Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-07-13
Discovery in Cotton Culture

Tile Demopolis (Alabanfa) Egpo-
cmut, tell5sthe following almost III
credible story about the growth Of a
lotion tree, protected from the. frost.
which we republish for what it is
worth, but do not wish to be Under
stood as vouching for the veracity of
the writer:
In 1867 IL PLANTER of this county,
living some l2.miles from this city,
conceived hesidea that the cotton
plant properly. cared for could be
inalu to bear for more Than Ole
year. He br;ievelthat the vitality
o! tie plant was destroyed by frost
ony. The result Of his experience,
Which We will give in his o.'n words,
is OF un$peaka5le Importance to the
material interests OF the cotton,grow-
ing country, placing us above and be-
yond the necessities and annoyances
of our present system OF labor.
His account of his success which
is far beyond his most sanguine ex;;
pectations, is largely vouchet for, and
is as follows:
"I lost a large amount of money
in 1866, the year succeeding the sur
render, in my farming operations and
despaired, almost, OF the future Of
the cotton section, in the many sleep
less nights 1 passed thinking over my
own affairs and what the future had
in store for myself and neighbors,
whose dependence for existence rest
ed solely; upon agricultural produc-
tions, Of which the culture of cotton
was the chiefest, the main stay, in
fact, of the cotton States, the founda-
tior upon which was built all they
enjoyed of prosperity in manufactu-
ring, in banking, in merchandising,
in all that went to make up the sum
of their varied industries and inter.
ests, threatened, as those interests
seemed to be, about to suffer extinc-
ton by :, system of labor that made
the cost of production of the cotton
crop greater than the value Of the
article produced. By inspiration. for
| it could have been nothing else, ;s
occurred to me that could tile annual
killing Of the plant by frost be pre-
vented the p1unt might become a tree
"a fruitful, ever-bearin 6 tree.
"Success has exceeded my most
sangune expectations, my, widest
dreams. will tell you. exactly how
/ proceeded and describe the result.
In tho spring of lSaT ] selected a
spot of ground. about 40 feet square,
! planted in tire centre Il cotton seed,
tended it carefully; in' September |
built about it a pen some eight feel
square and coveredit'with glass, kept
Il thermometer In it, md by the aid
of a small stove, kept life and p'o'0th
| in the plant until May of 1888, at
'atwhich time removed the pen.
During the summer of '6S my plant
grew till it became a small tree. In
the fall Of the year Ipicked 800 pounds
of seed cotton from it and built
another pen on the same plan, but
larger than the first; followed the
same process through the winter and
again removed my pen in the spring
OF go. That year I picked from
what was then tree, cotton that u,
made bale of 476 pounds. The
tree had now grown SO largs, that
deemed it safe from frost, and IN the
winter of SO and 10 left-itSnpro-
tected. In the spring of 70itbloom!-
ed at the same time with the peach
tree and in the fall / made from II
1888 pounds of lint cotton. At this
writing the trae is in. full bloom an afn}d
promises atleast three balss Of cotton
and is the wonder Of all who see 1t.
at is some, twenty or, twenty
FIVE feet in height, measures a
at the but nineteen inches in diane
ter, shows no signs Of decay. anc
will probably live and'bear fruit, fo'
j years to come. If this statemeln
/ does NOT settle The labor question