The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-08-30
crn man foresaw. In the first place,
tho lnvnnc rnro oil down md none had

GUU liIC lOl plGCIllIS a CAop AZ oiiS
gulf States, but there was fine corn
and vegetable yield all over the coun-
try. In 1866 the entire North seemed
to be South planting cotton. These
gentlemen in many instances were
most charming and agreeable neigh
bors. Such, for example, were Gen
eral Frank Blair, who leased three
places in Madison parish, La: Gen
eral F. j. Heron and Whitelaw Reid,
who were in Concordia parish, lower
down than Blair, and General An
drews, of Massachusetts, who planted
one Of the Hampton places. Another
Union General was in partnership
with the ex-Confederate General For
rest, planting on the Yazoo, and many
others could be named. The firm of
Hoyt, Spraguc & Co., Of Providence,
R. l., and New York city, leased
twelve immense plantations, paying a
rental of from $4,000 to $1,000
year for each, and spent nearly 81 ,O0O,-
600 in this way and in purchasing
supplies, farming implements, live
stock, etc. Their Investment was a
total loss.
The crop was planted. Had the
crop maturcd on the scale intended it
would have been about 5000, 900
bales. But just as it began to come
up there came the "irst rise" as old
niantcrs call it. on the Mississippi
river, which did the work. In week,
a beautiful crop was ten feet under a
yellow, muddy, swirling food. When
the river did go down there might
have been crop planted in the mud,
just as there was this year, but the
supply of seed was exhausted. No
more could be had until it grew. So
ended the first year. The levees were
patched up. Carpetbag Legislatures
in Louisiana and Mississippi made big
appropriations for rebuilding those OF
Importance. In few instances,
where the land was so high that the
floods did not overflow it, superb
crop was made. AS cotton was worth
about 60 cents per pound, a bale was
worth $500, and 500 bales meant the
snug sum Of s15O,OOO. The few big
crops stimulated the New Englandcrs
and others who had come down
South" to make fortunes. At such
prices for cotton, anything like a good
yield meant profit that was seeming
ly stupendous. So try it again they
would. 1t could not be that the Mis-
sissippi and other rivers always over
flowed.
For years the fields had not been in
cultivation and under the sod lay an
enemy more dangerous to the cotton
than any food. In 1867 it did look as
though great cotton crop would be
made. L'homme propose, ct Dieu
dispose. About the 1st of July OF
that year an acquaintance was in the
parish of Madison, La, staying few
days with an old-time friend who had
left one of his legs among the cedars
at Stone River. One afternoon Gen
eral Frank Blair asked this gentleman,
an experienced planter, and his visitor
to ride out and take look at his cot
ton field. Just before sundown they
rode over to 'NYynn Forest" A
finer stand of cotton was never seen.
There it stood, field Of something
over 1000 acres, gracefully waving in
the rising night breeze from the dis
tant sea. It was just beginning to
blossom and there was not weed or a
tuft of grass to be seen.
"Your crop will be worth s15O,OOO,
general" said the old planter to
Frank Blair, "and, believe me, am
sincerely glad Of your good fortune. "
This was little after 6 o'clock p. m.
The next morning at about IL
o'clock the overseer came in greatly
excited. "Thc worms have eaten up
General Blair s entire crop OF cotton,
said he.
"My Lord" groaned his friend and
neighbor. II expected this y He
and his visitor rode over to the field.
1t looked as though fire had swept
it. Where the cotton had waved SC
gracefully in the breeze the night
before, there was nothing but the bare
earth to be seen, with now and then a
standing stalk Of cotton stripped OF
it's leaves and covered with myriads OF
little active caterpillars from three
quarters Of an inch to an inch long
This was the cotton worm. And in
one night these worms had come.
where from no one could tell, and
were from two inches to foot deer
all over the field. When you walkeo
among them your foot sunk down into
something soft, as though you hac
stepped upon lot of very young kit
tens. And it was this way all over
the cotton regions of Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi, Arkansas and Texas. The
result was that the cotton crop cIiled
again the second year.
By this time the old resident plan
ter was ready to take hold. Hc san
that money could be made growing
cotton. He determined to make it.
The lessces of the plantations were
ready to quit, so the old owner pur
chased their improvements-such Of
them as he wanted-and went at it
The levecs were rebuilt and he knew
how to extinguish the cotton worm
The largest crop Of cotton made under
the best conditions of slavery was
something above 1900, 900 bales. The
crop of 1928 was over 5000, ,OO(
bales. There are no more negroes
there now than there were when 4,
500, 900 bales were made in 1S60-61
Who, then, is doing this great work /
The Southern white man.
The South has grown enormously ir
other respects. 1t will always be a
producing and agricultural country
rather than one for manufacturing
The Louisiana sugar planter made
three times as much Sugar to the acre
this year as he ever made before the
war. The rice planters arc thriving.
There was no great panic in the South
this year, and in New Orleans but one
failure Of any Importance, which was
caused by the senior partner of the
firm getting caught in a New York
coffee pool. -
There was fear years ago among
conservative planters that the cottor
region might be 'ovcrplantcd )" that
is. more made than could be DrOfita