Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-11-25
Y. NOVEMBER 25. 1878
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
Decentralization of the Cotton Crop.

| Decentralization of the Cotton Crop.
EDITORS APPEAL-As there have been
many cODjectures on the subject ~ the
extent Of the cotton crop OF 1875 I nav
be excused for offering my individual
opinion on a subject fr,ught with so
| much interest TO the tCiling producers Of
that crop. l do not nee tste to assert
there never was crop within the thirty
years past so enormously estimated.
These estimates ere made first by some
designing parties GesirCus Of "bearingn
the article in market, who are Indifferent
to the actual crop. Others have been
honestly mistaken, from the fact that as
late as the first Of August the crop was
mCre promising than usual, and they are
at loss to account for the great deficit
which 1s sure to be manifested in the
winding up of the crop. A third set Of
men, and this includes great part Of
the commercial community, are de-
ceived by the present large receipts. In
noticing the many causes which have
magnifled the crop, l will notice this
last. The large receipts at the various
cotton msrts ere readily explained by
the fact that the whole of the Mississip-
pl crop wSs at least four weeks later
than in 1874, and when ripening COM
menced it burst all over the country
with an unexpected suddenness, so that
picking went on rapidly, and the cotton
Is now being thrown on the market with
an activity only equsled by the pecuni-
airy wants Of the people. The crop, not
withstanding this hurried transit to
market, has been greatly damaged; first,
by the overflow of the low lands; second
ly, by the blight or wet-weather rust,
which was more extensive and damsg-
ing in this region than ever known be-
fore; aud, last of all, in its maturity the
early frost cut off at least twenty per
cent. of the whole. II we could rest
here tolerable crop might have been
saved, but then after two weeks OF good
weather came q succession of storms of
vino, rain and hail that literally thrashed |
out at least thirty-three per cent of the |
cotton in the fields, and now the remain |
ing crop ungathered hangs in shreds, |
and every recurring storm of rain sWeeps |
the hanging staple into heaps and drifts |
1t in piles, so that at least fifty |
per cent. OF the river-bottom |
crop is already lost. AS to the hill crop |
ton can collect. l find in most of |
those regions the crop was cut short by |
the droutb and early frost. Whole Sec
tons have finished picking their mea-
gre crops, and some whole States &C. |
knowledge great failure. Then, where
is this great and once promising crop of |
1875 to come from? Not from the ele- |
waited and sandy regions, for the fact Of |
their failure is already shown forth; not |
from the Mississippi river-bOttom, for |
the combined effects of the overflow,
blight and frost have wrought q great |
destruction in that region; not from the |
neWly-Opened lands of the western from |
tiers, for there the frost alone has laid |
his blighting hand and left only the |
ghost Of a yield to the producer. And
now, the prospects OF a continuation of |
the unfavOrable weather haunts the i'm |
agination of the planter, whose spirits,
already broken by adverse ciTcum- |
land his war with the elements, is
almost ready to abandon the further /
gathering of his crop. The crop of 1875 |
cannot reach four million bales, if Sec
ton Of three hundred miles with which |
am familiar, in the center of the most |
favored cotton region, and the best in
formation obtained from the whole cot
ton belt affords aBy data for caleula-
ton. GEORGE r. PETERS
COUNCIL BEND, ARK, November %, 1875.