The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-10-12
THE COTTON PREMIUMS.

~ ~AHS0 DSAAS1 A@St.1 Vi
the Cotton Department, L was indebted for
access to that department on Friday morn
ing, while the committees from the differ
ent States were making their awards
About four hundred bales were on exhibit
ton, of which some eighty bales were from
Mississippi. Mr.. VIM. b. McShan was
again the winner for the first and third best
bales from Mississippi, and for the sweep
stake of $l,000-his total for premiums
amounting to 81 600. Col. E. III. McGehee,
of Pamela county, received the $3.50 pre-
MUM for the second best bale. After the
awards, speech-making and a splendid ban
quet were the orders of the day. Mr.. Nc
Shan was among the first called upon. He
remarked: 81 think, gentlemen, my cotton
speaks for itself. 1t is fortunate for you,
however, that l am not speaker, for were
L an orator L would harangue you until you
would give me another premium to quit,
The name of McShan will henceforth be a
familiar word in the commercial realms of
King Cotton.
The first speech at the banquet was by
Gov. Gratz Brown, and he was followed by
Mayor Joseph Brown, Mr.. Andy Mitchell
city merchant, Col w. III. Hatch, former
ly of Gen. Lees staff, Hon. G.. G. Lang
don, of Mobile, DIR. C.. X. Marshall, Of
Vicksburg, Major Rollins, of Missouri, Mr..
Barrett, President of the Fair Association,
and Lieutenant Governor Stanard. DIR.
Marshall's speech gave great satisfaction.
His sentiments were frequently and vocif-
erously cheered, especially when he said !:
Gentlemen of this great commercial Fair,
desire to thank you, as Mississippian, for
the distinguished honors you have allowed
Mississippians to carry home. McShan has
carried off the premiums for cotton again;
and, gentlemen, let me say to you that it
won't do to have many McShans there.
They will turn us crazy, and we will be up
here selling our bales of cotton for thous
and dollars, and we shall turn to cotton
again, and the whole country will be ruined.
have one suggestion to make in this con-
nectiOn, and that is, when you offer another
premium, you will offer premium for acre
age; give so much for the best cotton, and
so much for the best acreage, and if a man
can make three or five bales to the acre,
give him premium for that. That will
bring out your fertilizers and your agricul-
turaI implements, and will demonstrate
what you can do for us down there
1t may be an item of no little interest to
some who are competing for the premiums
to be awarded at the Mississippi State Fair,
that the several cotton committees at this
Fair decided to exclude from competition
all carded and hand-picked cotton, and all
cotton not put up in the ordinary way.
What the committees at the Mississippi
State Fair may rule in this respect is yet to
to be determined, but it occurs to me that
when an Association offers premium for
the best bale of cotton, and does not specify
how it shall be cultivated, picked or ginned,
committees have no right to exclude any
cotton prepared in any manner. Parties
who compete in good faith, and who adopt
their own fashion of preparing the bale for
competition, should not be excluded by
rules which did not exist when they became
competitors. have been frequently asked
if the premium bales here would be allowed
to compete at Jackson, and have taken the
responsibility of replying that they would
not, but that all other Mississippi cotton on
exhibition here might be entered. And
some of it is ordinary enough. A bale from
Chickasaw county was among the carded
cotton excluded.
AT meeting of gentlemen from the sew
eral cotton committees, met at this hotel
this morning, Mr.. McShan made substan-
TALLY the following statement: