The Cotton Resources of the South, Present and Future [pp. 132-144]

THE COTTON RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH.
And look, again, at the vast benefits which will accrue to Turkey,
Egypt and India. Millions upon millions have been poured into
these countries, and although all but Egypt must cease to hold an
important position in supplying the world with cotton, yet vast per manent improvements will have been established, works of irrigation,
railroads and canals, and better systems of agriculture, new and better t(ools introduced, the effect of all of which will be to permanently
improve the condition of the laborer in those distant regions.
It is thus that the brotherhood of nations asserts itself. We may
not, here, trace out the degrading influence upon labor which the existence of slavery has exerted in the past upon all nati(ons, but we may
trace out the manner in which the efforts for its overthrow have resulted in elevating labor throughout the world.
To return to the actual cotton question, you will have seen from
what I have stated, that the true climate for cotton is not a tropical
one, but one of considerable extremes of heat and frost-of moderate
rain at the proper season, followed by dry summers; and to these
qualities must be added clear sunshine, for cotton is essentially a
sun plant. And you will see how wonderfully all these conditions
are met by the condensation of the vapor raised fromn the warm
waters of the gulf stream, brought inlanid and condensed upon the
Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge, and also by the equally wonderful
provision by which Texas is made a great cotton State, although one
of less certain crops, owing to severe droughts which occasionally
destroy them.
But a word about soils. I dare not treat of soils, as I am neither
chemist nor geologist, but one may find a most interesting and valuable analysis of the soils of the cotton States in a little book upon
the culture of cotton, by Dr. Mallet, Professor of chemistry in the
University of Alabama, and published in London by Chapman and
Hall, in 1862.
The soil of the Sea Islands, on which the Sea Island cotton is produced, is very light and sandy, one on which very wretched crops of
corn can be made. The Sea Island cotton is a different variety from
the commin on cotton; it is a black seed cotton, requires special cultivation; and a crop can only be made by heavily manuring the land
with a compost of marsh mud, salt, grass and reeds. Oa these
islands, a wretched and isolated population of ne(groes, ill fed and
badly clothed, has furnished wealth to a few planters.
The islands are unhealthy, but perhaps the causes of ill-health
may be removed by drainage. The amount of the cotton has been
less than the one one hundred and fiftieth part of the entire crop, and
if entirely given up, would have but little adverse effect on our manufactures. The manufaeture of some of the very finest laces and organdies would cease in England and France, but only articles of
luxury would thus be lost.
The soils on which the green seed, or great usefill crop of cotton
is raised, are divided as follows. The bottom lands of the rivers, on
which, in favorable years, the great crops, per head and per acre, are
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