The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-10-09
ON PLANTING COTTON.
Early Days Of tho Industry In America
Tsrtile Manufactmers' Edition, Boston.

fIaUteIS ASSOGlatlouJ uoiu az fAChoou! 5,
Miss, Major T. M. Barnes, of Atlanta,
Ga, delivered an address in which he
told his hearers that in Tinted States
cotton seeds were first plau.eu as an e1-
pertinent in 1921. In the province of
South Carolina the growth of the cotton
plant is noticed in paper of the date of
1866, preserved in Carroll's historical
collections of South Carolina. In 1876
the plant was known in gardens in lati-
tude 39o North on the Eastern shore of
Maryland, and about forty years after.
ward it was cultivated in the county of
Cape May, N. J. 1t was, however, little
known except as a garden plant until
after the Revolutionary war-at the com.
mencement of which General Delgall is
said to have had thirty acres of the green
seed cotton under culture near Savannah.
In 1884 it is stated that among the ex-
ports of Charleston, S. c., were seven
bags of cotton valued at G3 lis. sd. a
bag. Another small shipment was made
in 1854, and in Ito three more-amount.
ing to ten bales-were shipped to Liver
pool. In the year 1884 eight bags ship.
ped to England were seized on the ground
that so much cotton could not be pro.
duced in the United States. The
exports of the next six years were sue.
cessively IA, 6, 100, $50, 042 and lin 179O)
81 bags.
In 1856 the first Sea Island cotton was
raised on the coast of Georgia, and its
expectation commenced in 1888 by Alex
ander Bissill, of St. Simon's island. The
seeds were obtained from the Bahamas,
the plant having been introduced there
from Auguilla, one of the Leeward isles.
The first successful crop in the State was
that of William Elliott, in 1890, on
Hilton Head is1and.. The success of the
crop caused many to engage in its cult
vation, and some of the largest fortunes
in South Carolina were thus rapidly
accumulated. In 1871 the cotton crop of
the United States was 100000 pounds
equal 10 about 5000 of our present
size bales-three-fourt of which was
raised in South Carolina, and one-fourth
in Georgia.
Besides the United States, the chief
countries for the production of cotton are
the East Indies, Egypt, Brazil, the West
Indies and Guiana.
India contributes supply of cotton
next in Importance to that of the United
States.
Again, until the past few years, cotton
seed, except for planting purposes, were
considered utterly worthless, and in order
to get rid of them the hands and teams
were put to work hauling them away
from the gin house. Regarding them in
this light, there was no object in econo'
mizing when the planting season came
round, and anywhere from three to FIVE
bushels per acre were wasted by the
before mentioned African planter"-the
darkies' hands-enough wasted on every
fifty acres to pay for three or four plant
ers.
About the year 1850 cotton planter,
known as the Foster planter, was invented
by North Carolinian, and manufactured
in Baltimore. 1t was looked upon with
considerable suspicion and distrust, and
yet, Notwithstanding this fact and its
clumsy and unwieldy proportions, quite
number were introduced into the Caro-.
linas, and on nicely prepared ground the
work was comparatively satisfactory.
This gave rise to various and sundry sug-
gestions about the saving of time and
labor. These suggestions were caught up
by different manufacturers of New York
and Pennsylvania, and inside OF two or
three years cotton planters were being
distributed in the different cotton States,
especially in the Carolinas. Corn plant.
ers had been pronounced success, and
these manufacturers expected similar
results from their cotton planters. But
with all their akill and inventive genius
they lacked practical experience with
cotton seed. They had not fallen upon
correct principle for forcing tenacious
seed filled with lint through hopper
with sufficient regularity to ensure a
stand of cotton. After repeated tests,
followed by as many failures, these
machines were thrown into fence corners,
and the old method of planting
continued, though enough had been
developed to put the farmer to thinking.
At the close of the war, partly OF neces.
sity and partly to escape the conflict
with free labor, a large majority of cotton
farmers rented their lands to. the new.
aedged freedmen. This condition of
things was almost as bad for the intro
duction of improved machinery as before
the freedom of the slaves and wherever
it exists now this rule holds equally good.
The owner of the land said he didn't pro-
pose to buy improved implements to be
destroyed by negroes and mules the
tenant said be didn't propose to buy them
for the benefit of the landlord. Consid-
ering the extreme poverty of the South
at this time, as we'll as the unhappy rela'
ton between renter and tenant in the
common struggle to become accustomed
to the new order of things, it is not sur
prisiug that labor saving machinery had
10 bide its time.
A few years later the intelligent land
owners made discovery, and that was
that their farms, instead of improving
under the tenant system, or even holding
their own, were being sadly neglected
and injured. In order to reclaim these
wasting lands it was necessary to take
them back under their own supervision,
and hire the labor. This revived the
interest in the labor-saving implements,
aud this time cotton planters were
inquired for. Again the market was sup
piled with the second edition of worthless
planters, some coming down from the
North, others manufactured, or botched
up, at country blacksmith and cross roads
wagon shops, and not one in fifty worth
the cost of transportation to the field.
With this experience, it is not surprising
that large per centum of cotton was
planted by hand. But little later still,
and the necessity for economizing on the
farm becomes so pressing that not only
the most improved cotton planters, but
also scrapers, cultivators and harrows,
are sought after by the more intelligent
farmers of the South. Advertisements
are consulted, Expositions and State and
County Fairs are visited. Selections are
made and the machines put to Work-Of