The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-10-13
COTTON PRODUCTION.
When will the Crop Reach Eight Million
Bales?

BALES?
1t may be we'll to remark at the outse
that the production of cotton in th,
South is practically without limit /
was 1880 before the American cror
reached 100000 bales, and the high
est point ever reached in the DAYS o
slavery was trife above $500, ,OOC
bales. The crop of 18S0-Sl is abou
2,O0O,O0 in excess Of this, and there are
those who believe that crop of 5000.
O0O bales is among the certaintics of the
next few years. Tie heavy increase in the
cotton crop is due entirely to the in.
crease of cotton acreage brought about
by the use of fertilizers. Millions OF
acres of land, formerly thought to be be
yond the possible limit Of the cotton
Delt, have been made the best of cotton
Lands by being artificially enriched. In
North Carolina alone the limit of cotton
production has been moved twenty miles
northward and twenty miles westward,
and the half of Georgia on which nc
cotton was grown twenty years ago now
produces fully half the crop of the State
The area of low production" rs the
Atlantic States are brought to the 'front.'
by artificial stimulation is moving west.
ward, and is now central in Alabama
and Florida. But the increase in acre.
age, as large as it is, will be but small
factor m the increase production, COM
pared to the intensifying the cultivation
OF the land now in use. Under the pres
ent loose system Of planting, the average
yield is hardly better than one bale to
three acres. In Georgia five bales have
been raised on one acre, and yield of
three bales to the acre is credited to sew
eral localities. President Morehead, of
the Mississippi Valley Cotton Planters
Association, says that the entire cotton
crop of the present year might have been
easily raised in fourteen counties along
the Mississippi River. 1t will be seen,
therefore, that the capacity of the South
to produce cotton is practically limitless,
and when we consider the enormous de.
mand for goods now opening up from new
climes and peoples, we may conclude
that the near future will see crops COM
pared to which the crop of the past year
worth $S00,000,000, will seem small.
is THERE TO BE COTTON PLANTING
ARISTOCRACY?
The small farmer-who was to retrieve
the disasters Of the South, and wipe out
the last yestige of the planting aristoc-
racy, between which and the people there
was always lack of sympathy, by keep.
ing his own acres under his owns still
held to be the typical cotton-raiser.
But the observer who cares to look be-
meath the surface will detect signs of a
reverse current. He will discover that
there is beyond question a sure though
gradual rebunching of the small farms
OF
the establishment of n landholding oil
garchy. Here and there through all the
Cotton States, and almost in every county
are resppearing the planter princes of
the old time, still lords of acres, though
one planter who raises annually 10000
bales of cotton on twelve consolidated
plantations, aggregating, perhaps, $4,000
acres. The Capeheart estate, on Albe-
marie Sound, originally of several thou
added last year. In the Mississippi
Valley, where, more than anywhere else
is preserved the distinctive cotton planta-
tion, this re-absorbing of separate farms
into one ownership is going on rapidly.
Mr.. F. G: Morehead, an authority on
these lands, says not one-third of them
IT,
into the hands, of the commission
neighborhood in all the South in which
causual inquiry will not bring to the
front from ten to dozen men who have
added farm after iarm to their possessions
for the past several years, and now own
be supposed that these farms are punched
Eor md off II 4 =, 4.
style. On the contrary, they are cut
small croppers. The question involved
methods shall be revived. 1t is the much
more serious proJiem AZ to whether the
lands divided forever into small farms
shall be owned by the many or by the
few, whether we shall have in the South
q peasantry like that of France, or a ten
antry like that of Ireland.
IMPERFECT HANDLING OF COTTON.
Until the last census, ginning, pressing
and bailiDg have been classed with the
production" of cotton, and its manufac-
ture held to consist solely ofspinning and
weaving. Yet there is not process to
which the lint is submitted after it is
thrown from the negro's "pocket" that
does not &C: directly on the quality of
the cloth that is finally produced, aud on
the cheapness and efficiency with which
the cloth is made. The separation of the
fibre from the seed, the disposition made
Of the fluffy lint before it is compressed,
the compression itself, and bailing of the
compressed cotton-these are all delicate
operations, involving the integrity of the
fibre, the cost of getting it ready for the
spindle, and the ease with which it may
be spun. Indeed, Mr.. Hammond, of
South Carolina, a most accomplished
writer, contends that the Clubhouse is the
pivotal point around which the whole
manufacture of cotton revolves. There
is no question that with one tenth Of the
money invested in improved gins, clean
ers, and presses that would be required
for factories, and with incomparably less
risk. the South could make one half the
profit, pound for pound, that is made in
the mills of New England. Mr.. f. G.
Morehead, already alluded to in
this article, says: GA farmer who pro-
duces 500 bales of ofcotton-200, 900 pounds
can, by the expenditure of $500 OF
improved gins and cleaners, add one
cent per pound to the value of his crop,
or $4,000. If he added only one-half OF
one per cent. he would get in the first
year over fifty per cent. return of his out
lay" Mr.. Edward Atkinson-to close
this list of authorities-says that the
cotton crop is deteriorated ten per cent.
at least by being improperly handled
from the field TO the factory. 1t is, OF