EEPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



119 



80. There is muoli worn land in this State, but the central canebrake 

 district is scarcely 8uri)assed as a cotton-iield. Mississippi is credited 

 with a rate of yitild for 1876 almost identical with the general average. 

 In 18G0 this State produced nearly one-fourth of the entire crop ; in 1876 

 its proportion is one-sirth, grown on one-sixth of the total acreage ; 

 and this area, in natural fertility, represeats fairly the average fertility 

 of the aggregate, being made up in part of the very fertile bottoms of 

 the Mississippi and Yazoo, and the rotten limestone soils of the counties 

 of Warren and Hinds, together with the less productive uplands of the 

 southern and eastern portions of the State. 



The wonderfully productive alluvion of the Eed and Ouachita Rivers, 

 and the never-failing richness of the Arkansas bottoms, give to the 

 present area cultivated in Louisiana and Arkansas a high rate of yield ; 

 and the seleci;ed virgin soils of Texas are of equal productiveness. South 

 Carolina and Georgia have more of partially exhausted soil, of lower 

 natural fertility, which, without fertilization and good culture, would 

 not average a fourth of a bale to the acre. Under present management 

 they average nearly a third of a bale. The Korth Carolina returns of 

 yield for the past ten years have been quite uniformly higher than 

 those of the other Atlantic States.* 



The comparative importance of the several States in cotton-production 

 seems not to be well understood. The commercial distribution by cotton 

 ports leaves in the obscure background the view of production by States. 

 The progress of this industry, like that of most others in this corntry, 

 is westward. In 1849 Alabama stood in the front rank, with 22.8 per 

 cent, of the crop, and Georgia ranked next, with Mississippi following 

 closely. Scarcely an eighth of the crop was produced west of the Mis- 

 sissippi. 



In 1869 about three- tenths of the product came from beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi. North Carolina had declined from 2.9 to 2.7 per cent., South 

 Carolina had fallen from 12 to 6.4, and Georgia from 19.8 to 13. Louis- 

 iana had advanced from 7.2 to 14.4, and Arkansas from 2.2 to 6.8. At 

 the present time more than three-eighths of the crop is grown west of 

 the Mississippi, Texas making rapid strides, evidently destined in 1877 

 to lead the column of cotton States. Some have hastily assumed that 

 Texas already equals Mississippi in production, and that Arkansas and 

 Louisiana stand on nearly the same level ; but there is no evidence that 

 the difference between 18.7 and 8.2 (in Mississippi and Arkansas) has 

 been annihilated in seven years. The following statement gives the 

 percentages of the crop produced by each State, as deduced from the 

 census, with the estimated proportion in 1876 : 



Statea. 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina 



Georgia 



Florida ... 



Alabama. 



1849. 1859. 1869. 1876, 



2.9 

 12 

 19.8 



l.Ol 

 22.8 



2.7 

 6.4 



13 

 1.24 



18.3 



4.8 

 7.4 



15.7 

 1.3 



14 



4.7 

 7.0 



11.4 

 1.13 



12 



statea. 



1849. 1859. 1869. 1876. 



Mississippi 19. 5 



Louisiaua 7.2 



Texas 2.3 



Arkansas 2. 2 



Tennessee 7.8 



22.3 

 14.4 

 8 



6.8 

 5.5 



18.7 

 11.6 

 11.6 



17.1 

 12.5 

 15.5 

 11.3 



5.8 



While the rate of yield is sustained in the East by fertilization, it is 

 still kept up in the West by opening fresh land. On the whole, it is evi- 



* Our Beaufort correspondent says : " The number of acres in cotton in 1876 waa 

 12,000. Tlie average product is one-half bale to the acre. One-half of all the land 

 planted averages three-fourths of a bale. That which fell under one-half bale consti- 

 tuted but a small part of the area planted. I have a personal knowledge of more than 

 twenty farms, and only one of them fell under one-half bale ; most of them produced 

 from two-thirds to three-fourths of a bale per acre, and the season was decidedly 

 unfavorable. One-half bale per acre gives 12,000 acres planted." 



