The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-18 00:00:00

The Cotton Crop of America.

With reference to the growing crop of cotton in
America, the c'-cular of Messrs. Neill Brothers and
Co., coraains the following

" Since our last circular we have received from
England a synopsis of the report of Dr. Forbes,
which has, doubtless, been read extensively, and
may have produced some effect on the markets of
Europe. That portion of the public who are in-
terested in the cotton question, must, however, by
this time, have learned to distrust the judgments
of special reporters, coming from a distance, with-
out knowledge either of the country, the plant, or
the people, and will refer to two'or three extraor-
dinary sources of information last year which did
not supply any very reliable forecasts. Yet last
year the facts lay, as it were, on the surface, one
would suppose the bales had only to be counted,
and the information in the case of the estimate of
1,300,000 bales, published by the Treasury depart-
ment, was supplied by a vast body of subordinates,
resident in all parts of the South, and instructed
to inquire and report, and, in another case, by a
party who spent months in making, what
he called, a census of the cotton bales,'
but only managed to count about half of them. This
year the task is infinitely more difficult, for the
cotton had to be grown, we may almost say, after
Dr. Forbes first came here ; and vicissitudes of
weather in this crop produce such rapid changes,
and so much depends on the date of frost and the
weather in August, September, October, and, in
late crops, even of November and December, that
we do not hesitate to say that perfect weather up
to Christmas, telling over the area then planted,
has, in some former years, added to the crop fully
as much, above its promise in July, as the whole
amount Dr. Forbes now estimates for the whole
country. We mention this merely to show the influ-
ence of the weather in fall and winter on late crops.
Dr. Forbes asserts that in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Tennessee the ' desolation from
the war was found to be complete.' We have
before us, hoover, from a Jackson (Mississippi)
newspaper the report of the Cotton-grow-
ing Association' of that place, which has
been organised for the purpose of learn-
ing the condition of affairs in
and gives the particulars of 323 plan
em-
ployed 7,624 hands in 1860, and nolvesemploy 3,495
hoState
that, taking
in cotton growing. This report
states
as this State
the whole country on the same planters who
daevseolated), the crop
(which Dr. Forbes thinks
150,000
should be 1,700,000, and
bales, leaving only th:tc)of Mississippi 400,000
bales (according to Dr.
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Ten-
nessee—thel •nchestimate needs no absurdity of w F.) to be grown in
com-
ment. There are complaints of worms from several
counties in Alabama, of a late date, to which we
alluded last week. Elsewhere the worms do not
spread, and from Texas and Georgia the accounts
are quite flattering. The middle States had been
suffering for want of rain, but our correspondent in
Georgia reports genial showers. We must again
caution our friends against being led away by esti-
mates formed at this time, no matter from what
source or authority they come. A correct estimate
now is totally impossible, and any figures now put
forth are mere guess work—they may be ever so
honest, but cannot be reliable."