opean
population, and I do not know but what the people in
Massachusetts will insist upon it that they are as young and
as vigorous as anybody.

Mr. PUGH. I have no doubt. I saw a great many very old
people there.

The WITNESS. I merely mentioned this because I wanted to do
away with the impression which generally exists that the
Southern States are very unhealthy.

Mr. PUGH. I have no doubt that what you state is true as a
general fact.

The WITNESS. Now, to bear out the assertion which I made
that the prosperity of the negroes began to increase with
the cessation of race issues in the South, which has been so
apparent to me that I can almost mark the time that it
began, look at the cotton crop that is being made to a great
extent by small farmers; look at the increase of the cotton
crop in the different States in the last few years. For
instance, take Georgia: in 1870 she made 473,934 bales of
cotton; in 1880 she made 814,441, an increase of 75 per
cent. Alabama in 1870 produced 429,482 bales; and in 1880
699,654, an increase of 62 per cent. Mississippi in 1870
produced 564,938 bales; in 1880 she produced 955,808 bales,
an increase of 69 per cent.

Here is a very significant fact also with regard to the
condition of our laborers in the South, and it shows one of
the disadvantages we have had to labor under. During the
war, and from the results of the war, nearly all of our
live stock was destroyed, a great portion of it was
destroyed, which left us after the war without the means of
raising our own meat and such supplies at home, and took
away from the South a great portion of our wealth, for we
know that cattle, hogs &c., increase in arithmetical
progress. If you have a hog, this year she bears so many
pigs, and in a couple of years those pigs bear so many, and
so on. But we were left without live stock. I have here a
table which shows, even under those difficulties, the
increase in that respect in the Southern States of live
stock. These are very significant figures. It is entirely an
accident that I happened to get hold of them last night. The
live stock of New York in 1870 was 5,286,421; in 1880,
5,422,238, an increase of 2 per cent. In Pennsylvania it was
4,484,748 in 1870; in 1880, 5,255,204, an