The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-11-21
s0AE FACTS ABOUT COTTON.
ISctentific Alnertcan.l

ses TScteMtific AnericaM.l r!
In q recent letter, Mr.. Edward At
kins0n, Of Boston, shows by compari.
son Of results the enormous economic
superiority of free labor over slave
labor, In the cultivation of cotton. The
crop Of cotton Of 1873 and 1879 was the
largest ever raised. The ten crops of
crop raised by slave labor, numbered
"a, ,995, ,44O bales. The ten crops Of
1870 to 1879, Inclusive, being the ten
last crops raised by free labor, num-
bered IL ,454, ,743 bales. The excess of
the ten years of free labor amounts to
6, 459, ,8O3 bales. The value of the ten
last crops, Of which about two-thirds
have been exported, has not been less
than o., 500, 900, 900, and has probably
amounted to $4,000, COX, 600. The In
crease Is progressive, the excess of the
Ave last crops over the five crops i'm
mediately preceding the war has been
1885, 415 bales.
The worlds crop of cotton is now
equal to ten to twelve million bales of
the average weight of American cotton,
probably the latter. OF this quantity
tive million bales are raised In the
United States, and between six and
seven million bales are spun and woven
upon machinery contained In large
factories In Europe and America. The
rest Is spun and woven by hand, and
there is probably larger portion Of the
population of the globe still insuffi-
GENTLY clothed In hand made goods
| than are clothed In those furnished by
the factories of Europe and America
combined. The average work of one
operative working one year In Lowell
will supply the annual wants of 1000
fully clothed Chinese or 5000 partly
clothed East Indians. No country In
the world, except Egypt, produces any
substantial quantity of cotton 30 well
adapted to work upon modern machin-
cry as that of the Southern States.
Nearly one-half the world remains to
be conquered by cotton and commerce.
To the cotton fields and factories of the
United States will not the increase
surely come as commerce surely but
slowly opens the way? 7a
The whole cotton crop of the world
could be raised on a section of Texas
less than one-tWelfth of its area or
could be divided between any two OF
the other principal cotton States with.
out exhausting one-half Of their good
lands, or it could all be raised on les.
than one-half the Indian Territory tina
is not yet occupied at all.
Touching the cost of raising cotton IL
the South, Mr.. Atkinson suggests tn,
opinion that if the cost of labor b.
measured by its effectiveness as we'll a
by the measure of the money will
which it is paid, there is no place i,
the world where so effective an amour
of manual labor can be procured at 8,
little cost us in the employment o
negroes upon our Southern cottoi
fields. The price of bacon and corr
gauges the cost of cotton. Eaten to
gether they are digestible and nutri
tious-eaten separately quite otherwise
They constitute the food that the
negro field hand freely chooses. Three
and one-half pounds of bacon, one peck
of meal and one quart of molasses con.
stitute the weeks ration of an adult
man or woman. This ration has been
lately and can now be supplied at q
cost of 80 to AZ cents per week, or six
cents or less per day. The patch o.
sweet potatoes, and fish from the pond,
and rivers, serve for the rest.
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