248 



are much improved. Fields are much cleaner than at this date last 

 year, and can easily be kept free from weeds. With favorable weather, 

 rapid improvement is certain and a fair comparison with July quite pro- 

 bable at the next report. 



The returns are so similar in tenor that unnecessary repetition in ex- 

 tracts will be avoided. In Xorth Carolina the complaint is general of 

 slow germination, on account of cool, dry weather. The soil has been 

 cloddy, rendering cultivation difticult and imperfect. The stand is better 

 in States farther south, where planting was general before the Ajiril 

 rains. In some counties the plant has come up quite evenly. In Greene 

 County the stand is the best for several years. There was a frost in 

 Craven on the 9th of May sufficient to kill cotton. The improvement 

 has been very satisfactory during this month and the last week of May. 

 Fields are generally chopped out reasonably clean, and in good condition 

 to make the most of growing weather. 



The stand in South Carolina is not uniform in different localities, and 

 there is wide difference in reports of condition. Eains in May brought 

 up replanting in Edgefield, and late seeding has been successful in 

 Georgetown, on the coast. The stand is poor in Union, Beaufort, Barn- 

 well, Chester, York, and Richland. In Laurens one-fourth of the spaces 

 were unfilled on the 1st of June ; plants were dying out in Newberry ; in 

 York the cotton planted since May 4 was not half up ; and there was 

 the worst stand for years in Marlborough. The crop is late, but promis- 

 ing, in Marion. Early planting was injured by cold rains and frost, 

 especially that of April 29. 



The reports from Georgia are full of complaints of the drowning- 

 out of cotton in April by overflow of bottoms and saturating and pack- 

 ing the soil of uplands, making replanting generally necessary. These 

 rains continued till ai)out the 5th of May, ceasing then entirely, the 

 ground becoming so dry that new seed germinated very slowly, and in 

 some cases not until the coming of the showers of June, if at all. There 

 was some difficulty in obtaining seed to plant, and some of that used 

 may have been deficient in vitality. Some plants came up freely, and 

 afterward withered and died. It would have been better, in the opinion of 

 some correspondents, not to have planted till May. The planters have 

 been incessant in efforts to repair damages and secure the required area 

 in culture. The quantity of commercial fertilizers used in Georgia 

 this year is evidently less than for several years past, and labor is 

 aomewhat cheaper. The later reports are more promising ; seasonable 

 showers, with increasing heat, has given the crop a start indicative of 

 rapid improvement. Returns relative to cotton were received from fifty - 

 nine counties of Georgia. 



The stand is better in Florida than in neighboring States. The 

 weather was mild until April, when cold rains became frequent, gene- 

 rally with high winds or hail. For a time the plants felt the effects of 

 these unfavorable changes, but have largely recovered, and now begin 

 to look quite promising. Some correspondents say there is fall- about 

 increase of supplies and decrease of cotton, but think there will be little 

 change. In Madison there is less cotton and also less corn. With an 

 absence of worms and equinoctial gales, or similar causes of loss, corres- 

 pondents are hopeful of a good har^-est. Much of the first planting was 

 destroyed by floods and cold, saturating rains. The replanting was at 

 first favored by dry weather, afterward retarded by continued drought, 

 and the germination was very slow in the baked, indurated soil. 



Mississippi reports conditions similar to those affecting the crop of 

 Georgia and Alabama; the same rains in April, frost the last two nights 



