Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-09-26
THE COTTON CROP.

BHGAG DIG SuSA1 - W NhCCA = obAAisAC
by their lightness and brightness, We
turn to review the cotton crop prospect.
To enable Us to do so thoroughly, we
have been for some days gathering state
ments and Items in regard to it from
Virginia to Texas, and must confess that
in the aggregate they convey anything
but satisfactory or gratifying news.
From Texas we learn the crop {" put
in" was much more extensive than
that Of last year, and the yield, notwith-
standing the sad havoc OF the worm q
some sections, will be larger. Ia Hous-
ton and Robertson counties, and those
contiguous, the planters are in high glee
over their escape from the worm,
and the disastrous rains complained
OF by the Lagrange Era and Crockett
Sentinel.
From Louisiana the news Is as various
as eau well be imagined, bat nearly all
good judges concur in the belief that a
half crop will be raised. In the neigh
borhood of Monroe the worm has carried
everything before it, and in that OF
Shreveport the rains had been SO inces-
SAINT Sc to favor the pests, and they im-
proved tie occasion 10 eat of the top
leaves, so that little hope remained of
more than half the %reslizations of the
close OF last month. The Baton Rouge
Advocate is cheerful under Ike despoud-
ing circumstances, and 60 is the Carroll
Record, which chronicles its belis' in E
twO-third crop.
From Mississippi there is a universal
cry OF disaster. The rains have been
mere general and the worm more thor
ough in its work than In either Texas or
Louisiana. The Oxford and Aberdeen
papers speak of the damage to the crop
as so great that hut half the quantity
planted for will be carried to market.
The YazoO Banner is not sanguine that
even q half crop can be made 10 the bot
tom, where, but two weeks since, all
were sangu!ne OF at least a t~wo-thi.d-
So in Jefferson county, Rankin, Wilkin-
son, Bolivar, Adams, and indeed most
Of the cotton growing counties Of the
State.
From Lowndes county, Alabama, one
Of the finest OF the cotton region Of that
State, we learn that nearly all the cotton
hoped for had been gathered as the
late farms had been destroyed by the
worm. In Perry and contiguous
counties only q one-third crop is
anticipated, so complete have
been the ravages OF the worm. From
the vicinity Of Blsdon Spring., and from
Dallas and adjoining counties, the pick
ing viii be over by the first Of Ostobsr,
and the yield will not be over one bale
to eight acres or ten acres, tie usual
yield being 4 bale to tw~o-snd-a-hslf
or three acres.
We God nothing but complaint OF cat
erpiIlars in our Georgia exchanges, and
the bsst and most ssnguine calculations
= half crop, taking 1868 as the
standard. In some instances thu little
torment has worked 30 diligently and
moved 50 rapidly that whole fields have
been destroyed in a week, not leaving a
leaf or boil to tell Of former hopes. The
late cotton 10 the middle and coast por-
ofthe State is sll ruined, and the
product will be mainly confined 10 the
DOLLS that matured before the rains sat
In.
Florida has not been exempt from the
devastating scourge. The Ssa Island
crop from that State will not average the
figures OF last year. Full three-fourths
that planted has been destroyed, so
persistent in their havoc hsvs bsea the ,
,aterpillars. In the interior and upIanls
crop cannot be more than half thst
If 1873, on account OF the worm. In
several instances Furnishing plantations
been reduced in ten days to moth. F,
ngness, as il d terrible fire had passed
'ver them and Tapped every leaf aud T.
poll with its devouring tongue.
South ard North Carolina have Jared
than any of the cotton States,
hongh all agree that even these, sup,
'Osing the lsterains have not reached
hem, will hardly reach two-thirds of
asst years yield. ,
In Tennessee complaint is as general, i
nd the most ssnguine OF our old.time 5
experienced -cotton-men shake their !
.eads in a dubious way, when guesses If
ven a half crop are made in their pres +
nee. In our western division, all the v
ray frOm the Tennessee river to the Aa I
anna snd Mississippi lines, and through
the Mississippi river, the cold, bleak !
aims that drenched our streets, thr past t
or three weeks, have encouraged the {
7orm in its havoc, and added the rot t. Q
he "pesky creatures devilment. II I
Te make q half crop we can congratulate
urselves and feel safe at cotton plantL z
all sorts of weather.
Arkansas is in no sense better or than I
er sisters. The rain aud the worm have =
reduced, especially in the country north P
7 the Arkansas, their legitimate ell. cts. 4
nd in many places fields are bare where !.
tie there was promise Of plenty. R1st j.
rot and caterpillar, though felt to :,
'ne extent in the country south Of the i
bove river, have not proven so dIsss- !,
ops' circumstance 70 be accounted for, y
some degrees, by the fact that but little a
was planted. On the whole, it is 8 3
Ife to predict 3 scarcely half crop for z
rkansas-perhaps one.third would be s
carer the mark. ~
In face of these facts, carefully COM
led from private letters, The statements