233 



THE BEST COTTOX SECTIONS -NO. 1 



iMISSISSIPPI. 



Mississippi is the central State of the cotton belt. It probably has a some- 

 what larger proportion of good cotton lands than any other. Alabama will come 

 next in order. In 1850 the latter State stood first in production, yielding 564,429 

 bales. Georgia held the second rank, with 499,091 bales; while Mississippi 

 followed, Avith 484,292 bales. In ten years the third became first, distancing 

 by a long stride all competition, and throwing upon the market 1,202,507 bales, 

 thus contributing almost one-fourth of the cotton crop of the United States, at 

 a period when the aggregate was more than double the quantity produced in 1850. 



These figures indicate natural advantages, which attracted immigration and 

 stimulated enterprise, aside from the accident of centrality, which naturally 

 tended to arrest the steps of the westw^ard-going emigrant. But it is not neces- 

 sary to rely upon theory or speculation. Much of the northern and all of the 

 western portion of the State north of Yicksburg is alluvion. The broad and 

 practically bottomless Mississippi bottoms, between the great river and the Ya- 

 zoo, have scarcely one-fourth of their area open to cultivation. Hundreds of 

 thousands of acres of the best lands of America are here found still in the 

 wilderness. Here Avas the widest portion of the inland sea which once occupied 

 the lower valley of the ]\Iississippi. Its exceeding fiituess is Nile-like, without 

 the aridity of Egypt. Its soil resembles in fineness the ocean's bed, and is en- 

 riched by the opulence of the sea and the munificence of the land in the dead 

 organisms of former prolific and vigorous life, which furnish in abundance the 

 lime and potash and other elements which cotton requires. 



The Yazoo, the Big Black, and the Tombigbee furnish scarcely inferior cotton 

 lands; and the uplands of Hinds, Madison, and Warren counties — the "rotten 

 limestone" section of the State — are unsurpassed for cotton lands of this grade, and 

 unequalled, except by the canebrake lands of central Alabama. 



Other States boast sections of equal fertility, as the river lands of Louisiana 

 and Arkansas, especially a wide area on Red river, and the lands of central Ala- 

 bama and portions of Texas; but for extent of acreage of superior soil, in pro- 

 portion to total area, Mississippi must be accorded the position as the Illinois of 

 the southwest. Yet there is much sandy and comparatively poor soil in the 

 southern and southeastern sections of the State, 



As an evidence of the fertility of the Mississippi bottoms, some facts, as elicited 

 by the last census, may be given concerning Issaquena county, lying north of 

 Vicksburg. Throughout the south, it should be noted, the amount of acreage of 

 improved lands in farms, compared with the products of such county, affords little 

 criterion for an accurate estimate of comparative fertility. There may be a hun- 

 dred thousand acres improved, yet less than half actually in cultivation in any 

 one year. Year by year patches, sections of fields, neglected, half cultivated, or 

 abandoned, grow up in broom sedge or pines, or other wild but vigorous growths. 

 But there are certain sections of cotton country, practically inexhaustible in 

 fertility and convenient of access, that rarely lie fallow. Issaquena affords a fine 

 illustration. With only 56,596 acres improved, it yielded 41,170 bales of cot- 

 ton, besides corn and other products. Yazoo, a rich county, boasting more cotton 

 than any other in the State, had 179,288 acres, and produced 64,679 bales. 



An examination of the statistics of Issaquena will afford practical data for cal- 

 culation of the amount of stock, implements, and labor necessary for cotton- 

 planting, after making proper allowances for changes in the status of labor, in 

 implements, &c. At least it will greatly assist in such calculation. 



