| Noah B. Cloud and the American Cotton Planter |
| One of the Old South's most energetic promoters of improved agriculture
was Noah B. Cloud, of
Macon and Montgomery Counties, Alabama. Born in Edgefield District, South Carolina,
in 1809, he attended schools in South Carolina and trained as a physician at
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1838, three years after graduating
from medical college, he moved to Alabama. He arrived at a time when cotton
culture was coming to dominate farm and plantation activities in the state.
However, he did not move to the Lower South for the purpose of opening up a
large plantation in order to produce large cotton crops with a large force of
Negro slaves. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, he turned immediately
to a study of better farming practices, and from 1838 until his death in 1875,
he showed particular interest in the following activities, all aimed at advancing
the cause of agriculture: (1) diversification of crops, (2) improvement of soil,
(3) promotion of agricultural and other conventions and meetings, (4) establishment
of agricultural societies, (5) management of the Alabama state fair, (6) editing
his agricultural magazine, the American Cotton Planter and Soil of the South
and (7) agricultural education. As a result of these activities he established
himself, in his state and region and even in the nation, as a highly respected
and recognized leader in the American agricultural reform movement of the mid-nineteenth
century.1 |
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| Noah B. Cloud |
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| The American Cotton Planter was Cloud's most significant
contribution. The journal was begun in Montgomery, Alabama, in January,
1853. Its original circulation was less than 500; it reached a circulation
of more than 10,000 in December, 1858. Thus, with the possible exception
of the Southern Cultivator, a Georgia agricultural magazine edited
by Daniel Lee, it became the most popular periodical in the South before
the year 1860.2 There is much evidence to show
that, next to newspapers, many Southern readers preferred agricultural journals
to all forms of literature. |
| The American Cotton Planter was a beautifully printed
magazine. It was printed by the best job printer in Alabama, and was marked
by numerous and interesting illustrations. It crusaded for railroads, manufacturing,
direct trade with Europe, diversification of crops, horizontal plowing,
crop rotation, use of fertilizers, improved stock, hillside ditching, drainage,
agricultural education, Negro management and a farm press. Cloud wrote most
of the articles in the Planter during its seven years' existence,
but his journal also served as a clearing house for hundreds of correspondents,
including overseers, dirt farmers, women and planters, who advocated better
farming practices. There does not seem to be any outstanding leader of agricultural
reform in the South in the period 1853-1860 who failed to contribute to
the Planter.3 |
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| The American Cotton Planter was Cloud's most significant
contribution. The journal was begun in Montgomery, Alabama, in January, 1853.
Its original circulation was less than 500; it reached a circulation of more
than 10,000 in December, 1858. Thus, with the possible exception of the Southern
Cultivator, a Georgia agricultural magazine edited by Daniel Lee, it became
the most popular periodical in the South before the year 1860.2
There is much evidence to show that, next to newspapers, many Southern readers
preferred agricultural journals to all forms of literature. |
| The American Cotton Planter was a beautifully printed
magazine. It was printed by the best job printer in Alabama, and was marked
by numerous and interesting illustrations. It crusaded for railroads, manufacturing,
direct trade with Europe, diversification of crops, horizontal plowing, crop
rotation, use of fertilizers, improved stock, hillside ditching, drainage, agricultural
education, Negro management and a farm press. Cloud wrote most of the articles
in the Planter during its seven years' existence, but his journal also
served as a clearing house for hundreds of correspondents, including overseers,
dirt farmers, women and planters, who advocated better farming practices. There
does not seem to be any outstanding leader of agricultural reform in the South
in the period 1853-1860 who failed to contribute to the Planter.3 |
| Newspapers and journals throughout Alabama and the South lauded
Cloud and his journal from 1853 to 1861. Contemporary opinions prove without
question that Cloud was indeed significant in his field of activity and that
there existed a broad interest and support of the reforms advocated in his magazine.
In support of Cloud's projected journal, the Alabama Planter of Mobile
stated, December, 1852, "This work promises to be of incalculable value to the
southern agriculturist . . ."4 In January, 1853,
a Montgomery editor boosted Cloud's magazine by remarking, "We are pleased to
be able to state that its permanency is placed beyond all doubt, by the large
subscription list with which it has commenced, and which is daily augmenting."5
From Mobile came the suggestion that ''our people can sustain a publication
of the kind, and it is their duty to do it."6 A
Huntsville newspaper stated that the magazine was "full of instructive and useful
matter. We hope to see it succeed. Our farming friends should sustain, heartily
sustain it."7 From Montgomery it was announced,
in February, 1853, "that subscribers to the work are pouring in, and that the
indications are that it will receive a living support."8
A Prattville newspaper boasted, in March of the same year, "Each number comes
to us improved in some respect, and, we doubt not, it will ere long surpass
all other journals of the same kind published in the South." It was "obligatory,"'
added the editor, that "this noble enterprise'' be supported by the people of
Alabama.9 These sentiments were echoed from Cloud's
home county of Macon: "Dr. Cloud's valuable monthly is again upon our table.
The dish he serves up for March [1853] is by no means inferior to those to which
we set down during any of the preceding months, and the accessories are better."10 |
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| On and on went the praise for Cloud and his journal through the
years 1858 to 1861. A Montgomery editor, in extolling the journal, boasted that
"Its editor is just the man to make it the best Agricultural paper in the world."11
In April, 1853, the Southern Cultivator reported that Cloud's periodical
"may now be considered as a 'fixed fact.' It is conducted with much talent and
industry, and is well worthy of a liberal support."12
Similar good wishes came from Georgia's other significant agricultural journal,
the Soil of the South, "The Doctor [Cloud] has a widespread reputation,
and we hope [his magazine] may have a circulation fully commensurate with the
merits of his work. Success to the American Cotton Planter."13
Cloud's "valuable journal," said the Auburn Gazette, "is steadily increasing
in interest, and we hope but few of our readers are deprived of its excellent
teachings."14 Of special interest was an editorial
appearing in the Selma Reporter early in 1853: |
| The American Cotton Planter for May contains much instructive
matter. We are particularly struck with an able essay on the policy of the cotton
growing states. The writer gives a faithful picture of the gradual impoverishment
of our lands, and suggests a remedy for this and other evils. The first error
to be corrected, says he, is the planting of more land than can be cultivated,
and at the same time improved. A large portion of labor should be devoted to
ditching, draining, building, raising stock and provisions, etc., etc. Manufacturers
should be encouraged by vigorous measures. The most effective of these measures,
says the writer, would be to prohibit the further introduction of slaves except
such as might be acquired by actual residents through marriage, or such as might
be brought in by bonafide immigrants settling among us, and with the restriction
that they should not be sold or hired for a term of years, unless under process
of law. This would stop the drain of money, encourage white immigration, foster
manufactures, etc.15 |
| In its late years, as in the first year of its existence, the
American Cotton Planter and its editor received an almost unbounded support
from Southern newspapers and agricultural journals, thus indicating that the
periodical was no mere short-lived fad. In 1857, after Cloud's journal was united
with the Soil of the South, an Alabama writer advised: "Every farmer
ought to have it, if it cost $10 instead of $1. We ought to have a statute in
our penal code, making it a penitentiary offense for an Alabama planter to be
without the * Cotton Planter.' It is just as necessary to him as a good wife."16
In January, 1857, the magazine was eulogized by J. J. Hooper, editor of the
Montgomery Daily Mail: |
| We congratulate our friends on the great improvement of the work.
It is as elegant in typographical arrangement and execution as the most fastidious
could desire, the general style being far superior to that of most agricultural
periodicals; . . . Besides the good reading, its pages are embellished with
fine wood engravings, illustrative of subjects of interest to the stock and
fruit raisers! . . . Dr. Cloud informs us that subscribers pour in by hundreds,
and if the influx continues for a few weeks it will place the Planter, in point
of circulation, among the first publications of its class in the Union. Let
every man who desires to see a real progress in our section, lend it a helping
hand!17 |
| "In our estimation," says another Alabama editorial of March,
1857, Cloud's magazine "is the most valuable publication of the kind we have
ever seen, .... It is not filled as some suppose, with vague and impracticable
theories, but with practical common sense suggestions perfectly comprensible
[sic] and intellible [sic] to the most novitiate farmer."18
Since Charles A. Peabody, who was a resident of Russell County, Alabama, was
the horticultural editor, the magazine had two very "able editors."19
The journal was described in August, 1857, as "a gem, unsurpassed by any in
the Union."20 And while praising the magazine,
one editor made the following pertinent remarks: |
| It [the American Cotton Planter'] enforces the doctrine
that farmers should raise at home every thing necessary for the operations of
their farms -- leaving the cotton crop a clear profit. There can be no successful
farming unless an abundant supply of provisions be produced. Without this the
planter's machinery moves slowly and heavily. -- With poor horses and mules
-- badly fed negroes, no man can work to advantage. This must be the case if
corn has to be bought; everything is then stinted. But if large corn crops are
planted, you have fat mules and horses -- slick negroes -- fine looking cattle,
furnishing plenty of milk and butter, and also plenty of fat hogs. It won't
do for planters to raise cotton to buy mules and horses, and hogs, and flour
and oxen, etc. Try it and you will soon find out.21 |
| Many articles from the American Cotton Planter were reprinted
in newspapers and in magazines, which means that Cloud's journal was quite influential
both in his own state and elsewhere in the South. Abundantly supplied with excerpts
from the journal in some instances were such Alabama newspapers as the Sumter
County Whig of Livingston, the Huntsville Democrat, the Macon
Republican of Tuskegee, and the Greensboro Alabama Beacon. These
and other state newspapers sometimes literally filled their pages with reprints
of articles and illustrations from the American Cotton Planter.22
Three North Carolina agricultural magazines that frequently quoted at length
from Cloud's journal were the Arator, the Farmer's Journal, and
the North Carolina Planter and the editor of the South Carolina publication,
The Farmer and Planter, also was a regular patron.23
DeBow's Review of New Orleans and the Southern Cultivator carried
scores of articles that appeared originally in the American Cotton Planter.24 |
| Cloud deserved his excellent reputation as a promoter of agricultural
reform. As much as any man in the South, and perhaps in the United States, he
warranted the compliment in 1859 that he was one "of the old veterans in the
cause of our country's salvation . . . ,"25 A little
newspaper in Alabama also remarked, December, 1860, that "Dr. Cloud's agricultural
and horticultural monthly, . . . still holds its place among the agricultural
works of the country. The Doctor is one of the most enterprising men to be found
anywhere, and the pages of his work give evidence of the fact."26
If he had accomplished nothing else, his skilled editorship of his magnificent
agricultural journal would have been more than enough to warrant the conclusion
that he was one of the outstanding advocates of economic reform in the antebellum
South. |
| Cloud's other special interest was the Alabama State Fair, which,
in his capacity as Secretary of the Alabama Agricultural Society, he managed
from 1855 through 1860. The following description was written by a visitor to
the 1856 fair: |
| We half wish that the Fair was an 'established institution' ...
always in progress like the Court of Chancery, always open and that we might
always be there. It was no pageant . . . but a most interesting, elevating,
inspiring exhibition a social reunion a great popular holiday ... It was a scene
to be daguerreotyped on the heart of humanity to be 'set in a historical frame
work' full of suggestions to a thoughtful patriot. There we were, old and young
politicians, merchants, lawyers, doctors, farmers men, women and children priest,
editors and people rich and poor city bred and 'sun burnt sicklemen,' pedagogue
and pedlar buoyant, impulsive, generous youth and bright, innocent, radiant,
fresh blown, blushing beauty; . . . There, too, were widow and widower, with
wink and wile the young bachelor and the old young maid. There we were, all,
and all delighted.27 |
| Cloud, himself, wrote that the fair was on the side of science
and against "old fogyism" and "stupid opposition" to improved agriculture.28
Concerning the work of the state agricultural society, he reported to the United
States Commissioner of Patents in 1858: |
| The most important benefit resulting from our Society is the
spirit of land improvement, by 'horizontalizing' and fertilizing, which is prevalent
among our planters. Stock is also better, horses, mules, milch cows, and superior
breeds of swine. We are giving much attention to diversifying our crops, combining
to a proper extent farming, grazing and stock purposes, with planting. An evident
and large increase has been exhibited in all our agricultural products for the
last few years.29 |
| Alabama did indeed make some noteworthy agricultural accomplishments
during the 1850's. The acreage of improved farm land increased from 4,435,614
in 1850 to 6,385,724 in 1860, and the value of farms rose from $64,323,224 to
$175,824,622. Among the 33 states in 1860, Alabama ranked second in cotton production,
third in sweet potatoes, fifth in domestic manufactures, seventh in peas and
beans, ninth in corn, and tenth in value of livestock and slaughtered animals.30
She was by no means self-sufficient, but she was making progress in that direction. |
| If Cloud had died during the Civil War, he would very possibly
be remembered as a state hero; but since he lived for a decade after 1865 and
became a Scalawag, he died something of a scamp in the eyes of many Alabamians.
His politics were not altogether unusual, however, and it is more than likely
that what he did after 1865 he did for what he considered the good of his state.
The modern Southerner does not consider all Scalawags to have been dishonest.
Cloud's politics are not hard to understand; he acted as did many other men
of his generation. Before the Civil War he was an active member of the Whig
party and he was also a Unionist, but at the same time he was a Southerner,
which he showed by serving as a Confederate surgeon during the Civil War. After
the War he affiliated with the Republican party in Alabama, thus becoming a
Scalawag. |
| Still very much interested in promoting Alabama's agricultural
and industrial resources, he corresponded frequently with the United States
Commissioner of Agriculture. He also wrote a series of newspaper articles entitled
"The Industrial Resources of Alabama," thereby helping to create a Commission
of Industrial Resources. He sponsored immigration to Alabama, and became the
state's first Commissioner of Immigration. Continuing his long-time interest
in public education, he won election as State Superintendent of Education in
1868. Two years later he was elected to the Republican state legislature, where
he reiterated his earlier support of an agricultural and mechanical college,
this time under the provisions of the Morrill Act. He lived to see the establishment
of A. and M. College at Auburn, Alabama, in 1872.31
As a promoter of agriculture, he unquestionably did more for the good of his
state than any of his contemporaries. |
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