Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-08-31
HELENA, ARK.
Reliable Information i'm Regard 10 the
Growing Crops.
Influx of COttOn-Buyers-PrOs for
Stiff Market.


Regular Correspondence of the Appeal
HELENA, ARK, August 29.-Within the |
last two weeks | have travelled through
large part of the section of country
tributary to this place. My purpose was
to gain fair and accurate information
in regard to the growing crops, and to |
secure personal knowledge of the people |
generally, to the end that i might speak |
advisedly with regard to both. Every |
where met with disappointment; in some
places finding the crops far better than | !
had anticipated, and in other places far
worse. A more uneven prospect was, per
haps, never seen in this country, and this
it is that makes the yield SO uncertain and
difficult to estimate approximately. In
some places in the lowlands | saw cotton
five feet tall and good for one and quar-
ter bales to the acre, and in some places in
the highlands / have seen cotton, or wha.
purported to be cotton, that would scarce
yield 400 pounds of lint to the square mile
Both of these are, however, rare, and
should be excluded from a draft of the
general average. Nearly everywhere that
the cotton is vigorous and fine the worm
has appeared, but nowhere to any very
considerable extent. But as it will require
at least six weeks yet to fully mature the
crop, and place it beyond the reach of this
destroyer, its presence is anything but re-
assuring. Yesterday as | rode past a
twenty-acre patch that was scarcely more
THAI. five inches tall, and that would not
average more than three bolls to the stalk,
/ met the owner, an old darky, and asked
what he expected to make on it. He re-
piled: "Well, you see, boss, / has
mortgage on ten acres of my
crop, and my onless hope now is
to git what de oder ten acres makes
Kin do dat?' / told the old fellow that
feared he would find the mortgage COM
passed all he made, or would make, and
that from the blighted condition of his
little crop, the mortgage must surely be
over all of it; that it looked very much as
if it was carrying mortgage, and heavy
one, too. ii he gets five bales from the en-
tire twenty acres it will be due to his OBJ
tanning night access to his neighbors' pens
But, as have intimated, there is compara-
lively little of this sort of cotton; but far
too much of it to encourage the belief that
there Will be general two-thirds crop.
There is not enough of the extremely good
to bring up the average of the extremely
poor. Sixty per cent. of last years crop
is all the present promise warrants us to
expect. If we get that, and can secure a
fair price for it, there will then be more
money in the country than last year, be-
cause of the unparalleled economy that
Il
crop is a failure, and but for the big crop
! last year everybody would have some corn
to buy. As it is, however, the majority of
| planters can pull through on what they
make this year and have left over
from last. Notwithstanding the short
crop this year, the people are in
better condition than at any time
since the war. The reason is easily ex-
| planned and understood. Corn was raised
| in al nd
were scarce, many planters made their
own meat, enough to run them, and nearly
all had some meat to begin the new year
on. This year the people came nearer liv-
ing at home than ever known before
Vegetables in abundance were produced,
and not only every residence, but every
cabin and hut shows truck patch at
tached. The country is full OF hogs.
| Every fence corner contains its shoat,
every lot its pigs, and the roadside lob
lOllys whole broods of swine. Go where
you will there are hogs, long-nosed, razor
backs, half Berkshire and occasionally
some of the finest breeds. They are, how
ever, poor; and as there is no mast this
year many will have trouble in fattening
for meat, and all more or less trouble in
carrying their herds through the winter
Last year there was heavy mast and
abundance Of corn, but no hogs; this
year there is just the reverse, but Of the
two the hogs are preferable. Another
gratifying evidence OF the generally i'm
proved condition of the people are the
herds of cattle, fiocks of sheep and droves
Qf hqtses and mules that are to be seen on
every plantation,
The influx OF cotton-buseFs hsre prom
ises a stiff market this fall. This is, OF
course, pleasing to the producer, but rather
embarrassing to the merchant cotton fac
tor, who generally cabbages the whole crop
of his patrons.
The death OF Dr. F. NJ. Jacks, reported
I by telegraph in the APPEAL Sunday, Gre
ates void in tho business circles here that
il will be difficult to fill, DIR, Jacks was
one of the old landmarks OF the place, and
senior member of the firm of Jacks & Co.,
which at one time stood in the front rank
Of Southern houses. He was pioneer in
this section, practicing the profession OF
medicine in the carrier hlst9ry of the coun-
try, and, by his own energies, acquiring a
landed property that reaches closely on to
100000 acres.
Tlp leyee protecting Helena is having
two feet added 10 its hight, which will Sc.
cure the city against any possibility of an
overflow hereafter. Levee-building below
here, al the Fitzhugh and Apperson breaks
is also progressing satisfactorily, and the
people in the lowlands generally are pre-
pairing safeguards against any future trou
BILE from high water in the Mississippi
The prudential measures taking now are
sure apa very encouraging evidence of the
growth and preesess 9f our people TOWARD
an independent and self-secured condition
of prosperity. The first meeting and ex
hibition of the Helena Fair Association
Is announced to take place in October
next, exact dates not yet fixed. The sue
cess Of this enterprise, pei on foot within
the last month, viii be another stride to
ward that era OF prosperity SO long anC
anxiously expected, but so often deferred
till some time in the future.
The Southern Express Company goes OF
the Midland road here September list
This viii greatly i4eEe4Sf the facilities o
the company Tor doing heavy business
as the Midland connects at Clarendon &it
the Paramore, on which seventy new ex
press offices have been opened by thu
} SoulLsrp; between Cairo, ILL.,, and Gains
vile, Tex.
. Clarendon has telegraph ofIiGe now
i, . which doubtless makes the denizens of tn.
/ metropolis of Monroe county very happy
and perhaps little proud, BARNABY.
Lively Railroad war at -, Isuis.