AGRICULTURE. 



11 



tended throughout the world, its mannfucturo will 

 i. mi' I in culture should obtain corre- 

 sponding enlargement. To overstep the boundary 

 nt ... ni.nul und glut the market, may be 

 the speculator and to tin- manufacturer, 

 .i-. li<' i-'iinlmiei* speculation with weaving, but 

 li'iith to tho grower. 



There is much false reasoning on this matter. A 

 i may truly affirm that he obtains $30 per acre 

 ii and but $25 for bis corn, and he there- 

 upon and therefore declares that he will plant no 

 orn. Lot all act upon this suggestion, and 

 instead of $55 for the acre of cotton and that of 

 corn, tho total return of the two acres of cotton will 

 be but $30. A surplus of corn may be put into 

 moat, and wool, and whiskey, or used to eke out a 

 scarcity of some kind of forage for animals*: but a 

 surplus of cotton must wait for the slow grinding of 

 the mills of tho fabricating gods, usually until dis- 

 gust at low prices reduces production correspond- 

 ingly. 



Thus, while cotton is and long will bo the leading 

 product and the most profitable field-crop at fair 

 prices, its prominence in the list has kept, and is 

 now keeping these States in comparative poverty, 

 which is unnecessary as it is inconvenient and in- 

 jurious. It does not produce money enough to give 

 wealth to a population of 9,000,000. The other crops, 

 instead of barely equaling in the aggregate the re- 

 ceipts from this, should represent at least $4 for 

 every one of cotton. The census-record of produc- 

 tion 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 ex- 

 ceeds but little that of the States of New York and 

 Pennsylvania, where only one-fourth are so em- 

 ployeu. The averages for each person employed in 

 agriculture in those States are respectrvelv, as de- 

 duced from the census. $677 and $707, while those 

 of Oeorgia and Mississippi are $239 and $282. For 

 the ten States the average is $267 ; for the four popu- 

 lous Middle States, $686. Even the States producing 

 cheap corn show a large return, the average for one 

 man's labor in the five States between the Ohio 

 River and the lakes being $498, while the six sterile 

 Eastern States produce $490 for each farmer. It may 

 be the census is lens complete in the cotton States, 

 but it is undeniable that agricultural industry makes 

 a smaller aggregate return there than in any other 

 section. Nor is the reason wanting ; it is due to the 

 prominence of cotton, the return for which is sub- 

 stantially a fixed quantity, and tho neglect of all 

 other resources. 



Let us glance at the topography and capabilities 

 of this section. The area occupied by cotton, allow- 

 ing 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 occu- 

 pied as farms. Forty-six per cent, of the census 

 crop was grown in 81 counties, which are all that 

 produce as much as 10,000 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 

 unadapted to cotton, either by reason of elevation or 

 of soil. There is no other section of the country with 

 resources so varied ; none presenting such a field for 

 new and promising enterprise. Competition is pos- 

 sible 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 AUeghanies. More than half tho value 

 of all cotton exports is paid for imports of sugar, 

 which could and 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 tho 

 world for oils cotton, r&pe,palma christi, and many 



other is large and prices are remunerctive, 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 lands costing one-twentieth 

 the value of Empire-State pastures. More than two 

 hundred million acres of these States are covered 

 with wood, and the axe is still brought into requisi- 

 tion to girdle the monarchs of the forest, and awuit a 

 slow decay for replacing fields worn out by a waste- 

 ful culture, while a timber-famine threatens other 

 sections of the country, and a thousand forms of 

 woody fabrication can readily be transmuted into 

 gold at leant into greenbacks, which seem to be pre- 

 ferred to gold in certain districts. Even the forest- 

 lands, certainly those of the coast-belt, are covered 

 with wild grasses, only partially utilized, which, in 

 connection with the herbage of the prairie sections, 

 are worth, in flesh and wool, at a meagre estimate, 

 half tho value of the cotton-crop. The list might be 

 increased indefinitely. With the introduction of the 

 best machinery, the most economical methods, and 

 tho most efficient means of fertilization, with well- 

 directed and persistent labor, adapted to the wants 

 of all classes of workers, the present population is 

 amply sufficient to double the gross product of agri- 

 cultural industry, and far more than double its profits. 



I have hitherto only spoken of agricultural in- 

 dustry. The suggestions relative to the necessity 

 of other productive industries in the West apply 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 Missis- 

 sippi to 6 per cent, in Georgia. The intelligent 

 planter of Georgia knows perfectly well, by the test 

 of local experience, that tne manufacture of cotton 

 in his State is far more remunerative than the same 

 business in Massachusetts, not only on account of 

 saving freights and commissions, both on raw ma- 

 terial 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 send 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 enlarge- 

 ment of net profits. 



There is no good reason why Virginia should not 

 equal Pennsylvania in manufacturing and mining 

 production, as she now does in resources of mine 

 and forest. There is no sufficient cause why 25 per 

 cent, of the people of Pennsylvania should produce 

 in agriculture a value of $52 annually for each in- 

 habitant of the State, while 59 per cent, of the people 

 of Virginia should only divide $42 per head of total 

 population. The influence of home markets on prices, 

 with the reflux influence of prices on fertilization and 

 culture t is sufficient to answer for all this diffen. mv. 

 I ask, in all sincerity and deference, if it is manly 

 or just to decry others who take advantage of oppor- 

 tunities enjoyed in equal fullness by ourselves, while 

 we utterly refuse to use them ? In this connection 

 permit me to repeat what I said years ago, in the 

 sincerest and most friendly spirit, of the unsurpassed 

 facilities for mining and manufacturing enjoyed by 

 the southern portion of the Atlantic slope : " This 

 path of progress has been equally open to all ; laws 

 supposed to favor a diversified industry have been 

 applicable to all States alike ; the best water-power 

 and the cheapest coal are in States that make no ex- 

 tensive use of either; milder climates and superior 

 facilities for cheap transportation have furnished ad- 

 vantages that have not been transmuted into net 

 profits ; and yet such communities, daily inflicting 

 irreparable injuries upon themselves by "neglecting 

 the gifts of God and spurning the labor of man, are 

 wont to deem themselves injured by the prosperity 

 flowing from superior industry and a practical polit- 

 ical economy." 



