THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



247 



the smallest advance instantly checks consump- 

 tion, which would not be the case, if the supply had 

 not, to say the least, fully reached the limits of 

 the immediate demand. The disastrous condition 

 ol' the manufacturers during ihe present year, 

 proves also, that the purchases of the last, even 

 by the trade, were speculative, and did not indi- 

 cate the true ratio of consumption. Indeed it is 

 now generally conceded, that ever since 1834, 

 notwithstanding the great appearance of manu- 

 lucluring prosperity, more goods have been turned 

 oil' than were required lor consumption, and have 

 accumulated all over the world, to an extent not 

 so easily perceived, but not less fatal in effect 

 than the accumulation of the raw material in the 

 great markets of England and France. 



But while consum|)tion is thus fluctuatiiiif — 

 giving the clearest evidence that it has approach- 

 ed a point beyond which it cannot advance, ex- 

 cept with the slow march of lime and the niiijjlity 

 changes to which I have alluded, production is 

 not only going Ibrward with gigantic step, but 

 yearly developing a capacity which proves that 

 it has yet scarcely passed its infancy, and has 

 been creeping lazily along, compared with what 

 it can do. If we are to believe the English, the 

 experiment of growing improved cotton in their 

 Indian possessions, under the direction of Ameri- 

 cans — from our seed, and prepared with our gins, 

 is likely to succeed. Already has some of the 

 new made cotton been sold in Liverpool at a price 

 higher than that of our best New Orlean's brands. 

 I do not, however, feel very deep apprehensions 

 from this quarter. The sample sent was probably 

 most of it from the little Isle of Bourbon, where 

 the finest Sea Island cotton, next to our own, is 

 known to grow. With a soil impoverished by 

 2000 years or more of cultivation ; with a cHinale 

 in which it rains continually lor half the year, 

 and lor the remainder of it never rains, so that 

 during one period cotton will not grow at all, and 

 during the other must depend on dews and la- 

 borious irrigation ; almost without animal power; 

 with an idle and feeble race of laborers ; paralyzed 

 by absurd social forms ; and suljected to the most 

 unprofitable as well as the most wretched system 

 of slavery ; with all these drawbacks, I cannot 

 believe that India will be able to compete with us. 

 It is idle to talk of her doing so with other sec- 

 tions of our country. To Egypt — notwithstand- 

 ing the temporary eflfect of the galvanic energies 

 of Mehemet Ali — and to Western Asia, belong 

 nearly all the disadvantages of India, without the 

 benefit of English capital and English enterprise. 

 Brazil and other parts of South America might 

 become more formidable rivals, but tfieir institu- 

 tions are too unsettled, and their population too 

 motley and uncivilized, if they had no other im- 

 pediments, to give us serious alarm. 



But the cotton growers of South Carolina 

 need not look abftad for competition. It is much 

 nearer home. It is our own kith and kin — the 

 hardy and industrious and eni.erprising vanguard 

 of civilization— that have levelled the gigantic 

 forests ol the south and southwest, and ILirrowed 

 the rich bottoms through which pour the tributa- 

 ries of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Suwanee 

 to the Sabine, and that have but recently rescued 

 from a slothful race the fertile empire stretching 

 beyond the Sabine to the Rio Grande— who are 

 destined at no distant day, to supply the loreign 



markets of the world with this inestirnable staple. 

 They have just overcome all the incipient difficul- 

 ties of the enterprise, and are now prepared to 

 put Ibrth, on the finest soil and in the most I'avo- 

 rable climate of the earth, an energy which must 

 inevitably crush all serious competition. 



A lew facts will show their progress and our 

 own. From 1789 to 1811, the produciion of cot- 

 ton in the United States had increased from no- 

 thing to 90 millions of pounds, ol' which but 2 mil- 

 lions were grown in the gulf states, not counting 

 Georgia and Tennessee among them. By 182G, 

 these states had risen by slow degrees to 135 mil- 

 lions in a crop of 368. In 1834, the whole crop had 

 increased to 457 millions, of which tliey produced 

 252 millions, or rather more than halll And in 

 1839, when the crop amounted to 830 millions, the 

 same states grew 600 millions, having in the last 

 five years doubled their production and made 100 

 millions more, while tlie rest of the cotton growing 

 states in the aggregate had actually, (or thirteen 

 ye^irs previous, made no increase at all. The 

 world is accustomed, •especially of late, to speak 

 with astonishment of the unparalleled progress of 

 the growth of cotton in this country. Yet for 

 fifteen years now the whole of that progress has 

 been made in the gulf states. Notwithstanding 

 the high prices, we have been stationary. Is not 

 this a startling flict '? It seems to me of itself to 

 settle the question, and to leave no doubt that 

 these-states, having now but fairly prepared them- 

 selves for it, so soon as the check on consumption 

 j shall place in strict competition all the cotton 

 growers of the world, oik! reduce prices to their 

 I lowest point, the cultivation of this staple must 

 be confined almost entirely to these fertile regions. 



Now, I believe, prices have already reached, 

 if indeed they have not gone below, the lowest 

 point at which we can profitably grow cotton in 

 this state. The average amount of cotton made 

 in South Carolina, and I may include a large part 

 of Georgia also, does not exceed 1200 lbs. per 

 hand. The average expenses per hand cannot be 

 less than ^33. When every thing is taken into 

 account for which money is paid or labor abstrac- 

 ted from the field to make, I doubt whether the 

 most judicious planter is able to reduce them low- 

 er. If, then, cotton sells at an average of 10 

 cents net, on the plantation, to do which it must 

 bring in the seaports 11 or 12 according to the 

 distance of transportation, the clear profits for 

 each hand in these states will be ^S5. And this 

 includes the rent of land. If cotton sells at 8 

 cents net, on the plantation, the clear profit, rent 

 included, will be only 861. II" this estimate be 

 correct, it will be seen at once that cotton cannot 

 be profitably grown here at 8 cents per lb. Yet 

 this is at least as much as we shall realize for the 

 present crop, and more, I believe, than we can 

 safely anticipate hereafter. 



If any one doubts the permanency or abun- 

 dance of the fiiture supply from other quarters at 

 8 cents per lb. or even less, let him look a mo- 

 ment at the profits of the planters in the gulf 

 stales to which I have alluded. The vast land 

 speculations incident to new and fertile countries, 

 and the fact that every thing has been conducted 

 there on the credit system, have, it is true, involv- 

 ed those states in great embarrassment. But 

 this does not afiect the productive capacity of the 

 soil. The average crop per hand there cannot be 



