nothing has been allowed for the support of the planter and his family, which should all be charged to the place, as his supervision is indispensable. Nor has anything been set down to meet those contingent and incidental losses and costs, to which all such estates are liable. As the loss of servants from epidemics, the loss of whole teams from diseases, the frequent accidents to gins and houses from fire, losses from overflows, breaking of levees, &c.; the cost of making entirely new all the buildings, gins, &c., on the premises, occur every fifteen or twenty years. If a reasonable charge is made for these things, it will be readily seen the balance of $1,750 will fail to meet them. Thus it appears that it will cost five cents to produce cotton, and if the land is given, clear of rent, and the labor without hire, a judicious economy only could save the manager of such an estate from debt, if he be required to surrender the property to the owner, at the end of the year, in good condition. Nearly half the time, in the last ten years, cotton has been sold for the planters on the low lands, for about five cents per pound, which the most superficial observer must see has been ruinous; for it would appear, those immense estates not only pay no interest on the large investments, at those rates, but scarcely do the revenues support the charges of cultivating and sustaining them. It would require an extraordinary coincidence of favorable circumstances, to leave the smallest margin of profit to the planters. Their profits begin only when cotton advances above five cents, or the crop reaches beyond the ordinary average of seven bales to the hand; the latter, no one ought to presume on, for he will as often fall below as rise above the average. We dislike, for those who are utterly unacquainted with the details of its production, to be constantly laboring to produce wrong impressions in the commercial circles, both in Europe and America, and stimulating, under false views, individuals and nations to embark in a business, ruinous to themselves and to those already engaged in it. Why should our material be said to be too high, when no other can be found to clothe the world half so cheap, combining the same comfort and utility? Why do people complain of the high prices of cotton, when even at ten cents it will clothe them cheaper and better than anything else by half-and yet only leave 25 or 30 cents per day compensation to the producer of the raw material? From such calculations as these, it might be easy to show, that all the efforts England is making to succeed in the cultivation of cotton must prove abortive; for her labor is greatly inferior to ours. Her lands and climate have been found to be still more so. (The writer is personally acquainted with some of the planters employed from this country by the English, to try the experi ment in India.) The distance from the places of consumption is another impediment to their success; as also, the marked inferiority of the staple. The West Indies, South Ame rica, and Egypt, have all failed in the race of competition against us, and have been yearly sinking lower in the amount of product. Still another reason will forever effectually hinder England from successful competition. We are compelled to employ our labor in the production of this staple, let the price be what it may. We have the labor amongst us; labor of an excellent and superior quality. There is a vast field opened to it. Climate and soil happily adapted to the nature and constitution of the laborer, and to the production of the staple, We may say peculiarly to it, for there has not yet been found any other staple to employ so many laborers. Nor do we despair of obtaining remunerating prices, though England may try her India experiments; though manufacturers, merchants and brokers, and every element of selfishness and cupidity may conspire against us; for the world must be clad, and we can do it cheaper and better than any other people. Nor do the ravings of abolitionists and pseudo-philanthropists disturb our repose. We well know our domestic institutions will remain as they are, and that we will forever enjoy the advantages of our labor, until we choose to dispense with it. We well know that the difficulties in the way of freeing this country of its negro population are insurmountable, and the cost of doing it, even if no compensation were claimed by their owners, would be so enormous, that noisy philan thropists would be the last to advocate the policy. A national debt of one thousand millions of dollars would be required to prepare five millions of our Africans for freedom, in an independent government; to transport them there, and defray their expenses for a season. We cannot but look with confident hope to the future, not only that our domestic insti tutions will endure, and our labor remain to us, but that it will be hereafter profitable. An article that clothes nine-tenths of the civilized world at such cheap rates, and the laborers who produce it, must be regarded with interest. Destroy either the material or the labor, and what is the condition of the hundreds of millions of human beings they clothe? What the condition of the millions of poor laborers they give employment to, and supply with daily bread? What becomes of the commerce of the world, that great chain which binds the families of the earth to each other? One general ruin would overwhelm society. Revolutions in trade and society, and with it revolutions in governments, would be unavoidable. If we look for the cause of the extraordinary peace of the world for the last half century, commerce solves the mystery. If we ask what gave the impulse to commerce, we answer, chiefly cotton and its manufactures. And how such immense quantities of this has been produced at such cheap rates as to enable the peasantry of Europe, who once were ragged, not only to be clad from it, but to be fed by their labor in elaborating it into materials for the rest of mankind,-we answer, by the introduction of Africans into these states: whilst they themselves have been brought up from the depths of ignorance and degradation in which they had been buried for centuries, to a state of comparative civilization and happiness, each generation gradually advancing higher and higher. These are some of the advantages, aided by the skill and capital of the Americans, they have conferred upon mankind. At some future day it may be their destiny to be separated from the patri archal jurisdiction of those who had been so long their instructors and protectors, when they may be prepared for liberty and selfgovernment. It seems as if the hand of mercy had conducted them to this land, and placed them in the only possible condition where their mo ral and intellectual natures could be improved and cultivated. So deep had they been buried in ignorance and degradation, that they could not have mingled with the refined society of European nations, or their descendants, as equals. The relation of master and slave, as it exists here in its patriarchal character, is the only conceivable one which could elevate the Africans in the scale of intelligence and morality, while at the same time it has been the means of giving commerce and peace to the world. COTTON-METEOROLOGY, AND THE COTTON AND SUGAR CROPS. The following valuable table is taken from Affleck's Rural Almanac for 1852, and was compiled by the editor from the records of the late Dr. Tooley and G. L. C. Davis, Esq., of Natchez, and also from his own records : With the number of bales imported into Europe, from other countries; also stocks, and consumption of the United States and Europe, for ten years, ending with 1849, divided into two periods, with the aggregate and average of each five years, and the increase or decrease per cent. of one over the other. Crop of Atlantic Ports Savannah. Charleston. Virginia. North Carolina.. Atlantic ports.. Crop of Gulf Ports New-Orleans. Mobile. Florida. Texas and other ports. Gulf ports. Total crop United States Crop of India, Brazil, &c. Imp. into Europe.. Annual production.... Stocks In U. S. 1st Sept. each year.... France and the Continent, 1st Total supply.... Consumption In Great Britain. In France On the Continent. In the United States.... 1840 9,000.. 45,000.. 9,000 639,000.. 410,000.. 513,000.. 672,000. 582,000.. 2,808,000.. 564,000 407,000 128,000 954,000.. 817,000.. 737,000..1,060,009.. 832,000.. 4,000,000.. 880,000 .1,539,000. 1,225,000..1,171,000..1,708,000..1,448,000.. 7,091,000..1,418,000 473,000.. 569,000.. 545,000.. 523,000.. 511,000.. 2,621,000.. 524,000 .2,651,000..2,204,000..2,229,000..2,903,000..2,541,000. 12,528,000. 2,506,000 52,000.. 58,000.. 82,000.. 32,000.. 94,000.. 147,000.. 209,000.. 223,000.. 246,000.. 270,000.. .1,305,000..1,160,000..1,249,000..1,412,000..1,441,000.. 6,569,000..1,313,000 419,000 298,000 2,105,000..1,848,000..2,005,000..2,155,000. 2,030,000..10,150,000..2,030,000 295,000.. 297,000.. 268,000.. 325,000.. 347,900.. 1,532,000. 306,000 Consumption as per tables.....2,310,000..2,145,000..2,273,000..2,480,000..2,474,000..11,682,000. 2,336,000 Add to each year those quantities which have been ex ported to foreign ports, and not included in Tables of Consumption, but required to 4,000.. 6,000.. 9,000.. 12,000.. 17,000.. 48,000. 10,000 Total Consumption........2,314,000..2,251,000..2,282,000..2,492,000..2,491,000..11 720,000..2,346,000 Crop of Atlantic Ports Savannah Charleston. Virginia.. North Carolina. Atlantic ports.. Crop of Gulf PortsNew-Orleans. Mobile Florida Texas and other ports. Gulf ports. 1845 1847 1846 25,000.. 8,000.. 14,000.. 9,000.. 1849 Aggregate Average 391,000.. 1,376,000.. 275,000 458,000.. 1,748,000.. 350,000 18,000.. 74,000.. 15,000 10,000.. 41,000.. 8,000 760,000.. 462,000.. 613,000.. 527,000.. 877,000.. 3,239,000.. 648,000 929,000..1,041,000.. 706,000..1,191,000..1,094,000.. 4,961,000.. 992,000 517,000.. 423,000.. 323,000.. 436,000.. 519,000.. 2,218,000.. 444,000 189,000.. 141,000.. 128,000.. 154,000.. 200,000. 812.000.. 162,000 34,000.. 8,000.. 40,000.. 39,000.. 121,000.. 24,000 .1,635,000..1,639,000..1,165,000..1,827,000..1,852,000.. 8,112,000..1,622,000 760,000.. 462,000.. 613,000.. 527,000.. 877,000.. 3,239,000: 648,000 Total crop United States...2,395,000..2,101,000..1,778,000..2,348,000..2,729,000..11,351,000..2,270,000 Crop of India, Egypt, Brazil, &c., Imp. into Europe.. Annual Productlon... Stocks-* In U. S. 1st Sep. each year..... France and the Continent, 1st Jan Total Supply.. Consumption In Great Britain.. In France On the Continent. In the United States..... 461,000.. 319,000.. 481,000.. 401,000.. 538,000.. 2,200,000.. 440,000 .2,856,000..2,420,000..2,259,000..2,749,000..3,267,000..13,351,000..2,710,000 .4,117,000..3,733,000..2,982,000..3,555,000..4,024,000.. 364,000 .1,581,000..1,573,000..1,114,000..1,505,000..1,586,000.. 7,359,000..1,472,000 2,356,000..2,323.000..1,745,000..2,159,000..2,477,000..11,160,000..2,212,000 389,000.. 423,000.. 428,000.. 532,000.. 518,000.. 2,290,000.. 458,000 Consumption as per tables...2,745,000..2,746,000..2,173,000..2,691,000..2,995,000..13,350,000..2,670,000 Add to each year those quanti ties which have been exported to foreign ports, and not included in Tables of Consumption, but required to balance 50,000.. 75,000.. 115,000.. 175,000.. 246,000.. 661,000.. 132,000 Total Consumption...... .2,795,000..2,821,000..2,288,000..2,866,000..3,241,000..14,011,000..2,802,000 By comparing the first period of five years with the second period of five years, it will be seen the increase at Atlantic Ports has been 11%, at Gulf Ports, 14 per cent. The production has increased 71⁄2 per cent. The annual consumption in Great Britain has increased 12%, on the Continent 27, in the United States 50; total increase of consumption, 19% per cent. There has in the same time been a decrease of 20 per cent. of India cottons imported into Europe, and 16 per cent. in the consumption of cotton in France. J. G. HENRY, Mobile. COTTON-DISEASES OF THE PLANT AND to the same matters, of so much interest to THE REMEDIES.-When the time comes for us all, and also to attract the attention of planting another cotton crop, the mind entomologists, Iu my opinion, the diseases naturally reverts to the many diseases of the cotton plant are always attributable to and disasters which have befallen the plant the variety of insects that feed and live upon for the last ten or twelve years. In fact, its fluids, thereby causing an unhealthy cirdiseases and disasters have become so nume- culation in the plant, and blasting the prosrous, as to cause the planters to look for-pects of rich harvests. The first of disasters ward to the time when they will be com- by the insect family takes place in the pelled to cease the cultivation of cotton altogether, and pursue some other occupation. My object in this communication is to name them, and to give my planting friends my observations, hoping to obtain from them (through your Review) their views in regard spring, (in this latitude, 34o,) from the 25th of April to the 5th of May. I allude to the "cut-worms," which are frequently so numerous as to destroy whole fields of the young plant, when from five to six bushels have been sown per acre. They are also * The stocks reported 31st December, 1849, in Europe, are 646,000. To 1st September, 1849, in United States, are 155,000, making 801,000 bales. + Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Trieste, are only included here, while large quantities have been exported to other ports in the South and North of Europe |