OCR Text |
Show THE COTTON CROP. The cotton crop last year was by far the largest ever gathered in the South. A considerable amount of it still remains on the plantations, and it is therefore impossible to give in exact figures the number of bales produced. The most careful estimates, however, put the total at over 6,100,000 bales, or nearly a million and a half bales more than the splendid crop of 1870. The greatest crop raised under slavery was that of 1860, but it amounted to only 4,823,770 bales or about 1,600,000 less than the quantity produced last year. It was then, however, by far the richest harvest the cotton growing States had ever had, and the planters were able to dispose of it at good prices. They felt rich and were confident of the future; for were not they the producers of a staple commodity, for which there was a universal demand, and of which they alone furnished the world with its chief supply? Undoubtedly this unparalled cotton crop of 1860 stimulated the South to resist the election of Lincoln, and to make its great effort to withdraw from the Union. The Southern people were sure they could set up business for themselves, and they did not want abolitionists to rule over them. They were convinced that slavery was essential to their prosperity. Yet now, under freedom for their black laborers, they are raising crops of cotton which make those of the past seem small by comparison. They are also really in better condition financially than they were before the war. |