176 COTTON CULTURE. 



the soil and climate both are well adapted to cotton. That 

 region is still, for the most part, wild and sparsely inhab- 

 ited ; lands of great intrinsic value can be obtained at 

 very moderate prices, the average not rising above five 

 dollars an acre. 



The immigrant who carries into the cotton growing 

 States no capital but his two hands, must, of course, at 

 first, be almost wholly governed in the selection of his 

 field of labor by the grand consideration of demand. 

 Waiving all other questions, the laborer will be certain to 

 go where he can get the highest wages ; and the large 

 planter, the capitalist, or the joint stock company, who 

 are in possession of a tract of alluvial soil on some of the 

 great navigable streams, will oiFer him the greatest in- 

 ducements. With cotton at thirty cents a pound, on a 

 soil that produces a bale and more to the acre, there is no 

 reason why the laborer should not receive handsome wages ; 

 the cotton grower who pays two dollars a day to a good 

 hand can, if bis crop succeeds, clear over two hundred 

 dollars on each hand. When cotton declines in price, the 

 value of labor in the cotton crop must fill ; but as long as 

 it continues at the present high figure, there is no reason 

 why the laborer should not enjoy the benefit of it as well 

 as the land-owner or the speculator. The more intelligent 

 and thrifty a laborer is, the more rapidly will he rise from 

 the position of a hireling ; there is no need that the indus- 

 trious and economical working man should long remain 

 landless. The savings of a single year will enable him to 

 buy as much land as he can till in cotton ; as soon as he 

 can secure a title or get legal possession of fifteen acres 

 and a mule, he can begin to be independent, and from this 

 beginning, hard work, economy, and thrift will, in a few 

 years, make him a hundred-bale planter. It should be re- 

 marked, however, that much precaution is required if he 

 would avoid loss of time and the impairing of his consti- 

 tution by sickness. The rich cotton lands are, generally 



