1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



75 



"ber the feeling existing in that government in fa- 

 vor of the South, that nothing but the apprehen- 

 sion of a want of food, occasioned by a rupture 

 with the United States, prevented England from 

 interfering with the blockade, and so producing 

 war, for the sake of obtaining cotton. Now, bet- 

 ter counsels prevail there, and it is sincerely hoped 

 that the peace which was preserved through mo- 

 tives of policy, may ever in future be maintained 

 through mutual recognition of the rights of na- 

 tions and the rights of man. 

 Cotton. 



Prior to 1861, of all the cotton manufactured in 

 England, it was for several years found that 15 

 per cent, came from the United States. It is es- 

 timated that in 1860 only IL'4 per cent, of the vast 

 quantity of a thousand million pounds of cotton 

 used in England was supplied from all other conu- 

 tries, 87^ per cent, being imported from the Unit- 

 ed States. 



This enormous supply was suddenly almost en- 

 tirely cut off by our civil war, and the blockade of 

 the Southern ports. No statement of the impor- 

 tations of cotton into England in 1861 is at hand, 

 but it is estimated that the whole amount from all 

 sources, in 1862, was but four-tenths of the usual 

 quantity, and of this only 4£ per cent., instead of 

 85 per cent, as formerly, came from this country. 

 The effect of the sudden failure of the supply of 

 cotton to English manufacturers, may be imagined 

 from the foregoing statement. There is no doubt 

 that more real distress has been produced in Eng- 

 land by our civil war, so far as regards the neces- 

 saries of life, than anywhere in the Northern 

 States. By the reports of the Central Executive 

 Relief Committee of Manchester, England, it ap- 

 pears that about 300,000 of the best work-people 

 of that couutry, were in April, 1863, after sixteen 

 months idleness, still out of employment. These 

 were cotton operatives. 



The number receiving relief from communities 

 and parishes at that time, was a little above 360,- 

 000, with no reasonable prospect of immediate re- 

 duction. That the British nation should have 

 been roused almost to desperation at such a con- 

 dition of affairs, coming upon its people with no 

 fault of their own, is noi strange. That the suf- 

 fering class, the operatives themselves, should in- 

 stinctively have sympathised with the North, while 

 their government sympathised with the South, is 

 both strange and true. 



Leaving England to take care of her own trou- 

 bles, and test the various plans of relief for her 

 starving people, of which the most prominent are 

 employment on public works, emigration and 

 charitable support till cotton is again supplied, let 

 us return to our inquiry into the effect of these 

 changes in the cotton trade and culture upon 

 American agriculture. At60 cents a pound, which 

 cotton has of late commanded, and which is about 

 five times its price in the years preceding the war, 

 and by great exertions of British capitalists the 

 supply of cotton from other countries has greatly 

 increased, and no doubt a sufficient quantity may 

 be produced at present prices to supply the world. 

 But some day, we trust not far distant, peace will 

 return to our shores, and the best cotton growing 

 country in the world will again be open to culti- 

 vation. Most of us believe that slavery has al- 

 ready received at the hands of its friends, its death 

 wound, but whether it live or die, the Southern 



country must be open to cultivation by somebody. 

 Under sales for taxes, as in the Sea Island ; by 

 confiscation, as in Louisiana ; by the death of the 

 former owners in battle, and by the dissipation of 

 their properly, which was principally in slaves and 

 lands, and burdened with debt, it is plain that to 

 a large extent the cotton lands must come under 

 a new ownership. Whether free labor can at once 

 be organized so as to produce cotton at old prices, 

 is not the question ; but that at double or triple 

 those prices, northern men with white free labor 

 even, can make fortunes in cotton growing, can- 

 not be doubtful. 



Already Massachusetts men and Massachusetts 

 capital are going to the Sea Islands, purchasing 

 at nominal prices the most valuable cotton lands 

 in the world, ornnizing the freedmen into families 

 and villages, and paying in the first year's exper- 

 iment all expenses, and the price of their land. 

 They who believe our government can protect its 

 citizens in their occupation there, may consider 

 those lands open to them to enter upon. They 

 who believe that Mr. Jefferson Davis and his 

 friends will soon establish their dominion with its 

 peculiar institution, over the South, had much 

 better remain under such vines and fig trees as at 

 present shelter them at the North. — Country Gen- 

 tleman. 



CLOVER HAY FOR HORSES. 



We have somehow grown up into the belief that 

 clover hay is not a good feed for horses, mostly 

 because it takes a large quantity to supply the 

 requisite nutriment and consequently distends the 

 bowels of the horse to an uncomfortable size for 

 a working animal, while the concentrated nutri- 

 ment of clean timothy hay and oats is not liable 

 to this objection. As a diet for invalid horses, 

 clover hay may be well enough. Dr. R. McClure, 

 of Philadelphia, a veterinary surgeon of good re- 

 pute, takes ground in favor of clover hay for 

 horses in the following article, which he has con- 

 tributed to the Culturist. We shall not now dis- 

 pute with the doctor, but look the matter over and 

 see if we can be convinced of the truth of his po- 

 sitions. — Ohio Cultivator. 



There is at present an endemic disease in the 

 horses in this city, [Philadelphia,] one of its chief 

 characteristics being an almost complete loss of 

 appetite, at least so far as partaking of the ordi- 

 nary timothy hay, oats and corn are concerned. 

 But the sick horse will eat clover hay, and unfor- 

 tunately that cannot be had in any stable in Phil- 

 adelphia, if it be not where cows are kept. Why 

 is this the case ? Simply because there is a pre- 

 judice existing among all classes of horsemen, and 

 from them communicated to the owners of horses, 

 against feeding this kind of hay. First, because 

 it is said that clover hay produces heaves, and sec- 

 ondly, because it is said that it is not respectable 

 to be seen feeding with clover hay, as it looks par- 

 simonious. These opinions concerning this article 

 of food are so widely and firmly fixed in the mind 

 of almost every groom and stableman, as well as 

 horse owner, in Philadelphia, that I believe it has 

 been the cause why most farmers are not found 

 giving it cultivation to the extent that it ought to 

 be, or as its superiority as an article of provender 

 demands. Let us now examine, in brief, the ob- 

 jections that are laid against it. It is said it will 



