70 COTTON CULTTJEE. 



the shortness of the season, from that in which the main 

 difficulty to be contended with is soil, not climate. When 

 the price of cotton is from ten to fifteen cents, there are 

 parts of the valley of the lower Tennessee, a region between 

 the Tennessee and the Mississippi, of which Jackson is the 

 center, some bottom lands in the northern parts of Arkan- 

 sas and in the southern part of Missouri, and a limited 

 area in North Carolina, where cotton, at those prices, is a 

 profitable crop. 



But the Cotton States, properly speaking, are South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, the northern part of Florida, 

 Mississippi, the northern half of Louisiana, the southern 

 half of Arkansas, and the eastern half of Texas. Within 

 these limits, the question for the cotton grower is one of 

 soil. He requires to know what parts of this large region 

 afford lands sufficiently rich for cultivation, which are least 

 exhausted, and what river bottoms are so raised, or pro- 

 tected from overflow as to be safe for locating a planta- 

 tion upon them. 



Beginning with the western limit of the region above 

 described, let us move eastward towards the Atlantic 

 States, considering the cotton growing qualities of each 

 of the States above mentioned. 



TEXAS. 



The coast of Texas for fifty or sixty miles north-west 

 from the tide-water line is low and flat. The soil is deep, 

 rich, and black, suited to sugar cane as well as cotton. 



But drainage is difficult, and much of this low surface 

 is liable to be invaded by sea-water at high tides. If 

 leveed from the sea, and ditched, it produces abundant 

 crops, and enjoying, as it does, a sea climate, is, on that 

 account, well adapted to the growth of Sea Island cotton. 

 Geologically, all the coast of Texas, and the soil for a hun- 

 dred and fifty or two hundred miles inland, is alluvial, 

 being formed ]by the deposit of detritus of old rivers which 



