The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-27

| pear. the cotton belt of the south will
cease 10 produce its matchiess fibre, and
/ desolation like that of Palestine, will
| occupy our wasted fields. These sugges-
i tons are intended only to excite the edI-
torial corps to a determined effort to
| save part. at least, of these neighbors
and friends of cotton.
Water Power In Alabama.
q pass by the other great forests and
/ the water power of the streams they
assist in creating, at cost of one-fifth
| of the horse power produced by fuel.
I omit to discuss the enormous waste
of power that results from our indiffer-
ence to its value, because the occasion
does not admit of more than an outline
| discussion of any of the great topics l
have suggested and turn my thoughts to
| cotton, the chief glory of the agriculture
and white crowned queen of Christian
civilization.
THE hum of the spindles and the soft
| beatings of the looms at Alabama city,
| a suburb of Gadsden. would arrest my
| thoughts with even more attractive force
| than Hoods song of the shirt and cause
| me to drop the grander topic of the cot
ton plant If l could dare to loiter on
| the way to a politico-economie demon
stration OF it's practical Importance to
| the south Hood never contemplated the
beauties of cotton made up by the deft
| hand of woman into the graceful and eX-
1 quiste decoration of the cotton shirt
waist This miracle of economy and grace
would have surprised the poet into rhap-
sodies about cotton and the art that
| fashions it and the beauties 1t adorns and
| Slorifes which have no model, or type,
| or rival in the world Hood would nave
/ changed his song into peans of raptur-
Gus praises had he lived to see this day
| OF browning of cotton with the taste,
beauty and loneliness of southern woman
| hood Cotton was crowned king in his
small real, and his riches excited the
| jealousies of nations and the eoyetousness
OF our nearest political kindred. 1t was
not destroyed in the wars it innocent
! ly provoked but comes forth again with
| It's white banner of peace in the hands
of its queen consort, and with its sword
| Of power belted on the hips of It's king
and its loyal supporters.
Is South's Heritage.
"An civilized nations have striven to
| transfer its dominion to other lands, but
nature and natures God have forever for
hidden the transfer It will remain for
ever the heritage of the cotton belt OF
| the south.
/ II his was "a pIOpntt3. Noulo nv
| presume to utter 1t. 1t is fact that
| experience has established; but, beyond
! historical proofs, 1t has its immovable
/ basis in the physical geography of the
southern coasts of the United States and
/ its rivers, mountains and adjacent seas.
| These causes are a part of the creative
power of the Most High. and they will
| forever stand immovable.
i ct have defined in rough outline the
/ of 1,a MIA nj in the United
| States as lying east of the Tooth degre of
| west longitude and south of latitude 80,
north.
"A more precise definition is based up
! on the average range of the THERMOMETERS
on isothermal lines of 40 to 90 degrees
! Fahrenheit during the spring months of
| March, April and May. These lines have
| been drawn and recorded on maps, With a
precision nearly as exact as our gov
/ eminent lines of land surveys. Exact sci
ence has made these determinations. They
/ are the mean of many records and nave
| such curyatures as result from differences
| in attitudes and other incidental topo-
| graphic features of mountains, hills, val
| leys, plains and large water courses.
1.-THE isothermal line that marks the
| northern border of the cotton belt enters
| the coast near Norfolk. Va. and bends
| south along the foothills of the great
Apalachian rangs of mountains and then
| to the southwest along this elevated re-
| gion until it reaches the Tooth degree OF
west longitude.
"south of this isothermal line Is the
habitat of the cotton plant. Below tnls
/ line the climate is not always the
| same In all places as to moisture, but
| the heat Is uniform In the spring months,
as a rule.
Soils Are Various
.,rba soils of this belt are as various
as they are in any great area of the
| earth Any soil in the cotton belt VIII
| produce cotton successfully, that Will pro-
duce the grasses cereals and root crops.
"It is the climate and not the soil that
furnishes a home to the cotton plant. 1t
| will grow and mature on any SOIL unoer
requisite climatic conditions.
every cotton-grower knows that it Is
an omniyerous feeder and will thrive
on any food that will sustain the cereals,
the grasses. or the edible root crops
An old worn-out hill in North Carolina
or Georgia will produce as much COTTON
and as of good staple as the best SOIL IN
the Delta of the Mississippi, under like
cultivation, if it is fed with the same
food
Fixed BY Natures Laws.
"These facts in combination establish
the nroposition that the cotton belt in the
Tinted States is established and defined
by fixed laws of nature that the ART Oh
man cannot derange or find for them any
substitute The plant demands not less
| than 40 degrees of heat in the soil. for It's
eerminal period of thirty days, and not
more than so degrees for its growing pc
riod of about thirty days. and as hiBh as
90 degrees for its period of frutage, which
may extend to forty days. These are gen.
eral laws of cotton production, and such
exceptions to them as may be FOUND only
prove the rule
eff the period of termination Is ad
vanced so that the earth and air nave ~
| degrees of heat, or above that, IN Marcn
or April the crop Will mature. IL ~
degrees of heat is not found In March or
Anril. the crop will not have time to ma
ture and will fail.
ION line of latitude drawn west
through the north border of North Caro-
lima. cotton will not mature In any soil
| west or north of the Blue Ridge or the
Apalachian mountains. This is the result
of the GOODNESS of the earth, air and wa
ter in the germlnal month
ut Is therefore demonstrated that IN
the United States the growth of cotton to
maturity is regulated by the climate and
depends upon the period OF the germln-
ating months in which the earth, the wa
ter and air are above 40 degrees OF tenn
perature: and the cotton belt is defined
and measured by the thermometer and the
barometer, with scientific precision.
This is as nearly exact science as it
is permissible to apply to the great Sc
crets of nature. 1t is near enough for all
practical uses.
cotton is a very tender plant in its
infancy and cannot be sheltered or nursed