263 



in comparative poverty, which is uiuiecessary as it. is incouvcnieut and injurious. It 

 does not produce money enough to give wealth to a population of nine millions. The 

 other crops, instead of barely equaling in the aggregate the receipts from this, should 

 represent at least $4 for every one of cotton. The census-record of production in these 

 States is but $558,000,000"; the record should be made to read $1,500,000,000. 

 With three-fourths of the people of ten States employed in agriculture, the value of 

 agricultural products exceeds but little that of the States of New York and Pennsylva- 

 nia, where only one-fourth are so employed. The averages for each person employed in 

 agriculture in those States are respectively, as deduced from the census, $677 and $707, 

 while those of Georgia and Mississippi are $239 and $282. For the ten States the aver- 

 age is $267 ; for the four populous Middle States, $686. Even the States producing 

 cheap corn show a larger return, the average for one man's labor in the five States be- 

 tween the Ohio River and the lakes being $493, while the sis sterile Eastern. States 

 produce $490 for each farmer. It may be the census is less complete in the cotton 

 States, but it is undeniable that agricultural industry makes a smaller aggregate re- 

 turn there than in any other section. Nor is the reason wanting ; it is due to the promi- 

 nence of cotton, the return for which is substantially a fixed quantity, and the neglect 

 of all other resources. 



Let us glance at the topography and capabilities of this section. The area occupied 

 by cotton, allowing 10 per cent, addition to usual estimates, is less than one-fortieth of 

 the surface of these States ; it is but one-thirteenth of the proportion actually occupied 

 as farms. Forty-six per cent, of the census crop was grown in 81 counties, which are 

 all that produce as much as ten thousand bales each ; and 77 per cent, grew in 215 

 counties, making not less than five bales each. The total acreage in cotton is 

 scarcely more than one-sixteenth of the surface of Texas. What is to be done with 

 the other fifteen-sixteenths ? A very large proportion of the area of these States is un- 

 adapted to cotton, either by reason of elevation or of soil. 



There is no other section of the country with resources so varied ; none preseuting 

 such a field for new and promising enterprises. Competition is possible with the sea- 

 islands in oranges and bananas and other fruits in Florida, and with New York and 

 Michigan in apples and other fruits, on the table-lands of the AUeghauies. More than 

 hfalf the value of all cotton-exports is paid for imports of sugar, which could aud should 

 all be grown in these States. But one pound in ten of the required supply is 

 now made, upon a smaller surface than half of a single county twenty miles 

 square. The demand of the world for oils — cotton, rape, palma chrifiti, aud many 

 other— is large, aud prices are remunerative, and this section is peculiarly adapted to 

 their production. A hundred million pounds of cheese, to compete with an equal 

 quantity in New York, without danger of glutting the market, could be made from 

 grasses of the glades that grow on lauds costing one-twentieth the value of Empire 

 State pastures. More than two hundred millions of acres of these States are covered 

 with wood, and the ax is still brought into requisition to girdle the monarchs of the 

 forest, and await a slow, decay for replacing fields worn out by a wasteful culture, 

 while a timber-famine threatens other sections of the country, and a thousand forms 

 of woody fiibrication can readily be transmuted into gold — at least into greenbacks, 

 which seem to be preferred to gold in certain districts. Even the forest-lands, cer- 

 tainly those of the coast-belt, are covered with wikl grasses, only partially utilized, 

 which, in connection with the herbage of the prairie sections, are worth, in flesh and 

 wool, at a meager estimate, half the value of the cotton-crop. The list might be 

 increased indefinitely. With the introduction of the best machinery, the most eco- 

 nomical methods, and the most efficient means of fertilization, with well-directed and 

 persistent labor, adapted to the wants of all classes of workers, the present population 

 is amj^)ly sufficient to double the gross product of agricultural industry, and far more 

 than double its profits. 



SOUTHERN MANUFACTURING. 



I have hitherto ouly spoken of agricultural industry. The suggestions relative to 

 the necessity of other productive iudustries in the West applj' with augmented force 

 to the South. While the proportion engaged in them ranges from 14 per cent, in Iowa 

 to 24 in Ohio, it only runs from 3 per cent, in Mississippi to 6 per cent, in Georgia. 

 The intelligent planter of Georgia knows perfectly well, by the test of local experi- 

 ence, that the manufacture of cotton in his State is far more remunerative than the 

 same business in Massachusetts, not only on account of saving freights and commis- 

 sions both on raw material and manufactured goods, but in the greater abundance and 

 cheapness of labor. It might be considered a fair. division of the crop, and certainly a 

 generous one on the part of the South, to keep one-third for home manufacture, to 

 serui a third to the North for manufacture into finer goods, and the remaining third to 

 Europe. This would insure a steady and imperative demand, and a great enlargement 

 of net profits. If you can do this without a taritt', you can afford to let the tariff 

 slide; if not, far better for twenty years a tariff utterly prohibitory of all cottons than 

 to forego this opportunity to make the country prosperous and rich beyond your pres- 

 ent imaginings. 



