2.48 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



rated at Uss than 2000 lbs. The expenses per 

 hand I will estimate al §40, although when com- 

 pelled to be economical, 1 see no reason why they 

 should exceed our own. At 10 cents net, lor his 

 cotton, the gulf planter will make $160, clear, 

 against ,^85 at the same prices here, and at 8 

 cents, ^120 against §01; which shows that, at 

 prices ruinous to us, he will realize a handsome 

 interest on his investment. But while I have 

 estimated our production lully as high as truth 

 will permit, I am satisfied I have underrated that 

 of some ol these slates, perhaps all. On their 

 best lands 300 lbs. per hand is not at all an extra- 

 ordinary crop, and more is ofien made. The 

 planters themselves, though great advocates ol 

 short crops at certain seasons of the year, would 

 scarcely be willing to estimate their average crops 

 at less than 2500 lbs. At these rates of produc- 

 tion, and even 6 cents a pound net, they will 

 raake the very fair profit of ^110 to 140 per hand; 

 and unless cotton is lor ever to baffle all the laws of 

 trade, it is certain that prices must ere long range 

 about and possibly below tlrat poin'. 



A result so fatal to us could only be arrested 

 by the want o( sufRcient land or labor in tliese 

 fruitful countries. But of this there is no prospect. 

 Both may be already found or soon placed there 

 in ample abundance, to supply notonly the whole 

 quota liirnished by the United States, but all that 

 is now I'urnished by every cotton growing region, 

 for the Ibreign markets of the world. A -elight 

 examination will show the fact conclusively. The 

 crop of the world for 1839, the last of which I 

 have seen a lull return, and the largest perhaps 

 ever grown, supplied the markets of the United 

 Stales and Europe with a little less than 1000 

 millions of pounds. At the rate of 250 lbs. to the 

 acre, it would require but 4 millions of acres to 

 grow it all. The four stales bordering on the 

 gulf— Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Flori- 

 da—not to include that almost equally lertile sec- 

 lion of Georgia between the Flint and Chattahoo- 

 chie rivers — contain 130 millions of acres. If 

 then only one acre can be found in 32 capable of 

 producing 250 lbs. they alone can supply the pre- 

 sent demand of all the foreign markets of the 

 world, and of our own also. It is difficult to corn- 

 pute the entire crop of the whole world, including 

 that portion which is consumed at home in other 

 countries than our own, as well as that which 

 goes abroad, but according to the most extrava- 

 gant estimate which has been made — excepting 

 however the very veracious returns of our late 

 census takers — it cannot exceed 1500 millions of 

 lbs. At the rate per acre mentioned, it would re- 

 quire but 6 millions of acres, or one in 21 of those 

 contained in these states, to yield the whole 

 amount, and supply the entire demantl not only of 

 the Ibreign markets, but of the whole human fami- 

 ly at the present moment. 



In this estimate I have said nothing of the 

 magnificent wilderness which joins us on our 

 south-western border. Texas alone contains 150 

 millions acres. The climate has not been fairly 

 tested, and like that of other regions approaching 

 the tropics, its vicissitudes may prove too great 

 for complete success in the cultivation of cotton. 

 As yet, however, those best acquainted with it re- 

 gard it as the most favorable of all others, while a 

 large proportion of its soil is undoubtedly as fertile 

 as any which has ever yielded its Iruits to the 



hand of man. Already it is swarming with the 

 adventurous offspring of the great Anglo-Saxoa 

 family, and offering the moat formidable competi- 

 tion to even the bountiful bottoms of the iVlissia- 

 sippi and Red River. When sufficient labor shall 

 have found its way thither, as it is now rapidly 

 doing, no one can venture to assign a limit to ei- 

 ther the extent or cheapness of its production of 

 cotton. There is little question, however, that 

 out of the 280 millions of acres, embraced in this 

 country and our own gulf states, land enough will 

 be found in considerable bodies of such quality 

 as to grow, at 6 cents a pound, or less, cotton suffi- 

 cient to supply the progressive demand of man- 

 kind in all time to come. For were they at this 

 moment to be civilized by some supernatural in- 

 fluence, with every avenue of commerce thrown 

 wide open, and every article competing with it 

 drawn Irora the market to the full extent that pro- 

 bably they ever can be, the 800 millions who in- 

 habit all the earth would scarcely require more ; 

 8,000 millions of pounds. This they might pro- 

 duce on 30 millions of acres, or 1 acre in 9. And 

 when it is remembered that one half fef France 

 and one third olEngland, barren as they were by 

 nature, are now in actual tillage, it cannot be ex- 

 travagant to suppose one ninth of these proUfic 

 soils well adapted to the growth of cotton. 



Nor will there be any deficiency of laborers. 

 White labor, it is true, can be made available only 

 to a very limited extent. But there are in the 

 United Stales and Texas upwards of two millions 

 and a half of slaves, 1,500,000 of whom may be 

 rated as efficient hands. Those who grow cotton 

 make their own provisions, or can do it. To meet 

 the remaining agricultural and domestic, as well 

 as all other demands for slave labor, will scarcely 

 require more than half these hands. So that the 

 other half or 750,000, may be employed in cotton 

 culture. These, al even 2000 lbs. each, will pro- 

 duce 1500 millions of pounds, which is precisely 

 the amount at which I have computed the crop of 

 the whole world. But the present demand of all 

 the ibreign markets and our own can be supplied 

 by 500,000 properly located ; and there is little 

 question that such a location will be speedily ef- 

 fected. This done, we shall have an actual sur- 

 plus of slave labor on our hands. 



I/j then, the consumption of short staple cotton 

 has reached such a point that the least advance 

 on the present low prices immediately checks it, 

 and one at which it seems scarcely possible, at 

 any prices, to maintain it, if at the same time the 

 production of this kind of cotlon is increasing 

 every where over the world, and especially in the 

 countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, both 

 in and out of the United Stales, who, though 

 latest to begin its culture, possess such advantages 

 of soil and climate as to have already tar outrun 

 all competition, and, having conquered most of 

 the difliculties incident to new countries and new 

 enterprises, do now furnish six-tenths of the de- 

 mand of both the American and European mar- 

 kets, and are capable of supplying, almost imme- 

 diately, the whole, at such prices as are utterly 

 ruinous to ue, if all these things be true, as I have 

 endeavored to show they are, the conclusion is 

 irresistible, that the planters of South Carolina 

 will be speedily compelled almost if not altogether 

 to abandon its longer cultivation." 



» ■* * * # 



