Selma is the center of the rich cotton-growing belt of Alabama, and the lands there are probably unequaled by any to the eastward, and by only the Mississippi and Red River lands on the west. But this temper of the inhabitants caused Northern investors some anxiety. The better classes were, undoubtedly, anxious that Northern capital and skill should be thrown into cotton cultivation; and were ready to welcome every respectable Northerner who came among them. But the baser sort also abounded. With no pecuniary or political interests to risk, and still full of the feeling that made the Selma ladies walk out of their way to avoid Colonel McGee’s flag, there was reason to apprehend petty outbreaks of malignity against Yankee incomers, which had to be taken into account in any calculations about the openings there for Northern enterprise.
All agree that the negroes would do more for the Yankees than for anybody else. The disposition of respectable Rebels was equally encouraging. They had been fairly whipped in fight; they frankly acknowledged it, and desired, above all things, to go to work and repair their shattered fortunes. Capital and enterprise they wanted among them, and would gladly receive from any quarter. But officers shook their heads if asked whether, when military protection was removed, Northerners would be secure from annoyance from the more vicious classes.
Lands were not so freely advertised for sale as about Montgomery, but there was the same disposition either to sell or rent. A treasury agent mentioned to a few friends his purpose to go into the land agency business. In a day or two he had twelve plantations put into his hands, to be sold at fixed prices, ranging from seven to fourteen dollars per acre. Before the war these lands were valued at from fifty to a hundred dollars. A few miles out from Selma was a large plantation, three thousand two hundred acres in extent, one thousand eight hundred acres cleared land, of the kind they call cane-brake, or prairie, the very best for cotton in Alabama. On this plantation were the entire stock and equipment for its cultivation—sixty or seventy mules, two hundred head of cattle, corn enough for next year’s feeding, large droves of hogs, etc. The planter was anxiously seeking for a buyer for land, stock, and everything, at sixty thousand dollars. Estimating the grain and live stock at current rates, this would leave the land at a valuation of ten dollars an acre. The run from the North was mainly for smaller plantations than this, and the prices on them had advanced considerably. Two months earlier the average price of all lands there was a third less.
The productiveness of all these lands seemed to be systematically overstated. Throughout the rich cotton-growing regions of Alabama, planters always assured me that their prime lands would, with careful cultivation, yield an average of a bale to the acre. But strict inquiries as to results actually realized, failed to show an average of more than two-thirds of a bale. Then it cost from three to ten dollars per bale to get the crop down to New Orleans.
Northern men were pressing in rapidly. Many officers were in Selma in November, arranging for pretty heavy operations; and soldiers who had gone home, talked about returning to lease small plantations. General McArthur, of Illinois, had leased five in Central Alabama. Generals Charles and William R. Woods, of Ohio, were getting some; so were Colonel Gere, of Iowa, and a number of others. Their plan was to rent at three to five dollars an acre, one-third down and the remainder payable 1st January, 1867. Then they hire, at liberal salaries, competent overseers for each plantation. In this mode of operating, everything, of course, depends on skillful management. I should judge it a splendid opening for careless men to lose money.
West of this region, on the Tombigbee, New Orleans capitalists began to come in. A purchase of five thousand acres, in one tract, had just been made by a New Orleans sugar-planter, in company with a former Tribune correspondent. Another company, composed of New Orleans gentlemen, proposed to run five or six plantations; and others were beginning likewise to extend their operations in this direction.
But these were the speculations of moneyed men. The South had its speculations to offer for small farmers as well as for capitalists. With reasonable prudence and skill, they might hope to realize at least double as much as could be expected from an investment of the same amount of capital in farming at the North. Scores of plantations, averaging from one to four hundred acres of arable lands, could be bought or leased, at prices not generally exceeding fifteen dollars per acre for purchase, or four dollars for lease. Purchases were made in cash; leases were paid either quarterly or one-third down, and the rest at the end of the year’s work.
A Northern farmer, himself working in the fields with his hands, could probably make the crop on a hundred acres with six hired negroes, depending upon subsequently hiring a few more to help pick it out. His account, then, would stand somehow thus:
| 100 acres yield, say 60 bales of 500 pounds each, at 25c | $7,500 | |
| Deduct hire of six negroes, at $15 per month | $1,080 | |
| Deduct food for same, say half as much | 540 | |
| Deduct food for six mules, say | 400 | |
| Deduct incidentals, say | 300 | |
| 2,320 | ||
| $5,180 |
The farmer could afford, out of this, to pay four dollars per acre for his lease, and still have a handsome year’s earnings left.