleul4 tufal discovery In modern time. As rule, the lower classes Of society had their holdings in the hill-connty in the less pro- duetive soils, the ''blaes belt' lands hav- inR been found best suited to the most profitable employment Of slave labor on a large scale But by the use of this new agency. commercial fertfifsers. vast regions once considered barren have been brought into profitable cultivation, and now really afford a more reliable and con stant crop than the rich a1luviRl soils of the old slave plantations. In nearly every agricultural county in the South there is to be observed, on the one hand this section of fertile soils, once the heart of the old civilization, now largely aban- doned by the whites, held In tenantry by dense negro population. full of dllRpida- ton and ruin; while, on the other hand, there is the region Of light, thin soils oc- cupied by the small white freeholder, | filled with schools, churches and good roads, and all the elements of a happy l enlightened country life.
 The yearly investment in commercial
 fertilizers Is enormous, 6lB,O00 tons valued
 at a7.OO ton being consumed in Georgia;
 2oO,VO tons in Alabama; S25,OO0 in South
 Carolina; S5O.0CO in North Carolina; and
 iIS,voo in Mississippi. The total amount or fertilizers produced in the United States
 m lS9O was, according to the census, D. ssLOOo tons, all but one million tons of
 which was used exclusively in the cotton 1 producing States, being an investment
 Of over $3O.oO0. 600
 As a result Of the demands for ferti-
 lizers' and. too. Of the industrial growth | ot the South. an immense new prodt has
 come to the producers of cotton in the sale Of their seed. A few years aao
 farmers surplus seed were often rekarded
 as nuisance while today the by-prod,icts
 ot the seed. the meal, oil and hulls. are
 a most valuable asset, amounting m 1oO9
 10 S42,oOOO0o, and in 1902, according to Mir
 Edmonds of the Manufacturers Record, ! 10 over A00,0eo0 000. After the oll is ex
 tracted. the seed loses nothing tn value
 as fertilizer, the meal being our richest
 pitrogenous material, while the hulls pkove on excellent feed for cattle, or IF used for fuel. the ash affords most | concentrated form of potash
 Time forbids but a bare allusion to the \ wonderful growth in the South of the manufacture of crude cotton Into forms of finished products. Sufice 1t to say that the growth of the mill Industry in the South has exceeded the widest dreams of men Of a generation ago Thir- ty years ago the capital invested In all the mills from the Potomac to the Rio Grande would not have aggregated three million dollars; today 1t approximates Sl75 0o0 800; spind1es have Increased from 667. 600 to 7.50O,oO0 and the South now manufactures one-half' of ali the cotton now consumed in the United States
 Larger population. higher wages, increas- ed purchasing power of operatives, a higher standard Of life better school
 facilities, and a general uplift in the community life are some Of the attendant
 results. One may observe the process of 'transfguration" as he travels the line of the Southern Railway through the l Caroiinas and Georgia which is as ! thread strung with these new eommuni- tifs of industrial ,oni1la4Rn,, ..,a 4Aysyt,fvs