COTTON. 389 



age product per acre of any county in the cotton States (0.95 of a bale), and stands second in 

 total production within the State. It will be noted that East Carroll corners upon Washing 

 ton county, Mississippi, and adjoins Chicot county, Arkansas; both representing maxima of 

 production in their respective States. We have here, apparently, the center of maximum 

 cotton production on natural soils in the United States, and probably in the world. 



The average product per acre in the uplands of Louisiana is approximately half of that 

 of the lowlands (0.41); and as the average for the State is 0.59, it follows that somewhat 

 more than half the acreage in cotton belongs to the uplands, while the lowlands yield nearly 

 two-thirds of the entire amount. This predominance of lowland cotton explains the higher 

 average product per acre in Louisiana, as compared with Mississippi, where less than one- 

 third of the cotton production comes from the Yazoo bottom-lands. Within the cotton-grow 

 ing region proper, the average production is approximately 0.95 of a bale per inhabitant; 

 but as this figure excludes the entire population of the city of New Orleans, so largely inter 

 ested in cotton, it is not fairly comparable with the proportion existing in other States. If 

 one-half of the population of the city be taken as mainly interested in cotton, the per capita 

 proportion would stand 0.80 bale. 



The great State of Texas stands third in the list of total production, while first in popu 

 lation, among the cotton States. The fact shown by the figures of acreage and total produc 

 tion, viz., that in the average product per acre it stands eleventh in rank (0.37), will be a 

 surprise to most persons, and is doubtless in part to be accounted for as an accident of the 

 season, the year 1879 having been an unusually dry one, and therefore especially unfavorable 

 to a country in which so large a proportion of the staple is grown on upland soils. Among 

 these, the heavy black prairie soils, so highly productive in favorable seasons, are notoriously 

 the first to suffer from drought. It is probable that in ordinary seasons the average product 

 per acre in Texas would approach more nearly that of Mississippi or South Carolina. 



A discussion of the returns shows that 52 per cent, of the cotton product of Texas is 

 grown in the northeastern portion of the State, north of the thirty-second parallel and east of 

 the ninety-eighth meridian, and that within this region the production is highest in the coun 

 ties adjoining Red river, the product averaging 0.54 bale per acre. Southward of the thirty- 

 second parallel the average yield is 0.34 bale per acre. The coast counties produce but little 

 cotton; inland, between Red river and San Antonio, about 35 per cent, of the total product 

 is grown on black prairie land, the average product per acre on such land being (in 1879) 

 0.34 bale per acre. A comparison of the returns of the present census with those of the pre 

 ceding one shows that within the last decade the region of cotton production has extended 75 

 miles to westward. On the south but very little cotton is grown south and west of the Nueces 

 river. 



Compared to the area of fertile lands susceptible of cotton culture, the present cotton 

 acreage of Texas is almost insignificant. 



The cases of the two Carolinas, with respect to cotton prodiiction, are nearly alike, and 

 may as well be considered together. In both States the average cotton product per acre is 

 high as compared with that of Georgia and Alabama, and, in the case of North Carolina, 

 approaches that of Mississippi itself. Without entering into details on the subject of the 

 distribution of cotton production in these States, it may be broadly stated that the culture of 

 cotton is reported to have greatly extended of late, even up the slopes of the Blue Ridge 

 itself. Among the causes leading to this gratifying result, reports received show that the 

 use of fertilizers, and, with it, better methods of culture, are foremost. 



In other words, these two members of the original union of thirteen States have been first 

 to place cotton culture upon a permanent foundation, by adopting a system of regular returns 

 to the soil; and the high product per acre, as compared with Georgia and Alabama on the 

 one hand, and with Mississippi on the other, exhibits tellingly the tide-wave advancing westward, 



