The Cotton Interest, and its Relation to the Present Crisis [pp. 279-286]

282 COTTON INTEREST-RELATION TO THE PRESENT CRISIS.
rience of the past four years pressing so severely upon the
attention of planters, there is no probability that more cotton
will be raised the coming year than will find a ready market.
In all the northern portion of the cotton belt, grain will take
very largely the place of cotton, for the present; while over
the whole country, more or less labor will be diverted into
other channels. On the supposition that, of the past, crop,
3,500,000 bales will be available so soon as the blockade is
raised, and that 3,000,000 will be grown the coming season,
we have, then, for two years use..............................6,500,Q00
add total stock in Europe, 1st January last................ 1,00C,000
add product of other countries, two years............... 2,000,000
we have supply for two years, say.............................9,500,000
bales on a broad basis of calculation.
The actual amount taken for consumption during 1859 and
1860 was 9,525,000 bales; during which time the amount produced by other countries than the United States was but 1,705,000, or 300,000 less than the very liberal estimate made for this
and next year.
The present offers an excellent opportunity for cotton planters to turn more attention to spinning and weaving, when they
have the means. To repair fences, dwellings, gin-houses, negro
quarters; clear out their ditches, etc. All such needful work
has been more or less overlooked during the speculative excitement of the past few years. The great crop of 1859-60 was
made too much at the expense of corn, etc., the scarcity of
which has had so important a share in bringing about the large
indebtedness of the planting community-the Providential influence of drought had not all to do with it. If the course
indicated above be carried out, we shall then be in a position
in 1863 to raise such a crop of cotton as the wants of the world
may demand: the independence of the Southern Confederacy
and unrestricted trade withl Europe being considered a foregone
conclusion.
The tables which follow give, first-the supply from the different parts of the world ior eight years; underneath which
will be found the average price of 3tiddling Cotton in New Orleans for thirty-two weeks of the year, during which the bulk
of the crop is sold, the number of bales received during the
month of August, and date of killing frost in each year. The
second table gives the consumption of the different portions of
the world for the saime period. Both the consumption and
production of the past year are estimated, excepting of the
United States-our tables being made up to the 1st of September, while in lurope they are made up to 1st of January ensu ing. About 195,000 bales, raised in this country, are consumed
in the interior factories, and, not b,eing shipped to any port, are
not included in either table.