A FEW WORDS ABOUT COTTON.
The best cotton lands in the States lie between 31° and 36° north
latitude. Below 31° the climate is too moist, causing the plant to run
too much to stalk, and the fibre to rot. Above 36° the season is too
short and too cold. The most fertile tracts for the cultivation of
cotton are the great river bottoms. In the Mississippi Valley, twice or
even three or four times as much may be raised to the acre as in
Northern Alabama or Middle Tennessee. But in the Valley there is danger
from floods and the army worm, by which sometimes entire crops are swept
away. On the uplands there is danger from drought.
The life of the planter is one of care and uncertainty. It requires
almost as extensive organization to run a large plantation as a factory.
You never know, until the crop is picked, whether you are going to get
fifty or five hundred pounds to the acre. Anxiety begins at
planting-time. The weather may be too wet; it may be too dry; and the
question eagerly asked is, “Will you have a stand?” If the “stand” is
favorable,—that is, if the plants come up well, and get a good
start,—you still watch the weather, lest they may not have drink enough,
or the levees, lest they may have too much. Look out also for the
destructive insects: kindle fires in your fields to poison with smoke
the moths that lay the eggs; and scatter corn to call the birds, that
they may feed upon the newly-hatched worms. Perhaps, when the cotton is
just ready to come out, a storm of rain and wind beats it down into the
mud. Then, when the crop is harvested, it is liable to be burned; and
you must think of your insurance.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, there is great fascination in the
culture,—the possibility of clearing in one season from a good
plantation fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, causing you to take
cheerfully all risks. The plausible figures dazzle you; and to the
Northern man the novelty of the life in prospect for a year or two is
itself an inducement. You think little of the danger to health from the
miasmas of the swamps; or to property, from the midnight torch of an
enemy; or to life, from the ill-timed recreation of some bushwhacking
neighbor. And you are quite insensible to what the Southern planter
deems the greatest of all risks that beset your crop,—that some day your
freedmen will desert, and leave it to destruction.
I found many Northern planters in the upland districts of Alabama and
Tennessee, where lands are cheaper, plantations smaller, and the risks
less, than in the Mississippi Valley. But the latter region proved the
greater attraction to adventurous capital. Men from the Middle States
and the great West were everywhere, buying and leasing plantations,
hiring freedmen, and setting thousands of ploughs in motion.
From experienced cotton-growers I obtained various estimates of the cost
and probable profits of a crop the present year. They usually differed
little as to items of expense, but sometimes very widely as to profits,
according to each man’s conjectures regarding freedmen’s willingness to
work, and the price of cotton next fall, which one would place as low as
fifteen cents, and another as high as fifty. The annexed statement,
furnished by the Southern Land Agency at Vicksburg, is probably as good
as any:—
“Sir:—The following is an estimate of the expense and cash capital
required to cultivate 500 acres of cotton land within the scope of
our agency, for the year 1866.
25 mules @ $150 $3,750
25 single sets plough harness @ $4 100
3 lumber wagons @ $75 225
25 single ploughs @ $13 325
10 double ploughs @ $18 180
700 bushels cotton-seed @ $1 700
Total outlay for stock, seed, and implements $5,280
1200 bushels corn @ $0.75 $900
120 barrels of corn meal @ $6 (about 1⅓ lb. per
ration) 720
84 barrels pork @ $35 (about ⅔ lb. per ration) 2,940
250 gallons molasses @ $0.75 (about ¾ gallon per
ration each) 187
5 barrels salt @ $3, for stock and hands 15
Wages of 60 hands for 10 months @ $15 per month 9,000
Incidentals 1,000
Total for supplies, wages, and incidentals $14,762
Rent of 500 acres land @ $10 5,000
———————
Total outlay during the season $25,042
Value of the articles on hand at the end of the year:—
Amount paid for stock and implements, _less ¼ for usual
wear_ 3,435
Amount paid for cotton-seed, which is replaced from the
crop 700 $4,135
———————
Leaving _total expenditure during the year_ $20,907
For the actual amount of cash required up to the time a
portion of the crop may be disposed of—say Sept.
30th—deduct ⅔ of the rent, which is not due until the
crop is gathered 3,333
Last quarter’s expenditures for supplies, wages, &c. 4,940 $8,273
———————
$16,769
“From which calculation we see that the _actual cash capital
required_ is $16,769, or about $33 per acre, and the _actual
expense_ about $42 per acre. But as men’s financial abilities differ
materially, we think it quite possible to cultivate land with
smaller capital. Many are hiring men, agreeing to pay but a small
portion of their wages monthly, and the balance at the end of the
year; while others save the use of capital by procuring supplies on
a short credit, or by allowing a portion of the crop for rent.
“The average crop on alluvial land is full one bale per acre; on
second bottom or table lands, about ⅔ bale, and on uplands ½ bale.
“Clothing and extra supplies furnished to hands are usually charged
against their wages.
“This calculation is considered by the most experienced
cotton-growers in the country a fair and liberal estimate; and from
it you may estimate the profit on any sized tract, as the difference
in the amount of land tilled will not materially change the figures.
“Very respectfully,” etc.
Here the cost of some articles is placed too low. Two hundred dollars
each for mules would be nearer the actual price. The cotton-seed to be
replaced by the crop should also be thrown out of the consideration if
you expect to close up business at the end of the year, for although
seed this season brought one dollar and upwards, it has no merchantable
value in ordinary times. This you will take into account if intending to
undertake a plantation next year.
But suppose we call the total expenditure for this year twenty-four
thousand dollars. And suppose a full crop is produced,—five hundred
acres yielding an equal number of bales. Taking twenty-five cents a
pound as a safe estimate, you have for each bale (of five hundred
pounds) $125; for five hundred bales, $62,500. From this gross amount
deduct the total expenditure, and you have remaining $38,500. If you go
to the uplands where less cotton is produced, you employ fewer hands,
and have less rent to pay,—perhaps not more than four or five dollars
for good land. Should cotton be as low as twenty cents, you have still a
fair margin for profits; and should it be as high as fifty, as many
confidently maintain it will be, the resulting figures are sufficiently
exciting.
In 1850 Mississippi produced 484,292 bales, of 400 pounds each; in 1860,
more than twice that quantity. The present year, notwithstanding the
scarcity of labor and the number of unprotected and desolated
plantations, there is a prospect of two thirds of an average crop,—say
half a million bales. The freedmen are working well; and cotton is
cultivated to the neglect of almost everything else. If we have a good
cotton season, there will be a large yield. If there is a small yield,
the price will be proportionately high. So that in either case the crop
raised in Mississippi this year bids fair to produce forty or fifty
million dollars.