The leader., 1904-12-03
FARMER AND PLANTER.
SOUTHERN DEVELOPMENTS.
What Diversity In Farming and In-
dustrinl Pursuits is Doing
For the Southland.

The south Is rapidly growing inde-
pendent, commercially. industrial ly
and financially. 1t will soon begin to
grow rich, and with wealth this Sec
ton will resume its political power In
the union.
AS long as the southern states de-
pended wholly on the production of
cotton and tobacco, her people re-
manned poor. The farmer, who sells
the products of his fields to buy the
necessarles of life, lives from hand to
mouth and is virtually poor. When
our cotton and tobacco planters sent
their money out of their section in or
der to get money with which to buy
the necessaries of life they pursued q
false policy.
The southern people could grow corn
and wheat in their own fields, but to
large extent they sent away to dis
tant states for their bread. They could
raise cattle and hogs, but they brought
great part of their meat from north
ern states. They had vast virgin for
ests Of the best timber for every pur-
pose, but they sent away for much OF
their building material and for their
house furniture. Their hills and noun
tains were full of iron and coal, but
they got all their cutlery, farming ma
chinery and every article made OF
metal, either from old England or New
England. It was the same with their
clothing. They sent abroad the cotton
grown in their fields, had it manufac-
tured, paying freight both ways, and
brought it back in the form Of the
various fabrics for daily wear, with
out ever dreaming that they could
manufacture for themselves.
Such was the south from the days
when its states were European colonies
until few decades ago. To-day all Is
different. All of the American cotton
is grown south of the Ohio and Poto-
&C rivers, and a vast deal of 1t Is spun
and woven near the cotton fields. The
south is developing its rich coal and
iron mines and its great timber re-
sources, and is feeding it's people from
the products of its own rich soil.
Wheat is grown in all the southern
states, but most extensively in Texas,
Indian territory and Oklahoma. The
south is pre-eminently the land OF
corn, and cattle and hogs are among
it's important products. Rice, sugar,
sweet potatoes and fruits and vegeta-
bles are among it's distinctive and
most valuable food supply.
But the cotton crop of our southern
states has become one of the most i'm
portant considerations in the world,
and to the whole world. The south to-
day possesses a monopoly of the
worlds cotton supply. Nowhere else
on the globe is this necessary article
of almost universal use to be had In
quantity and quality as are required.
The demand for cotton goods is in
creasing throughout the earth, and al
though efforts are being made in va
rious countries to produce it in COM
petition, the experiment has failed.
But the weight of evidence is that,
whatever crops may be grown in India
or in Egypt, the American cotton
planter will continue to have prac-
teal monopoly Of the great staple, for
Indian and Egyptian and African cot
tons have, so far, shown themselves
useful only for special purpose, and
not for the staple uses of the great
mass of mankind.
The development of the rich re-
sources of the south has now become
the most important, as it is the most
promising field for enterprise and in
vestment, and the result is that the
south is able to keep large proportion
of the money that is flowing into it,
and thus first comes independence, and
next, and close behind it, wealth and
material and political power. That the
shifting of capital and enterprise from
other sections and countries will pro-
duce serious disturbances to the COM
mercial and industrial interests Of 9TH
er states, sections and countries, is GER
tain, but it will all inure to the up
building of these states of the south
N. o. Picayune.