PAPERS ON GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 229 



in town (Carbondale), so in the autumn, the place had 

 very much the appearance of a southern town, for the 

 cotton was everywhere, and the bales were piled upon 

 the depot platform ready for shipment. The price was 

 high, money was plenty, and business lively ." It is 

 quite probable that more than one-half of the 1,125,396 

 dollars worth of cotton shipped from Illinois in 1865 was 

 shipped from Carbondale. For a few years after the 

 Civil War cotton continued to be one of the leading 

 money crops in several southern Illinois counties ; but as 

 the South gradually recovered from the war, cotton 

 growing increased, prices grew less and Illinois being 

 unable to compete with the southern cotton grower, the 

 industry gradually declined and finally ceased entirely 

 about 1910 or soon thereafter. 



REVIVAL OF COTTOX GROWING IX 1923 AND 1924 



Perhaps at no time in the history of Illinois has more 

 been said and done to revive cotton growing in this state 

 than has been the case in the last two years. Bankers, 

 farm advisers, lawyers, merchants, farmers and others 

 have been persistently advocating the possibilities of cot- 

 ton production, particularly in the counties of Pulaski, 

 Alexander, Union, Massac, and Johnson. Bankers and 

 lawyers have visited the southern cotton growing states 

 to study how best to start the industry. Experienced 

 cotton men from the South, and the national government 

 have been brought to these counties where large and 

 enthusiastic meetings with prospective growers have 

 been held. At these meetings such questions as these 

 have been discussed: the time to plant cotton, the type 

 of soils, the best kinds of cotton for southern Illinois, 

 manner of preparing seed bed and of cultivating cotton, 

 the amount one man can plant, cultivate and pick, and 

 finally how and when best to pick and how to sell the 

 crop. 



CHIEF CAUSES THAT HAVE PRODUCED THIS REVIVAL 



Chief of the causes that have contributed to this 

 renewed interest in cotton growing is the destruction due 



8 Xewsome, E. "Historical Sketches of Jackson Co. 111.," Page 124. 



