Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-01-06
COTTON.
The Commissioner Estimates the Crop at
100000 Bales.

The Commissioner of Agriculture in
his annual report makes the following re-
turns AS TO cotton:
The drouth of the Atlantic coast was
far less injurious to cotton than to corn.
Superior cotton soils, well cultivated,
rarely suffer for want of rain. Inferior,
shallow and neglected soils, which pro-
duce small crops under the most favora-
BILE circumstances, are often injured, and,
in the present season, have in many cases
yielded mesger returns for the little la
Dor expended. Everywhere the average
planted is greater than last year. The
product per acre in the sea coast States is
materially less, with very few eXcep-
tions. The relative proportion of lint TO
seed is from some cause less than usual.
The use of fertilizers has largely increased
the yield of these States; has given a bet
ter stand in fields where the plant had a
feeble start, and stimulated it to rapid
growth and can maturity. In one eXpe-
iiment, it is reported that the first pick
ing of plants fed with guano yielded ON
September llth a ten-fold increase over a
similar area of u0dressed soil, and
at the end of the season the enriched
soil had produced just double the
amount of that unenriched, A judicious
system of fertilization is practiced
by the few, while the many obtain in
creased crops through more rapid ex-
haustion of the soil by the aid OF guano
and various compounds rich in ammonia,
The grasshppper in some parts OF Texas
injured cotton that was planted late.
The droUth affected it unfayorahly in the
Red river region, and worms, heavy
Gus. But for these drawb backs the yield
would have been very large. Still the
aggregate is much larger than that of 1865.
Reports of 500 pounds of lint per acre,
when good culture followed a careful Sc
lection Of seed, are mol unfrequent; some
counties return an average of 800 pounds
per acre, The culture in Texas Is extend
Ing far beyond its limits in 1860; one
county, which made no return at that
date, returning 1900 bales, and others pro-
ducing il for the first time at an average
of 300 pounds per acre. Arkansas has
made an average crop upon somewhat
increased area, but Tennessee, a small por-
tion only of which is ever cultivated in
cotton, has a smaller yield than last year.
The picking commenced earlier than
usual, and the latter bolls ripened more
thoroughly. The season for gathering the
lint has been quite uniformly favorable, a
circumstance always greatly conducive to
an increase of the crop aggregate, and
fayoring a freedom from trash and dirt.
An examination Of the crop tabulations
which follow will show the estimated
Weld per acre in each State, and the com
parisOn with last year expressed as a per
c3ntage of the crop of 1861
Product compared with that of 1S6s-
North Carolina, 95 per cent. South Caro-
lima, IS; Georgia, 90; Florida, lO7; Ala
bama, los; Mississippi, lis; Louisiana,
Il2; Texas, 125; Arkansas, 10; Tennessee,
s5. Yield per acre-North Carolina, l45
pounds; South Carolina, 1913; Georgia, 15O;
Florida, 152; Alabama, 176; Mississippi,
2Ol, Louisiana, 296; Texas, 275; Arkansas,
25I; Tennessee, 100. The aggregate pro-
ducts, in accordance with the retdrns re-
ceived to this date, is little more than ten
per cent. above the yield of 1865 or about
200, 600 commercial bales, or fully 3,0G0,-
00Q bales Of 400 pounds each.