_Coffin's Point, Sept. 18._ Cotton is opening well now, but we have
rather unfavorable weather for picking and drying. The caterpillars
have finally run over a good deal of ground, doing some damage, hard
to tell how much.
R. thinks he don't care to try the experiment of cotton-raising
again--the risks and vexations are so great. I find that feeling quite
general here this year among planters. William Alden says it is his
last year. I doubt whether he pays expenses this season. His cotton is
late, and now the caterpillars are destroying it.