Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-12-09

Success of the Latest EndeavorH
10 Grow Cotton in CaltfOr-
mia Valleys.

San Francisco Bulletin,l 80. F,
No fact is more clearly established
than that cotton of excellent quality
can be grown in California. All thSt
is wanting is a market for the staple
on our coast, as it cannot prohtably be
laid down in Eastern manufactures on
account Of heavy freights.
The locations where it has been
tested have been chiefly the Ban
JOAQUIN and Sacramento valleys.
It is about ten years since the
Messrs. Strong and Buckley Brothers
began the planting of cotton in Hope
ton, in MERGED county. -.
Sea Island cotton was tried, but II
did not do well, the staple growing
short. IA
GREAT damage was done by cattle,
which not only developed a fondness
for the green crop, but would even eat
the boil when nearly mature, with the
lint and seeds.
So improbable was the pursuit
fonnd to be. that in 1874 not a Gotten
stalk was to be seen in California,
with the exception of one field near
Hopeton and ten acres on Kings river.
The decrease of the area OF cotton
nlanting which followed the first un-
remunerative though not wholly un.
successful efforts, continued for several
years. Within the last five or SIX
wears the wooden mills on the coast
have increased in numbers and indl
yidual capacity. A new market,
though not a large one, has been
created, and the culture Of cotton has
received a fresh stimulus. New
experiments are being tried in various
localities in the San Joaquin and
Sacramento valleys. 3,
The cotton plantations OF Merced
county are in the valley Of MERGED
river. near Snellings, the old county
seat, and are owned Individually BY
Messrs. Strong, Buckley and Grade.
They cover a section Of the valley
about three miles in length. The
lands are irrigated, and produce about
$50 pounds per acre, which is in ex-
cess of the average product OF uplands
at the South. The entire crop is sold
to the woolea mills of the coast at
from 10 to 123 cents per pound which
Is about the rate at which Southern
cotton can be laid down here, the
freight of which is estimated at l cent
per bound. Prof. Hilgard says that
the quality of this cotton is very good,
the staple being long, strong and fine
Chinese labor has SO far been EN-
Moved in packing. White persons do
not easily adapt themselves to it, and
the planters cannot afford to hire
them.
Nowhere else in America is cotton
raised by irrigation. Water has to be
applied with great care, for the un-
evenness of the subsoil at the best is
apt to induce q new growth and injure
the staple.
Professor Hilgard says that by far
the most experiment OF the
year was made by w. H. Parks and
+. A. Shaffer on the Feather River
bottom in Yuba county, near Gridley.
Half an acre Of upland cotton was
planted. The stalks grew four feet in
height. and the quality was good. The
growers claim that it yielded at the
rate of two bales per acre, or from 500
to 1000 pounds, estimating the average
weight Of the bales at from 475 to SOC
pounds.
These experiments in the northern
counties prove that cotton can b.
grown in certain localities without q
drop of rain: also that little or nothing
is to be feared from frost. The crol
in Yeba county was planted on thu
10th Of May and might have been pu.
in much earlier. The bolls open abou
the time of early lrOsts in Tennessee
The cotton are in California lies be
tween 39' and 450 north, a higher lat
litude than the plant can be grow
elsewhere in the United States.
A great point in favor Of cotton
growing in California is that it can b
raised as an alternative Of wheat
which greatly exhausts the surlac
soil. Cotton is a deep feeder, an
takes much Of its nourishment froI
| lar below the surface. 1t can B
raised indefinitely on the same grOun
if the seed which contains all tn
g chemical elements necessary to its SUI
t cessful culture, is regularly put bac
e as a fertilizer.
( The following table from advanC
sheets Of preliminary report Of Pro
!. Hilgard to the Census Bureau, is fu
Of encouragement to the cotton plan
ers Of California. 1t shows the nun
Der of acres under cultivation in Il
II several States which make cotton Gu
ture a special branch Of industry, Il
aggregate raised in bales and the a
IF erage per acre in fraction OF balo: