PKODUCTION AND EXPORTS OF COTTON. Ill 
most likely to make up the deficiency under encourage- 
ment from the British Government. 
From all the facts before us it is plain that, in the lan- 
guage of a late writer ("De Bow's Review" for August), 
" the South can defy the competition of the world in cot- 
ton growing." Whether " its former ascendency will be 
maintained and advanced under a system of free labor," 
remains to be seen. 
By consulting our first table (p. 109), it wiU be seen 
that, with the exception of a few bad crop years, there was 
a gTadual increase of production from 1801 to 1861, rising 
from about 50,000,000 lbs. to 1,650,000,000 lbs., or from ' 
100,000 bales to upward of 4,000,000. 
What was the simple reason of this increase ? The in- 
crease of the laborers. In the year 1800 there were Ipss' 
than 250,000 slaves in the South. In the year 1860 th^re , 
were 4,000,000. Now, suppose the government had never , 
interfered with slavery, is it not reasonable to suppose that, 
with the gradual mcrease of the slave population, there 
would be an increase of cotton bales? Most assuredly. 
We venture the assertion that, inasmuch as the increase 
of the slave population from 1850 to 1860 was nearly one 
million, and the bales of cotton rose from 2,000,000 to 
4,000,000, the year ISlO would exhibit an increase of 
the sLme population, making the entire number at least 
5,250,000, and the number of cotton bales not far from 
6,000,000. 
Will free labor do as well ? If fife is spared, we shaU 
see. Some of our readers wiU have the privilege of watch- 
ing the progress of the new order of things. We sincerely 
hope, for the good of the country, that it may prove a suc- 
cess. We confess, however, that we are thoroughly and un- 
changeably pro-slavery, and every day confirms us in our faith. 
