240 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



look upon me as an old acquaintance, from knowing me 

 aa a writer, and I have made a great many pleasant ac- 

 quaintances, and been treated with a great deal of kind- 

 ness, attention and hospitality, which is all very agree- 

 able, but not so much so as it would be to be once more 

 at home with you all in our happy and comfortable home. 

 But my sheet is full and I must close. I am your affec- 

 tionate father, Solon Robinson. 



What Does it Cost a Pound to Grow Cotton? 



[Weekly National Intelligencer, June 9, 1849'] 



[June 4, 1849] 



This is a question of vast importance to the United 

 States. Who can answer it? Not one in ten of those 

 that make it their staple crop, I venture to say ; for cotton 

 planters are as careless in this respect as though they 

 were conducting a business of cents and dimes, instead 

 of dollars and eagles. 



I therefore propose to give you an extract from my 

 notes, which I have been taking during my extensive 

 agricultural tour the past winter and spring, not only to 

 show the character of the information that I have been 

 gathering, but in the hope that it may induce others to 

 come out and give more and better information, or point 

 out any errors in my statements. 



The cost of making 331,136 pounds of cotton last year 

 upon one of the best plantations of South Carolina was 



* This article was reprinted in the Report of the Commissioner of 

 Patents, 1849, pt. 2:309-12, which characterized the estimates as 

 "defective and erroneous," but provocative of further study. An 

 article on "Prospects of the Cotton Planters," De Bow's Review, 

 7:434-37 (November, 1849), summarizes it together with a criti- 

 cism from the Columbia South Carolinian. According to the latter, 

 Robinson's estimate of capital was incorrect and his interpretation 

 of the figures unfair and inconsistent. They reckoned the profit on 

 Colonel Williams' place as "about 12 ^/^ per cent, on his capital, and 

 that too with the price of cotton placed as low as six cents iii 

 Charleston." The article was also reprinted, in part, in The Plough, 

 the Loom, and the Anvil, 2:7 (July, 1849). 



