360 
EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
COTTON. 
Duplin county, North Carolina.—To sum up the results of this year’s oper- 
ations, we have two-thirds enough corn for next year’s consumption ; one-half to 
two-thirds of our cotton crop goes to pay for fertilizers, and the balance is due 
our laborers. Cause—heavy rains, indifferent tillage, and too great eagerness to 
make money, the high price of cotton last spring having induced our planters to 
limit the breadth of land in corn and peas to barely sufficient under favorable cir- 
cumstances to furnish a supply for home consumption, and to increase the acreage 
of cotton 100 to 150 per cent. At present prices (eleven to fourteen cents per 
pound, net) we cannot grow cotton here, and two-thirds of the farmers of this 
county cannot pay expenses this year. 
Wake county, North Carolina.—Cotton does not pay expenses here this year. 
Planters are arranging for next year to plant only two-thircs of a crop, and pay 
only two-thirds of present wages to laborers. 
Bertie county, North Carolina—The decrease in our cotton crop is one-half 
as compared with last year, though the staple is longer. 
Beaufort county, North Carolina —The yield of cotton worse than was expect- 
ed, so many bolls were shed before maturity, 
Jones county, North Carolina.—It is the opinion of intelligent farmers in this 
and adjoining counties that the yield of cotton will be above that of last year’s 
crop in quantity, but with less yield per acre, as there was larger acreage than 
last year. 
Abbeville county, South Carolina.—Cotton is good, and will yield more than 
an average crop to the acres planted, but owing to the diminished acreage it will 
not reach the average crop before the war. The usual average of cotton in the 
seed to the acre is from 350 to 410 pounds. This year I put it at 500 pounds, 
or 130 pounds of lint to the acre. Since the decline in price the tax is felt to be 
oppressive, and if not removed or modified will greatly diminish the production 
another year. 
Carroll county, Georgia.—The cotton crop has been seriously injured by the 
rust, but the deficiency will not be large, so favorable has been the fall for gath- 
ering. The crop was gathered unusually early. The caterpillars did little harm. 
Spaulding county, Georgia. —Our yield of cotton per acre will, in my opinion, 
exceed that of any season since 1847 and 1848, or even the crop of 1839. ‘The 
weather has been favorable for gathering the staple as fast as it opened, conse- 
quently the quality is good; but many planters injure the lint in ginning too 
rapidly with gins that are filed too sharp. 
Newton county, Georgia—The season has been very favorable for gathering 
cotton, and we hope to make an average crop in this county. The tax imposed 
by government upon this staple, together with the uncertainty of labor, will 
doubtless discourage many from continuing its culture. 
Bibb county, Georgia—The cotton crop, though large, will not be remunera- 
tive to the planter, as the heavy tax and excessive prices of bacon, corn, and 
mules will more than absorb the crop. 
Greene county, Georgia.—We have been blessed by a kind Providence this 
year. I will make the largest crop of corn and cotton made in ten years. Some 
of my cotton is over six feet high, and so loaded with bolls that it is so tangled 
and laying on the ground that it is almost impossible to pass through it. 
Giles county, Tennessee—We have had an unusually fine autumn for gath- 
ering cotton, which in this section is very fine. Relieve us of the onerous cotton 
tax, and let our farm operations quiet down, and we will go on prospering, and 
soon repair the ravages of the late devastating civil war. There is a general 
inquiry for labor-saving machines and implements, better stock, seeds, &c. 
