Department of Agriculture [pp. 417-429]

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
bring into cultivation not less than 5000 acres of land; throwing into market 140,000
hogsheads of sugar, which will find its natural transit through Baton Rouge, contributing to her prosperity, and proving that she possesses the most substantial element
of a great city: a rich back country.
4. PROSPECT FOR COTTON GROWERS.
The Hon. William Elliott, of South Carolina, in a late address before the Agricultural Society of that State, has put forward some views in regard to the Cotton interest of the South, which are deserving of the widest attention. This gentleman, in
addition to being an experienced and successful planter, combines the merit of a liberal understanding of the principles of political economy. He says to the Cottoni
growers:
"I beg you to observe, that as the proprietors of the greatest and most productive
cotton region in the world, we can produce in excess, or forbear to do so; and in this
way have our destinies, for good or evil, measurably in our own hands. Is it not
strange that there are some who question the fact of over-production, or its influence
in depressing prices? Even so; there are planters even, who decide in this against
their own interests, and against the abundant and conclusive proofs that may be adduced in support of these positions. Instead of bewildering ourselves with elaborate
statistics-skilfully put together by those whose policy it is to encourage us to produce
in excess, by persuading us that the consumption is always equal to the supply-let
us confine our attention to a period of time which is recent, of which the facts are
distinctly within our reach, and where there is consequently the less chance of error
and mystification. Take the three last years, for example, and what are the facts?
In 1847 we had a moderate crop of some 2,400,000 bales, and a moderate price to
match it: eight cents, or thereabouts, was the rate for short cottons. We went on
increasing the culture beyond the corresponding means of manufacture, and in 1848
produced the unprecedented crop of 2,728,000 bales. Before this great production
was known, as soon as it was suspected, the price fell beyond all precedent, so that
good cottons sold in our interior towns at 4~ cents the pound: nor did the price rally,
or reach a remunerating point, until the spring of 1849, when it was known that the
growing crop would be short. In that year we had an inclement spring; hundreds
of thousands of acres of growing cotton were nipped or destroyed by the frosts
and snow of April: alarm was felt for the sufficiency of the supply, and the price
began to lift. Then came the army-worm and the cholera, the tempest and the inundation; and with every cause which threatened the adequacy of the supply came increase of demand and price, till the staple reached its present profitable point, at
which-could it be maintained-our prosperity would be established and secured.
We perceive, then, referring to the last three years, and to the facts and indications
which they offer us, that the prices of cotton have fallen as the supply has increased;
and risen as the supply has fallen short.
"I fear that we are not warranted in ascribing to our own forecast, the improved
condition in which we now find ourselves. If the excess of production has been reduced, and our profits have thereby been sensibly enhanced, it is because Providence
has cared for us better than we have cared for ourselves. True, we have diverted a
portion of our labor and capital from the production of cotton. True, there are some
of us, who, observant of events, have taken counsel from their understanding, and
have applied themselves to the production of turpentine and rosin, of sugar and rice,
and have even invested their money in machinery, and in the manufacture of cotton,
instead of stimulating the already redundant growth-still it must be confessed that
we continued to cultivate an extent of country sufficient to have yielded, with ordinary seasons, a crop of 2,500,000 bales. Had the crop approached that figure, should
we ever had seen short cottons reach 13 and 14 cents? I apprehend not. I think it
is evident, from the facts already stated, that a high price for a short supply, and a
low price for a large supply, follows naturally, in the relation of effect to its cause.
Where, then, does interest, duty, patriotism, lead us? Why, unquestionably not to
such an excessive production, as will surfeit, and nauseate our customers, but to such
a moderate production as will sustain a remunerating price, and thus perpetuate our
prosperity."
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