123 



liave been made : Wheat, 126,000 bushels ; barley, 19,000 bushels ; oats, 9,000 bushels ; 

 dried peaches, 160,000 pounds. Total value, $175,200. Iron : We have a store on the 

 co-operative plan, owned by the people, in shares of $25 each, aud which declared a 

 dividend of 25 per cent, last year. We also have a co-operative stock-raising company, 

 with a dividend of 50 per cent; also, a co-operative sheep-herd, which has declared a 

 dividend of .50 per cent. A co-operative tannery is also in operation. All these asso- 

 ciations are of vast benefit to the people aud have saved them thousands of dollars, 

 aud they have also kept us out of the clutches of rapacious middle men and specula- 

 tors. Morgan : We have a co-operative mercantile company, embracing mechanics as 

 well as farmers, for the purpose of disposing directly of our produce, aud purchasing 

 our goods, implements, and machinery wholesale. 



Dakota. — Lincoln : Nothing has been made from co-operation in selling products, but 

 in purchasing supplies about 10 per cent, has been saved. Two flouriug-mills have 

 been put in operation during the past season. They will flour about one-fourth of the 

 wheat raised in the county during the past season. Bon Homme: Two flouring-mills 

 have lately been brought into the county, but not yet completed. 



QUALITY OF THE GOTTON-CROP. 



A special circular, addressed to our regular corps of correspondeuts 

 in the cotton States, intended mainly to obtain the local views of plant- 

 ers as to quality of the fiber of the last crop, causes of injury, and in- 

 cidentally other peculiarities of the season, makes the following inqui- 

 ries: 



1. At what date did picking commence in your county, and what 

 date would you fix as an average for a series of years ? How much 

 later (or earlier) the last year ? 



2. At what date did the first killing frost occur this season, and what 

 is the average date for the recurrence of such frosts ? 



3. At what date did the cotton caterpillar make its appearance! 



4. What is the quality of the fiber in comparison with an average 

 quality, aud what the cause and character of injury of that which is 

 injured ? What portion of the different grades ? 



The responses have been very general, including a large portion of 

 the cotton-growing area. It was not expected that there would be 

 either a uniform or accurate classification, which might perhaps be 

 better reported by commission-merchants of the several cotton-markets,* 

 but the peculiarities of the cotton of different localities, and their vari- 

 ous causes of damage to the fiber, can oulj^ be properly set forth by the 

 planters themselves. 



In analyzing these returns the idea is forced upon one's attention 

 that the cotton-planters, like the average fruit-grower, dairyman, or 

 other rural specialist, loses immensely by lack of system and thorough- 

 ness, as well in culture as in preparation for market. It is easily dem- 

 onstrable that immense sums could be saved by a slight elevation of 

 the standard of skill and care in lucking and ginning. At present low 

 prices little more than half a cent per i^ound would make ten millions of 

 dollars in a crop of four million bales. A great difference in grades is 

 inevitable, but it is easy to increase the proportion of the high grades. 

 A glance at this variety, aud the difference in prices, as shown by the 

 last quotations in the Kew Orleans market, will illustrate this view : 

 Low ordinary, 8^ to 9J cents ; ordinary, 10| to 11^ cents ; strict ordin- 

 ary, llf to 11|^ cents ; good ordinary, 13 to 13^ cents ; strict good or- 

 dinary, 13^ to 14 cents; low middling, 14^ to 14f cents ; strict low mid- 

 dling, 15 to 151 cents ; middling, 15^ to l5| cents; strict middling, 15^ 

 to IG cents ; good middling, 16J to 17 cents. 



