1888] 



FARMERS' RliGISTER, 



419 



Ion ; but he must connect with it somethinf; else 

 iiir market: for he cannot malce one half as much 

 ootlon as an equally judicious planter, on an 

 etiually fertile plantation, under the best location as' 

 locliniaic. But why should this be so 7 Why, 

 because the stalks will not produce so much ; but 

 the principal reason is, that the early frost docs 

 not as with us merely kill the leaves and tender 

 limbs, and check production, but it kills the plant 

 entirely, and all its sap, and sours it, and the wool 

 <lics, and loses its elasticity, and dries, and becomes 

 very much lighter. It is dilTicult to say what is 

 the loss in weight, and I have no means of cor- 

 rccily ascerlainmg. I feel very certain, however, 

 that "the loss is more than one-fif'th, and, I believe, 

 more probably one-fourth, where it remains in the 

 field the usual time neceesary in a good crop. 

 When the stalk is dead entirely, the wool loses 

 its vegetable oil. its weight, and its elasticitj^, and 

 the trash adheres to it, so that it picks clean with 

 difHculiy. We know this so well here, that on 

 the rusted parts of our fields, where the stalk is 

 dead and dry, and all the leaves gone, notwith- 

 standing a fine show of wool, it is passed over 

 unpicked, where the crop is a large one; and the 

 laborers seldom get half weights when they do 

 pick it, though their baskets are nearly aa full. It 

 is usual to weigh in the cotton as it is gathered ; 

 and if we get one pound of clean rrinned cotton to 

 every five, we do well ; and we know that dried 

 seed cotton will give one pound for every three. 

 Some allowance is to be made for tlie wet from 

 the morning dews ; but still much arises IVom the 

 drying of the oil out ol' the cotton fibre. It dries 

 much faster, of course, in the field exposed sepa- 

 rately to the sun. When it has been long so ex- 

 posed that all the oil is gone, the cotton becomes 

 blue ; and it is equally so where the cotton ])od 

 stands too high on the stalk to be affected by 

 stains li-om the earth. 



Another reason — we begin earlier to pick, and 

 can continue to pick later in the year. We com- 

 mence about the 20th of August, and in 35° they 

 commence about the 10th of September ; and that 

 difference of time, when the cotton is heavy, and 

 the days are long, is good lor 400 to 500 pounds of 

 clean cotton, or one bag to each laborer. We can 

 and do pick more where the climate perfects the 

 pods, if these fully open and eject the whole, or 

 yield it to the slightest touch of the picker. Crops 

 vary from 1500 pounds to 4000 pounds of clean 

 cotton to each laborer ; and I suppose thera to 

 range in 35° from 1000 to 1500 pounds. To speak 

 of averages, I would say, in 35*^ the crop should 

 be 1000 pounds, in 33^5 and thereabouts, 2000 

 pounds, both under reasonably fair circumstances. 

 3000 pounds and upwards have been but very 

 rarely gathered wuhout much additional assist- 

 ance. I do not consider it difficult to grow that 

 quantity on a really fine plantation ; but^I think il 

 impossible to pick it with the same persons only 

 that made it. 1 have seen 40 acres of unpicked 

 cotton ploughed up in March, that would have 

 given 1200 pounds or 1500 pounds of seed-cotton 

 each acre; and the gathering, with much assist- 

 ance, did not reach 3000 pounds to the hand. I 

 therefore am incredulous as to these great gather- 

 ed crops. 



So niuch for the unsuitableness over 35". Now 

 let us inquire into the reasons why it should be so 

 under 31*=. I have supposed, tliat in northern 



latitudes plants depend more on the soil, nnd in 

 the enuthern more on the climate. In the f()rmcr, 

 there is a general tendency to bear li'iiit ; in the 

 latter, wood and li)liage : and that latitude is best 

 where their mutual action best suits. IJelow 81°, 

 the fruit-bearing tendency is overcome too much 

 by wood and (bliagc. You must have a reasona- 

 ble size of stalk, to have abundance of fruit ; 

 and the fruit-bearing tendency must not be too 

 little. Another reason may be, that without ii 

 winter severe enough to destroy the larvai of in- 

 sects, you are more liable to their depredations. I 

 do not know that I make myself understood ; my 

 reasons are but speculations, and are not very Ba- 

 tisli.ictory to myselti and will probably be less eo to 

 you. In the warm climate of the West Indie.<5, 

 cotton was much more grown than it now is. Of 

 South America we know too little to seek for ex- 

 amples either way. Formerly it was very much 

 and profitably cultivated on the seaboard of South 

 Carolina and Georgia ; it is at this time very little 

 cultivated. It has been rather a poor product in 

 Florida, and is each year getting more so. It runs 

 too much to weed, and the ravages of insects have 

 increased. I shall adduce two strong lacts from 

 this and the adjoining state of Louisiana, and 

 which first led me to this opinion. In 1819, a 

 large and very fertile body of lands on the Escam- 

 bia^ just above the West Florida line, above and 

 near latitude 3P, was settled by several of our 

 very best farmers, and their crops, for several 

 years, were large and remunerating. The gene- 

 ral cultivation of that neighborhood, and its con- 

 tinuance, have occasioned the plant not to yield so 

 well, though slill exuberant in its growth ; and it 

 has introduced insects, that have preyed so much 

 on their cotton, that almost every one of those 

 planters has left that neighborhood and gone 

 higher up into the country. The crops above SP 

 in this state, are less productive, and more injured 

 by worms, than formerly. 



The second is, that cotton, below 31°, is no 

 where now cultivated to any extent. The fertile 

 banks of the Mississippi, from the Balize to 100 

 miles above New Orleans, has but very few plan- 

 tations where cotton makes any poriion of the 

 crop. It is a fact, to ihe notoriety of which I ap- 

 peal, that it is considered there unsuitable for cot- 

 ton. A more i'erUlc soil, or better fixed plantations, 

 or better cultivators on them are to be found no 

 where. On the same river, from about Natchez:, 

 in, and upwards, it is a superb cotton country. 



It is said Texas is a fine cotton country. This is 

 rather an expression of an opinion of what it will 

 be, than what it is. It has not had time to es- 

 tal)lish its exemption from what has been the fault 

 of all the couutries under a similar climate — that 

 Its cotton will grow too much to wood and foliage, 

 and that it will be depredated upon, too much, by 

 worms and insects. I allude to the se^board_ of 

 Texas. It is the true sugar region, (and the in- 

 digo country, for the same reasons,) and that in 

 time, will be its staple product, so soon as the se- 

 curity of the government and the inconveniences 

 of a new population, and a ne^v country, shall 

 overcome the prudence and caution of the more 

 wealthy planters elsewhere. My paper and your 

 patience are both about to give out, and I must 

 be brief on the other topic, and exclude the last 

 altogether. The sugar region, I consider below 

 Sl^j^where the climate is very hot; the cut cane 



