Smyrna times., 1883-03-28
For the myrRG Times.
Letter from Texas.
THE GREAT COTTON CROPS.

DEAR R1IMES.-10XaSl Is cFeulleu Will | =;
,aising one fourth of that seven mil
ion bales cotton crop that is now said -,
to be impoverishing its procurers. ,,,'
Cotton in interior towns is down Al,
to II "a cents per pound, and the old +,
planter may be described as a man in :,
shabby and tattered garments wand ~
ering about with his seedy broad brim -
hat over his face, looking down to his -
decaying boots and contemplating -
whether he will repeat the experiment r
of flattening out the worlds market on 70
cotton, and causing the alleged short 90
age in the accounts of so many specu ~
lators and defaulting State treasurers \,
for another year or not. ~
Another such victory would be i
defeat, and is already defeat of the old .,
sentiment that slavery was as necessary r..
as cotton. When the growing millions .;
touched 3,65O,OOO followed by the |,
shock of war, the falling of shackles, =
and the adoption of new system, it 4
was thought that those magnificent y
numbers must grow beautifully less as
uncontrolled labor would cause the
cotton land to lapse back into virgin
soil. Bnt it was found that man had a n
master in his own necessities, and Il
above that, the condition of free citizen I
ship and the privilege fproprietorship i
in the soil was stimulant stranger q
than any coercive measures possibly l
could be. Cotton growth formerly
confined in those old states to skirt I
along the sea and the gulf coast has {
now thrown its broad acres we'll back
on the mountain slopes of the Carolinas
and Georgia, and jumped the Mississip-
pi to the fertile prairies of Texas where
they get thousand pounds of lint to
the acre. The report that twelve years
cotton planting in the valley of the
Nile in Egypt land has reduced its
fertility from 900 to 800 pounds per
acre does not agree with American ex-
perience, for Georgia's worn out lands
under the stimulating influences of
phOsphates and nitres have raised her
bailage from $4,000 to 10000. AS this
is the highest example of the reward
of the enterprising yeomen, we think
it safe to say that the cotton spinner
need never fear the loss of his occupa |
ton, or that the number of the spires |
of majestic cotton mills will ever grow
less.
COTTON SEED OIL.
l do not remember that l ever told
your readers of the valuable oil that
has been found locked up in the kernel
1t of the cotton seed. 1t matters not
: whether it was known in ancient days
rs or not, for if it had been the ingenuity
would not have been at hand to have
profitably extracted it, and really it
looks as though there was no room for
any additional oil, for the Yankees are
daily pumping 900 barrels out of the
ground and nearly filed the universe
IA with travelling agents to sell their
products, lighting the homes and lubri-
eating the machinery all around our
planet, and even invaded the ladies
90 toilet with ambrosial lip ointment and
pomade for the flowing hair. But it
was found the oil that was in the
cotton seed was useless and wasted
or and it was further found that the said
do oil possessed many qualities peculiar to
its self and useful in the arts, chiefly
2H1 21 not only as substitute for Olive Oil
of of far famed Italian production, but
ye really supplanter and when shipped
FFS in barrels to Venice, mixed and bottled
by Italian hands and sent to Paris, was
pronounced by the French epicureans
genuine olive oil of a superior quality.
u, Oils for table use are but little resorted
to in this country, but in Europe they
. are used sxtravigantly, and thither the
bulk of the new oil is shipped at re-
numerative prices, and it is we'll known
in many quarters to appear in New
York as it does in London under Ital-
ian labels for salad oil. About two
score of these factories are now run
ing, buying the cotton seed of the
50 planter at 10 cents a bushel, from which
& they procure oRe.eighth of their weigh
~ in oil by machinery specially gotteE
up to hull, grind, steam in large cauld
rons, and express the oil under yer!
0. heavy pressure by powerful machinery
barreled and sold through commission
eat. men at price that ranges nearly witt
Idss IhPsi lard oil. After expressing the oil iron
with the meal it is left in hard cakes, but
orse. easily reduced by hammering and
found valuable for stock feeding fU
which purpose much finds shipment t
England.
io5Se nSs wINTERING STOCK.
sS sS L 1t has frequently occurred to me tbs
2 ! Of stock feeding in Texas or for that ma
nd is ter in the entire Southwest, was a sui
ject that demanded more attentio
- than it receives. The animals fro
a~ lack of winter feeding, while compellt
( this to endure without shelter all the vici
! 'mers HIs itudes of this changable, though sout
~ cured ern latitude, make the planters calc