The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-25
BY r. NJ. Larner.

Washington, May 24.-With cotton
at IL cents proposition to turn what
is popularity regarded as the most fer
tile cotton region in the great cotton
state, Mississippi, into truck garden
and stock raising community is GER
tain to attract attention. Yet Mr..
Milton Whitney, chief of the Bureau
of Soils of the Department of Agricul-
ture, believes that the future pros
perity of a large portion of the IA
nous Yazoo delta area of Mississippi
depends on the abandonment of cot
ton for other crops.
Mississippi stands second to Texas
as a cotton-producing state, and ma
tive Mssissippians are proud of her
two bale" cotton land, lying in the
Yazoo delta, and John Sharpe Will
liams, the eloquent member of Con-
gress from that district once referred
In glowing terms in speech on the
floor TO the productive acres of the
Yazoo delta. But he omitted to state,
and this is a general failing with Mis-
sissippians, that only II per
cent. of the delta region is of the two
bale" class, and even here the average
is less than two bales; the remainder
is land which produces from half a
bale to a bale or is lost to agriculture
in swamp land. Here is region
known as the Yazoo area, covering
APO, 12O acres or CSC square miles, TAX
A. he river
The delta" which comprises the
most fertile land, lies between the va
zoo and Mississippi rivers with Mem
phis to the north and Vitksburg to
the south, the arabic land hugging
closely to the river banks or being
found in the higher places in the In
terror. The remainder is swamp land,
1874, $50 acres of it, known as the Shar-
key clay" the redemption of which is
strongly urged by the Bureau of SOILS,
and, which, it is predicted, would,
when drained, equal the finest cotton
producing land in the world, with
yearly capacity of hundreds OF thous-
ands of bales.
Nowhere else in the United States,
II is believed, is there so great re-
no mining, no stock-raising, no man
ufacturing-and, strange to say this
region is devoted to one crop-cotton.
On the uplands, the Cane Hills and the
Flat Hills, whites and blacks are IN
about the usual proportion for Missis-
sippi, the farms being cultivated
largely by their owners; in the delta, y
the black belt" are the plantations
owned by the whites and rented to
thousands of negro tenants.
The distinctive method of farm man
agement is the subdivision of the farm
or plantation into small tracts or
cuts" which are all under the super
vision of single manager, but are
farmed on the share system by color
ed laborers. A one-horse or mule
cut comprises twelve TO twenty
acres; a two-horse cut about double
that amount. A single family can run
the smallest cut, while outside labor
must be hired on the larger tract. The
owner in each case furnishes all the
tools, the work animals and their feed
and usually the seed. II Is the labor
er's duty 10 furnish subsistence for
himself and family and hired hands.
First lien on the crop is given 10 the
owner and a second lien 10 the mer-
chant furnishing the provisions. the
balance, when the crop is sold. going
70 the renter.
An acre Of land. renting from So 10
49, VIII produce from three-eighths Of
bale 10 one and one-quarter bales.
with the cost Of cultivation. team and
implements about s. per acre, and the
cost o. ginning 1870 per bale The
Sisaa "il give two pounds Of seed 70