862 



FARMERS' REGISTER— RELATIVE VALUE OF COTTON. 



are lefi. to stand in drills upon the ridge, at distances 

 Irom each other, graduated as before stated, to the 

 expected growth of the plants Irom six inches, to 

 two feet Irom each other, and bearing wilhout in- 

 jury to stand much nearer than at first sight may 

 be imagined, for the cotton plant, docs not occupy 

 nuich space, with its roots, sending them down 

 into the ground, and not over the surliice, like 

 white or grain crops, and drawing hke all large 

 leaved green croj;s, much of its riourisliment from 

 the atmosphere. It is not an exhauster of soil, 

 shading and protecting it from the sun, and soon 

 by its decay, or by its combustion returning almost 

 as much as it has taken away, but iiom the den- 

 sity of its shade, and the size and swell of its 

 roots, it soon makes the soil too loose to sustain the 

 plant, and the continued culture oi" the same soil, 

 brings on a disease in the plant, greatly resembling 

 the blight in Avheat, and leaving a propensity in 

 the seeds of cotton, to extend the evil, like the 

 propensity in blighted v/heat to extend and mul- 

 tiply, nor have I ever doubted, that in both in- 

 stances, that tlie evil had originated, in insect de- 

 predations, for although Sir Joseph Banks disco- 

 vered a fungous attaching itself to blighted wheat, 

 I still believe, that the microscope discovered in 

 that minute jiarasitic jjlant, the effects of injury 

 previously received fi"om something that lived, and 

 moved, and had animal being. Fire therefore, I 

 have always believed, and have always acted 

 upon that belief, is the best security against this 

 increasing and extending evil— all the weeds and 

 grass, that are on the land should be burnt upon 

 the surface of the land, leaving no vegetable mat- 

 ter to conceal and protect the germ, and by fer- 

 mentation, to give heat and life to it; it is the neglect 

 of this course whicli I think, has been the cause, that 

 tins evi\, under various names, rot, and rust, and 

 blight, has spread so widely as it has done, within 

 a i'ew years. 



There is no plant, that requires the interchange- 

 able husbandry more than the cotton plant, and 

 there is no country, wliere that husbandry is more 

 essential than in the Southern States. The cotton 

 requires continued clea,ning during the droughts of 

 spring, and tlie heats of midsummer; these clean- 

 ings together with the shade and rapid growth of 

 the plant, break up the soil, and leave it to be car- 

 ried away, by the first violent autumnal rains. 

 The best remedy is to give to the fields of cotton, 

 intermediate crops of grain — as good a series as 

 can Avell be adopted, is cotton, rye, and Avheat 

 where the soil is fit for it, pasture, and again cotton, 

 a more extended rotation might be adopted, but 

 as all root crops sliould be avoided in series with 

 cotton, this simple tri-annual course, with manure 

 applied during the grain j'ear, to as great extent 

 as may be convenient, will keep the field without 

 material decay. When cotton was first intro- 

 duced, the growers were misled as to the necessity 

 of this change, by observing that the cotton plant 

 upon new lands, grew large, and gave little fruit, 

 and that it improved for the second and third jear 

 in productiveness, they unfortunately pusheci the 

 culture too fiir, until jiossibly to this cause, 

 many of the diseases that have afflicted it in its 

 growth may be attributed. 



In a preceding part of this letter, the probable 

 mean results, for these last 15 years, in growing 

 sea island cotton, has been taken, at 90 dollars, or 

 about 20 pounds sterling to the laborer, and taking 



as we have already done in this letter, the medium 

 crop of short staple, at 125 lbs. to the English acre, 

 and eight acres of this cotton, as cultivated by the 

 plough, it will give, 1000 lbs. of short staple cotton 

 wool to each laborer emjjloyed upon it, which for 

 the last 7 years may have given to the grower, a 

 mean return of 10 cts. to the lb., or 100 dollars for 

 the year's work. There are exceptions, unques- 

 tionably, to these estimates, a i'ew men have re- 

 ceived much higher prices, for their sea island cot- 

 ton, and a few^ men have raised much larger (}uan- 

 tities of both descriptions of cotton, to the acre, 

 than are given; but exceptions can never serve as 

 a guide, in conclusions, as to either the wealth, or 

 productiveness of a whole country. The beset- 

 ting sin of agricultural statements are exaggera- 

 tions; and this arises from the simplest of all causes. 

 Men do not go about, measuring tlie fields, and 

 weighing the products of their neighbors, but they 

 leave it to themselves, to measure and weigh. 

 But it too often occurs, that he has done so, in im- 

 agination, before he was called to do so, in realitj^, 

 and vanity mingles with disappointment, in deny- 

 ing his consent to go back, to unravel, to explain, 

 or confirm the result. Why then it may be in- 

 quired, has a whole peoj)le so readily and so 

 greedily adopted a course of cultivation, leading 

 to so small individual benefit? There are many 

 reasons; but there is one, sufficient to the end. It 

 suits their wandering habits, it requires no great 

 time to grow, it requires no great expense to pre- 

 pare, and it will command money, less or more, 

 wheresoever grown. But should we here pause 

 to inquire, whether this delusion, will continue for 

 always; whether 5,000,000, of Southern American 

 people, will continue to labor for the benefit of 

 others, rather than for the benefit of themselves, I 

 think they will not, unless cotton gradually rises, 

 to what is its real value. Is it not finer — Is it not 

 lighter — Is it not more easily spun, and more easi- 

 ly woven than other wool? And does it in its va- 

 rious qualities sell for as much? Does it sell for as 

 much as fur, as silk, as flax, or ev^en hemp? It 

 does not; and yet there is not one purpose, to which 

 any one of tliese materials, can be applied, to which 

 cotton cannot as well, or even better, be applied. 

 From the Court Lad}', that is fluttering around the 

 throne of Louis Philip, to the ship that sails across 

 the sea, all are better clothed in cotton, than they 

 can be clothed in any thing else; for the one cannot 

 be more pure or stainless, than the robe she wears 

 and the night dew that falls upon the sails of the 

 other, will not rot or destroy them, but will swell 

 and thicken them, to the wind. Cotton has yet 

 to be applied to many purposes to which it has 

 not yet been applied, if it Avere possible to suppose, 

 that the supply could keep pace Avith its multiply- 

 ing uses; but the American people have at length, 

 reached, in the cotton region, the bounds of the 

 American empire. Tribes of red men, will sep- 

 arate them, from Mexico. The roll of population 

 to the Avest Avill be stayed. Within the present 

 limits, the laborer whether AA'hite or black, has full 

 employment, and none of them, more unprofita- 

 bl}^, than those employed in the cultivation of cot- 

 ton. Rice gives a better return, sugar in many dis- 

 tricts gives a better return, Avheat in its appropri- 

 ate place, gives a better return, indigo, an ancient 

 staple of the country, Avould give a better return. 

 Those hills that are noAv Avasting aAvayAvith con- 

 tinued summer ploughings, under cotton, Avill be- 



