Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1862-01-24
The Cotton Question,


ny, with their usual enterprise and energy
have taken hold Of the cotton question,
and have gathered a mass of testimony IN
regard to its culture in the southern part
of the state. The fact that cotton can be
grown in southern Illinois, is well known to
every inhabitant of that portion of the
state, and also to those who have travelled |
there to any extent. But. where one hun |
bred planted cotton twenty five years ago,
probably not more than one did last year.
and he not because of the profit Of it. but
from force of habit. The almost universal
testimony seems to be that its culture was
given up, because it was unprofta ble-be-
cause other crops could be raised at a
cheaper rate, and sold at better price
The cotton that was grown at an early day
was for home consumption, and worked
by such means as were at hand in the fam
lilies OF the early settlers. Of course arti-
eles thus manufactured could not compete
and when the latter was introduced the
culture of cotton here was abandoned So
far as the testimony now gathered is con-
cerncd, there is little to discourage rov-
val of cotton culture here, either in soil or
climate.
of the advantage of free labor over
slave labor in it's cultivation there is no
question, but it may be asked. is there suf-
fcient to compensate for the increased
risk in the shortness of the season, as COM
pared with the old cotton growing states
In Texas the planting of cotton commences
in March, and the picking in August, ex-
tending often into December, giving a
much larger yield than in Alabama or
Georgia. In Texas the estimated amount
grown per head is eight bales of say $50
pounds each This we believe is consider
ably greater than is done throughout the
southern states. Mr.. Terry, reliable
Mississippi planter, estimates the amount
per head in that state to be about five
bales. or five acres Of tillage.
From the testimony furnished in many
of these letters it would seem that the
yield per acre here was as much, or more
than the yield of the cotton states If4O0
pounds per acre can be grown with any
thing like certainty, with the improved
machinery of the present day, this staple
may take rank among our farm products.
) The railroad company have assurances
from Secretary Seward and others at
Washington that every necessary effort
will be made to procure sufficient supply
ofseed, which will probably be distributed
free through the Patent Office and by the
rail road company.
Cotton is an exhausting crop, and we
cannot expect to grow it continually upon
the same grc und, The best cotton plant
ers of the south do not recommend the
planting of it oftener than every fourth
year upon the same field; the following
two years to be in corn, and the third year
------=r-----~----o '"0-0o.uon croP-tO
be fallowed, after which heavy dressing
of manure is applied
For long while we have earnestly ad-
vocated the culture of great variety of
crops in the West something besides
wheat and corn-in order to secure rea-
3 sonable profit to the producer. That cot
ton may become one sure crop, (grown to
the extent that the usual labor emploved
upon the farm would be sufficient in the
picking season, so far as our southern
counties go, is not an unlikely result of eff
forts now being made. If the railroad
company will insure the people facilities to
have their cotton ginned and bailed at
reasonable cost when grown, we believe
another year will more fully settle the
question of cotton growing in Illinois.