Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/350

334 20,000 bales of cotton per annum. It is variously estimated that the difference in cost of a bale of cotton, 490 lbs., between the mills in Augusta, Ga., and Fall River, Mass., is from $4 to $6 a bale. Assume the lowest estimate of $4 a bale, and you have 20,000 times 4, or $80,000, in favor of the Augusta mill, or a saving of 10 per cent on the complete cost of the mill in cotton alone. (C. R. Makepeace.)

This is a mathematical demonstration in favor of the South, of a splendid profit before starting in manufacturing, provided skilled labor is obtained. The premises, too, are not well taken in the reason given to bolster up the Northern mills. The labor in the Southern mills is cheaper for the same grade of skill than that of the employes in Northern mills, and is becoming more and more skilled, and equal to the turning out of the finest products. The mills are now yearly increasing their output in this direction, and adding the necessary machinery for the finer products, and all new mills are equipped with the latest and best machinery. The climate, too, is demonstrating the economic values in its effect on material, and the less expense in heating buildings owing to the milder temperature.

In its other crops the South has made great strides. She has more than doubled her grain crops, as well as cotton, since 1870. The percentage of gain in corn has been greater than that of any other section of the whole country. In corn, cotton, wheat, oats, potatoes and other crops, the South in 1889 increased their value $25,000,000 over what it was in 1879. The agricultural products of the South amounted to about $850,000,000 in 1889. She increased the value of her live stock in the decade $177,747,296. Stock is fed at the South at a profit in saving winter shelter and feed, covering at least from three to four months, owing to the climate and longer grazing.

In foreign commerce, the South got one-half of the