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LT) iroiaemltte Seed erate : ; ease ental ty Scrape Rechte tai ry F on Chaat aca eae aeton Nae anar te ORede mie Sea aerate : de - at ee Phe Lon Tei? Whe aD eel cary Ret by Menai) Soot cent oe rae S He Slee ani sae eek ict etic fence iy Bien vane tani taut apis fresruins oat Hcl enepateeed, Wipe Sate Mee 5 rH byepeal Tt Fs he pnd aa ae ee ane bts Sat ae eal Med et aaa a ap ehae Lesa oe ete SR ty Pen oe eat niyee rr a : Saat vi is Secs an au Pec lnc my pe ne Cerebus tats Earlene] a ee b arse aes. tig, (sve eee Jattral Tistory. ladelphia. Pa. oA o A FAN 7 = a mo = WAV Y op di / NS WA fe i 4 ul WH Bale eee Division of MoTuelig . ional] Library — | ay a —- po A) ‘ it 1 ” = . MISS sas ps. . b) - 9664 eu: ae L- pacts =e aR Beer (io etc 7 ; i PREFACE. Tue following pages contain the substance of a Re- port made to the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, with such alterations and modifications as the writer was authorized and instructed to make, and which became necessary to bring the publication within the means ap- propriated for that purpose. This occasioned a partial abridgment, and rendered the omission of the larger portion of the plates, designed to illustrate it, unavoidable. These changes in the scope and proportions of the work, obviously detract, in some degree, from its perspi- cuity and completeness, and must found some claim to indulgence for its defects. The circumstances which devolved the preparation of this work upon the author, and the disadvantages under which it was executed, are explained in the Introduc- tion; and these also, the indulgent reader will doubtless admit, should screen from a too rigid criticism the per- formance of one wholly unpractised in the art and mystery of book-making. lV PREFACE. To some extent local in character, and addressed mainly to the agriculturists of the country, a class to whom a popular style and an avoidance of abstruse speculations are most acceptable, it is not expected that the work will ereatly interest the proficient in science. The naturalist, nevertheless, may not be wholly dis- appointed in the perusal of these pages, and perchance may glean some information as to the geographical dis- tribution of the Fauna and Flora of our country, their local habits, and characteristics, and extend his know- ledge by an acquaintance with our paleontology. For these he will be indebted, in part, to those gentle- men who have kindly lent me their aid in some of these departments. The name of Agassiz stamps with authen- ticity the catalogue of southwestern fishes that has been given. Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, verifies the list of our reptiles; and Mr. Conrad has found in our collections the means of establishing forty new species of Eocene fossils—no inconsiderable contribution to mine- ral Conchology. The casual reader may find something to interest him in the early history of our State, as well as in the pro- eress of our agriculture, and in the cultivation and pre- paration of our important staple, which, beyond the cotton-growing States, has been little understood. It is, however, to the favor and indulgence of my own fellow-citizens, for whose information and benefit it was chiefly prepared, that I commend the work. Satisfied with their approval, my gratification will be PREFACE. Vv complete, should my labors contribute in any degree to their knowledge or prosperity. Of the mechanical execution of the work, it is scarcely necessary to speak. The neat typography of Collins needs no commendation; and the chromo-lithographs of Rosenthal exhibit in a most creditable manner the pro- gress of this art in our country, and give examples of a style of illustration for works of this character, which has not yet been surpassed. eo - agley, | -h OES ERE : "a ast, i egies, mon f ori sini te ~ wAlh ait ¥) bres bln ey eh ao (iy kate i i fs el ay 1 Were shh ba ud s fay ch relate hai wil My OR naif dist nin aay ty ae ‘4 av Maen 4.4 a] De CONTENTS. Preface : List of Illustrations . Introduction J. HisroricAn OUTLINE Expedition and discovery by De Soto As a colony of France : As a British province As a province of Spain II. Lanp TItTLEs III. AGRIcULTURE. Early state and progress of agriculture The cultivation of tobacco The cultivation and preparation of ica The cotton plant; its origin and varieties, and its ene- mies and diseases The mode of planting, ere eal euros ae cotton crop Whitney’s gin—Invention, and introduction of ma- chinery Preparation of cotton a ken its expomanad an sale : Maize, or Indian corn Wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice, &c. Sugarcane. : : Sweet potato . Trish potato Pulse . Grasses Statistics—progress and pondied of menting nee PAGE iii al xili ee 18 21 53 66 117 127 132 135 138 150 155 170 181 186 189 190 193 195 197 200 Vill CONTENTS: PAGE IV. GEroLoey. Introductory remarks : : : 207 Loéss, or loam : : ; é : 213 Sandstone—Davion rock : : P ; 214 Grand Gulf sandstone ; : ; : 216 Ferruginous sandstone—iron . E ; : 219 Limestone. : 3 : 223 Clays, ochreous cuttin and wands ; 226 Marls, or mineral fertilizers. ; ; 229 Coal, or lignite : : : : 236 Iron pyrites, gold, copper, ard lead . ‘ 240 Diluvium, or northern drift. . : : 245 Springs and wells. ; : E 253 Mineral waters . : : i : 258 Artesian wells : ; f : ; 260 Paleontology : ‘ 269 Catalogue of Fe Ssine Segie ; é : 287 Catalogue of Jackson fossils . : : 3 289 Analysis : ; : : : 290 Meteorology . : 297 Tables of temperature, and fall of rain 3 299 V. Fauna. Mammalia, or animals ; i : 310 Aves, or birds ; : . : : 317 Reptilia, or reptiles. : ¢ t : 327 Pisces, or fish z : 332 Mollusca, or shell- fish : : : : 338 VI. Fora. Forest-trees_ . : : : 341 Parasites, runners an) elratiers : : : 344 Undergrowth perennials ; : : £ 345 Noxious weeds 6 : : ‘ : 345 Vitis, or grape : t : 346 Plants, useful, medicinal, and paaeaea : : 346 a Herts oan CONTENTS. ne Ee ND) Ds The President of the Board of Trustees of the State University to the Governor of the State Message of Governor McRae to the Legislature Report of the Committee of the Senate The act providing for printing of report : Extracts from Dr. Millington’s report to the Governor . Mr. Dunbar’s classification of land titles Whitney’s specification, and description of his gin Conveyance of right to use a Whitney gin 1X PAGE aol 301 359 360 363 364 367 370 cay = ' ‘ 7 & OM , « 4 | y 4 Ka y Gh : 1@itaas : es * PLATE Le Tr EV: VA VIL. VIII. IX. XI. CUE. XIII. XIV. XV. DV G ae VLE ILLUSTRATIONS. Old English map of Mississippi. Seals of the British province of West Florida. Old French copper coins. Figs. 2 and 3. Fac-similes of Spanish governors and seals. The cotton plant. 1st view. The cotton plant. 2d view. Caterpillar, chrysalis, and moth on cotton. Rot in cotton bolls. Primitive roller gin. Fig. 1. Roller gin with treadle and balance wheel. Fig. 2. Whitney’s gin of 1807. Fig. 3. Section of cylinder with flattened wire teeth. Fig. 4. Section of same with pointed wire teeth. Fig. 5. Cotton plantation in the West Indies, in 1764. Geological strata. Illustration of stratification. Figs. 1 and 2. Artesian well at Columbus. Fig. 1. Principles of artesian wells. Fig. 2. Sections on Brandon Railroad. Boring artesian wells. Fossil shells from the Eocene marl-beds at Jackson. Fossil shells from the Eocene marl-beds at Jackson. Fossil shells from the Eocene marl-beds at Jackson. Fossil shells from the Eocene mar]-beds at Jackson. «Agent? et j ¥ iyi ago Ml tre al aii. ia Gail-teu woragihh ditt ural wlhodds Umea: tO te oleate vr andow jit nest Mlods linnw'h ‘ 7 4 a ¢ * 4 2 oh! allow calor 10. aateBeiet ' « Pa rilingh MOR UNIT 40, caeii tr ‘- a . 7) an ' MNGer & pray BMV: ‘ nar s - pe . ee ee ‘pet aOL oc! Sah? Shits wea it CRQMORE oD prod ffudia fend" E | i oe : : on : i Re Pee ).. ALT. Ak ALE VEX one ia rr MT ANVTTIAT INTRODUCTION. Tue Agricultural and Geological Survey of the State originated in an act of the Legislature, approved the 5th of March, 1850, to take effect on the first of June following, entitled “an Act further to endow the Uni- versity of Mississippi;” and its execution was committed to that Institution. Dr. John Millington was appointed, by the Trustees, principal Professor of Geology and Agriculture, in con- nection with the professorship of Chemistry then held by him in the University. No assistant was obtained until the latter part of 1851, and the gentleman then appointed relinquished the situation shortly after; having merely commenced a reconnoissance of the State, of which no report was made. The situation was tendered to the present incumbent on the 14th of January, 1852. Since that time he has been occupied in the performance of the duties com- mitted to him, which were somewhat augmented by an amendatory act of the Legislature, passed after his ap- pointment, by which a room in the State House was set apart and placed under his charge, for the better pre- servation of the collections in Natural History, which, as the State Geologist, he was required to make. X1V INTRODUCTION. In the prosecution of this work, a considerable por- tion of the State has been traversed, with a view of gaining such general knowledge of its character as would best guide and direct the subsequent, more detailed, and minute examination to be made. More than seven thousand three hundred miles have been travelled, collections amounting to several thousand specimens have been made, and the character, peculiari- ties, and productions of the different sections visited, have been observed and noted. It was doubtless with a general knowledge of the geological features of the State that the Survey was authorized by the Legislature. Consisting chiefly of the more recent formations, the absence of the primitive and metalliferous rocks, in place, gave no reason to expect the existence of those ores and minerals which belong properly to an earlier period, and which constitute the chief resources of less favored and fertile districts than ours. The discovery of mines of copper, lead, or of the more precious metals, or, even of the true coal-fields, was obviously not to be expected. It was, therefore, mainly in reference to its influence and bearing upon the agricultural prosperity of the State, that it was undertaken. The effects produced in New Jersey, Virginia, and several other States, in the restoration of exhausted lands to their primitive fertility, by the application of the marls or mineral manures which similar surveys have brought into notice, exerted the chief influence in setting on foot an enterprise for developing our own re- sources of this character, which were suspected, with good reason, to exist in the great tertiary field that overspreads the State; and the examination which has so far been made, establishes the fact, that our stores of INTRODUCTION. XV calcareous fertilizers are as abundant, as varied in character, and excellent in quality, as any other State can boast. To ascertain and point out the chief deposits of these marls, and to determine their relative value and chemi- cal constituents, becomes now an object of much im- portance. Exact analyses of the different varieties, characterizing them by the prevailing fossils, when such exist, so as at once to be identified by the planter, should be made; numerous experiments in their application should be encouraged; and the effects upon the growth of our different agricultural productions should be dili- gently observed, and accurately detailed. The attention of planters has been pointed to these fertilizers on all suitable occasions, and in a few instances experiments on a limited scale have been commenced, the result of which cannot of course yet be given. Specimens have also been collected, with their associated and characteristic fossils, and have been deposited for general inspection, in the State Cabinet at the Capitol, and in the Cabinet of the University at Oxford. Analyses of many varieties of our marls and soils should have been given in this Report. ew of these, however, have been procured, owing, in part, to a defect in the law authorizing the Survey, and to the illness and subsequent resignation of Dr. Millington, the principal Professor of Geology and Chemistry, in the State Uni- versity. The latter event occurring at a period so nearly ap- proaching to that at which a report of the progress of the Survey was required, devolved unexpectedly upon the assistant that duty, which, under the existing cir- cumstances, must otherwise have been unperformed. Interrupted by a severe and protracted indisposition, Xvi INTRODUCTION. and surrounded by a pestilence, the source of perpetual and distracting anxiety, the writer feels that the duty which has been so untowardly postponed, and in the end so hurriedly executed, has been very imperfectly dis- charged, and trusts that these considerations will be re- garded as constituting some claim to indulgence, for the many imperfections which may be charged against this Report. Whilst captious and ill-natured criticism is ever to be deprecated, a fair and proper correction of error is as much to be desired; and in an essay of this character, in which the object is to impart useful knowledge, is rather to be invited. Errors have doubtless occurred in treating of the multifarious topics which are embraced in this Report; and to the end that the greatest accuracy may be at- - tained, the writer will be gratified to have them pointed out, in order that they may be corrected and avoided in future. Of the plan of this Report, it will be seen that, with the sanction of approved precedents, it has been con- sidered that a short preliminary sketch of the discovery and early history of the country, not hitherto separately written, would not be out of place. In compiling and abridging this from other writers, it has been a somewhat difficult task to condense it within the required limits, except at the expense of much of the interest that would attach to a more detailed account. To the works of Martin, Stoddard, and Gayarre, and to the Journal of Ellicott, the United States Commis- sioner for receiving possession of the country, I am in- debted for many of the facts which have been given, and I have not unfrequently adopted the language in INTRODUCTION. XVil which they were originally detailed. To these highly respectable and authentic sources of information with respect to our early history, it gives me pleasure to ac- knowledge my indebtedness. From the manuscript correspondence of the late Mr. William Dunbar “of the Forest,” I have also been ena- bled to glean some interesting facts, and to the repre- sentatives of his family I have to express my thanks for the opportunity afforded me of consulting it. The Spanish archives preserved in the State, have also, to a limited extent, been consulted, and, had time permitted, might have been more profitably explored. I have to regret, notwithstanding, that this sketch is not more complete; the more so, as there is reason to believe that some authentic and interesting documents are pre- served in the State, not as yet made public, which, if accessible, would no doubt serve to fill up some of the chasms and otherwise explain and illustrate our early history. These I should have been pleased to avail myself of. As a subject of interest to the landed proprietors of the State, the chapter on Land Titles was considered as germain to the subject, and entitled to the short space which it occupies. An attempt has been made to give a view of the earl y agriculture of the country, derived mainly from the ac- counts received from many of our older inhabitants, with whom I have conferred, aided by my own recollec- tions. In the details given of the different agricultural productions, the mode of cultivation, and the machinery for preparing these, I have been similarly aided. In all that has been said in this connection, universal concurrence is not expected. On matters in which there is such diversity both in Bo : XVill INTRODUCTION. theory and practice, as in the course of cultivation and choice of implements especially, this is not to be at- tained. If it be maintained that any of these details are erroneous, I can only say that any such will be most willingly corrected, when it can be done on better au- thority than that on which any specific fact.or statement has been given. The tables of agricultural and other statistics have been prepared from the best sources, and will form matter for convenient and useful reference. At this stage of the Survey, and in the first, and as it may be termed preliminary report, the notice of the Geology and other departments of natural history, will necessarily present a mere outline, and cannot assume that form and shape which will properly be given them in a final report. Such an arrangement has been adopted, however, as far as these subjects are embraced, as will, it is believed, give a reasonably comprehensive and familiar view of those departments of the Report. Of the Fauna and Flora of the State, in the notice that has been taken of them, my own observations have been directed by the best available authorities; and in the former department, among others the works of DeKay, and of Audubon, and Bachman, among the most recent published, and by inference, the most complete and cor- rect, have been consulted. The aid of distinguished naturalists, also, has been liberally afforded; and I have to acknowledge my indebtedness, and express my thanks, to Professors Agassiz and Baird, and to Mr. Conrad, for their contributions to this department of the Report. The catalogues furnished by them, although not so complete or perfect as they will hereafter be made, have the stamp of authenticity and accuracy to recommend them. I should be remiss, were I to omit INTRODUCTION. XIX to acknowledge the obligations I am also under to Dr. Leidy and Mr. Cassin, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia. As to the illustrations which accompany this Report, the limited means appropriated to the Survey, and the dearth of artistic skill available in this quarter, have made me dependent upon the early, imperfect, and self- taught attainment of drawing; and which, having been almost wholly unpractised for nearly thirty years, makes an apology necessary for their rude and unsatisfactory execution. In making the collections required, the cases in the State Cabinet attest that a reasonable progress has been made with the means appropriated to this object, and upwards of a thousand duplicates have been deposited in the University at Oxford, for its cabinet. When this collection is further advanced towards completion, on the plan I have proposed, it will form, to some extent, a museum of economic geology and agri- culture, in which, not only specimens of natural history, the soils, marls, and minerals, may be preserved; but also improved and rare agricultural productions and im- plements may be exhibited with profit and instruction to the planter, at the same time that the collection will form one of much interest to the scientific visitor, to say nothing of the means of instruction and gratifica- tion it will afford to the young and the curious of all classes. . In my travels through the State, on this not very generally understood or properly appreciated mission, it was to be expected that occasionally little either of information or assistance would be afforded. Such, however, has rarely been the case; and the degree of iuterest which has often been manifested in my pursuits XX INTRODUCTION. has been very gratifying, and augurs favorably for the future and more minute prosecution of this investi- gation. To those gentlemen whose hospitality and assistance have been kindly and liberally extended to me, on my various excursions in different quarters, I can only offer my sincere thanks, and express the hope that they may derive some gratification, if not profit, from the final issue of the Survey. WASHINGTON, Miss. ry é I of Li o 6 WSStisse >>,” The River Taw $ he FRENCH. ¢ WITH THE Kiver Nautches nf lately strayed ly the es a hd Frencit ; i stones be aN py of Mobile / yd pAWa! Kier 1 WA pas Belle Fointain Rowe fs 0] Thatday wale ys Pia Sol the Movie _AMAP_ = _—< orm Ce “cous cows IN THE St THE STATE) ¢ SHES SUS SUP )) Sr) va ssi EmAN no powew ) oa 4a aes Stlimich \ H) Eng age is and. or wagors : Z Oto a degree x Fest Longitude Leone Landare: pb Lith by LN Rosenthal cor $48 Dock Sts Pll? 90 a 89 88 87 v T ‘CLOVER e NMA BAILY V AAD eS On PAL OU ria NB In presenting a view of the agriculture of the State, and tracing its condition and progress from the first occupancy of our territory by a civilized race, a brief sketch of the discovery and settlement of the country seems appropriate and necessary. Were a_ precedent required to sanction the very abridged historical outline here introduced, a distinguished one may be found in the able and elaborate memoir that forms the introduc- tion to the Reports on the Natural History of New York, embracing a much wider scope than is here proposed, and comprehending the political history and social pro- gress of the State. To keep this sketch within the prescribed limits, and to exclude all matter not intimately connected with the subject, it will be restricted to occurrences strictly within the present boundaries of the State, except so far as may be necessary to preserve the natural sequence of events. It will embrace little more, therefore, than a chrono- logical outline, which, if desirable, may, as far as neces- sary, be enlarged in the final report of the Survey. The State of Mississippi lies between the thirty-first and thirty-fifth parallels of north latitude, with the ad- dition of that portion lying between the first-mentioned 2 18 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. parallel and the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borene and east of Pearl River. On the west it is bounded by the Mississippi and Pearl Rivers, and on the east by a line dividing it from the State of Alabama, which is drawn from the mouth of Bear Creek on the Tennessee River to the northwestern corner of Washington County, Ala- bama, and thence south to a point on Grand Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, about seventeen miles due west from the Bay of Mobile. The State also embraces the islands in the Gulf within six leagues of the northern shore, the principal of which are Horn, Ship, and Cat Islands. The width of the State along the northern boundary is one hundred and twenty miles; on the sea-shore seventy-eight miles; and along the 51° of north latitude one hundred and eighty-six miles. The greatest length from north to south is three hundred and thirty miles. It embraces an area of 55,500 square miles or 35,520,000 acres. EXPEDITION AND DISCOVERY BY DE SOTO. About the close of the year 1540, Fernando de Soto, in his adventurous and romantic expedition, commenced the preceding year at the Bay of Hspiritu Santo, and designed for the conquest of Florida, penetrated to the country of the Chickasaws in the northeastern part of the State. With his shattered and disabled forces, the remnant of the most gallant and imposing expedition, for the magnificence of its equipage and the rank and opulence of those engaged in it, that ever set foot in the New world, he sought rest and repose during the winter in the Chicaza towns, after nearly two years of continual contest and warfare with the Indian tribes that he had HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 19 encountered. Here he continued, notwithstanding his disasters and the persevering and galling attacks of the Indians, until the Ist of April, 1541. The position of this winter encampment is conjectured to have been near the northeastern part of Pontitoc County, where, it is said, remains of ancient fortifications are still to be seen, and relics of European origin probably pertaining to this expedition have also been found. Thus, far in the interior, distant from the sea-shore, and remote from the Mississippi, was the territory of the State first en- tered upon by Europeans. It is needless to trace his subsequent wanderings if it were practicable, even with approximate accuracy, to do so. - There is little doubt, however, that De Soto traversed the country comprising the county now bearing his name, and in May of the same year discovered the Mississippi River, called by the natives “Cicuaga,” at a point near the extreme northwestern corner of the State.* After crossing the Mississippi at or near the Chickasaw Bluffs, and consuming another year in fruitless and wast- ing excursions far to the west, he returned to the Mis- sissippi, where his career was terminated at the village of Guachoya, “which was situated on two contiguous hills a bow-shot from the Mississippi,” probably the site of the present town of Hellena in Arkansas,; and his * According to Marbois, the northern Indians, bordering on Canada, called the Mississippi the ‘‘ Namesi-si-pou,” or River of Fishes. + This is the only point on the western side where the highland or ‘hills’ jut in upon the Mississippi below the Ohio. Some writers assign the mouth of the Arkansas, and others that of Red River, as the place of De Soto’s death; and the town of ‘‘Guachoa” is laid down on an English map published in 1764 at the latter place. Neither of these points, however, answers to the description given of the 20 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. remains were committed to the great river which he was the first to discover. Still a year later, his followers, now led by Louis de Muscoso, failing to reach Mexico by land, returned to the same village on the Mississippi, on which the small remnant of the expedition, reduced to about three hun- dred and fifty survivors, little more than one-fourth of the number of which it was first composed, embarked on the 2d of July, 1543, for a final departure from the country, pursued and sorely harassed by the Indians, and arrived at the sea-shore after a voyage of twenty days. From this period, for an interval of nearly one hun- dred and thirty-eight years, the native tribes were left in undisturbed possession of the country; and it. was not until February, 1681, when La Salle, accompanied by the Chevalier de Tonti, descended the Mississippi from Canada, that the country was revisited by Hu- ropean adventurers. In April of this year, La Salle, having reached the ocean, on his return touched at the settlement of the Natchez, from which the hostile bear- ing of that people hastened his departure. Failing in his subsequent expedition, fitted out in France with a view to the establishment of a colony, to reach the mouth of the Mississippi by sea, having passed to the west of it, La Salle perished miserably in Texas by the hands of his despairing and mutinous followers ; and another interval of eighteen years elapsed before the country was again visited by Huropeans. site; nor can we suppose that the fugitive remnant of the expedition, flying from a pursuing enemy, could have consumed twenty days in the descent from Red River to the mouth of the Mississippi. The _ authority of the map is not to be relied upon, since, among other inaccuracies, it places New Orleans above the Lafourche. HISTORICAL OUTLINE. a AS A COLONY OF FRANCE, 1699—1763. In February, 1699, an expedition led by Iberville ar- rived upon the coast, and occupied Ship Island. Iber- ville had offered to prosecute the plan of La Salle to colonize Louisiana, and under the patronage of Count de Pontchartrain, the French minister of marine, was put in command of an expedition fitted out at La Rochelle, consisting of two frigates and two smaller vessels, to be employed in this service. After exploring the shores and inlets in that quarter, it was resolved to establish the proposed colony on the main land in the vicinity, and accordingly a landing was effected on the eastern extremity of the Bay of Baluxi. A fort of four bastions, with twelve pieces of cannon, was commenced on the first of May following, the colonists brought over by the expedition numbering about two hundred, including women and children, were settled around the fort, and the first European settlement was established in Missis- sippl. Iberville, leaving his brothers in charge of the settle- ment, the elder, Sauvolle, as governor, and the younger, Bienville, as his lieutenant, set sail on his return to France for the purpose of reinforcing the infant colony he had founded, and procuring for it the necessary sup- plies. In July, soon after the departure of Iberville, the colony was visited by two missionaries, Montegay and Davion, who had wandered from Canada, and had been residing among the Indian tribes. Father Davion, who had been in turn among the Yazoos and Tunicas, had established himself at an eminence on the east side of the Mississippi, where an indurated clay or imperfectly 22 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. formed sand rock is seen; hence the place became known to the Frencli as “ La Roche & Davion,” (Davion’s Rock.) It is the point now known as Fort Adams, and the same called by the English, Loftus Heights. Bienville, who engaged actively in exploring the passes and outlets of the Mississippi, encountered an English ship in the river, commanded by Captain Bar, one of two vessels sent out by Daniel Cox of New Jersey, to take possession of a grant of land of which he was then the proprietor, made by Charles the First of England, in 1630, to Sir Robert Heath. It comprised a tract of truly royal dimensions, embracing not only the present State of Mis- sissippi, but included several other adjoining States. Captain Bar, doubting whether the stream he had entered was the Mississippi, was easily induced by Bienville to retrace his steps; and the great bend in the river, at which his progress was terminated, has ever since been known from this circumstance as the “ English Turn.” In December, Iberville returned from France with two large armed ships. He brought out Leseur, a Geologist, who was sent by the French government to examine a green- ish earth or ochre which had been noticed on the banks of the Mississippr.* Furnished with a detachment of twenty men, Leseur proceeded up to the River St. Peter’s, which he ascended a considerable distance. A greenish ochre was found covering the ground near a copper-mine, thir- teen thousand pounds of which were gathered, brought to Baluxi and shipped to France; but no further notice appears to have been taken of it. In 1700, the Chevalier de Tonti, hearing of the esta- blishment of the French colony, descended the river in a * This geological surveying expedition, fitted out within the limits of our State, was probably the earliest undertaken on our continent. HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 23 pirogue, accompanied by seven men, to ascertain the truth of the report. This was the third voyage of this energetic and enterprising man down the Mississippi, first in company with La Salle, when he explored the river to its mouth, and again for the purpose of meeting his old associate and friend, who, he was apprised, was at- «tempting to enter the Mississippi by sea, in which he was grievously disappointed. De Tonti had distinguished himself in the European wars, and had lost a hand, which he had had supplied by an artificial substitute 6f iron, of which at times he was wont to make a formidable use, and which procured for him the sobriquet of the “ Iron Hand.” He met Iberville and Bienville at Bayou Goula, and they accompanied him on his return up the river as far as Natchez. There they met with St. Come, a mis- sionary from Canada, who had fixed his residence among this people. . The Natchez, greatly advanced beyond the other Indian tribes in civilization, had been reduced from a once powerful nation, and now numbered only about twelve hundred warriors. The Great Sun, as their king was termed, welcomed the French at the head of a large retinue, borne in state on the shoulders of some of his attendants. They were worshippers of the sun, and maintained a perpetual fire in their temples. One of these, during the visit of the French, was set on fire by lightning, when the frenzied and superstitious women, at the call of the vociferating and demoniac priests, cast their infant children into the flames to ap- pease their irritated divinity. The country of the Natchez greatly interested Iber- ville, who, considering it the most eligible position for the principal establishment of the province, selected a commanding situation on the river for a town, for which 24 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. he proposed the name of Rosalie, in honor of the Countess of Pontchartrain. Sauvolle died in July, 1701, after the departure of Iberville, and was succeeded by Bienville as governor. The colonists suffered greatly from the want of pro- visions ; and in the fall, disease following in the track of famine, many died, the number of survivors being re- duced to one hundred and fifty. The return of Iber- ville from France, late in December, afforded a timely relief. Besides the supplies, he brought with him also a re- inforcement of troops. Under instructions from the king, Bienville moved his head-quarters to the western bank of Mobile River, leaving a detachment of twenty men in charge of the fort at Baluxi. A fort, with barracks and stores, was also erected on Dauphin Island, which possessed a better port and more convenient landing than Ship Island afforded. The seat of government of the Province being trans- ferred beyond the present limits of the State, and there remaining within it but the small settlement at Baluxi, it will suffice to state, in reference to the progress of the colony for many years, that it was characterized by an entire neglect of agricultural pursuits, and that it was subjected to great hardships from famine and disease, the occasional supplies derived from France, St. Do- mingo, and Vera Cruz, being so inadequate as to render it necessary occasionally to quarter the troops upon the adjacent Indian tribes to gain a precarious subsistence by hunting and fishing. In the mean time, Iberville had died, and the French government, disappointed in the slow progress of the colony, the limited extent of its trade, and the utter HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 2 Or failure in the discovery of minerals to which its expec- tations had mainly been directed, was induced, in Sep- tember, 1712, to make a grant of the colony and its exclusive commerce, with extensive privileges, to An- thony Crozat, an eminent merchant. Bienville, being appointed to the command of the es- tablishments on the Mississippi, learning that the Natchez had plundered and killed some Frenchmen, led a de- tachment of troops against them, in 1716, and, having decoyed some of their chiefs into his camp, compelled the restoration of the plundered goods and the punish- ment of the offenders; after which he accompanied the Natchez to their village, and with their assent com- menced a fort on the spot Iberville had before chosen. It was called Rosalie, and in June a small garrison was established in it under the command of an officer named Pailloux. The earthen mound or embankment which tradition points out as the site’of this fort, is still to be seen crowning the bluff of the river, immediately below and in the suburbs of the city of Natchez. When the country came under the dominion of Great Britain, it was called Fort Panmure, after a barony of that name in Scotland, a name it retained during the subsequent rule of the Spaniards, being so designated in all the grants of land made by that government. Three of Crozat’s ships arrived in March, 1717, with three companies of infantry and fifty new colonists. Bienville was superseded as governor ; and although the order of knighthood was conferred upon him in reward for his services, yet the arrival of L’Kpinay, his suc- cessor, occasioned him much mortification, which the decoration of the cross of St. Louis, and the Royal patent conceding him the title to Horn Island, could not 26 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. wholly allay; his popularity with the colonists, and the jealousy of his partisans towards the new chief, occa- sioned a schism in the colony very unfavorable to its progress. Failing to establish a commerce with the Spaniards in Mexico, and disappointed in all his expectations, Crozat, in August, 1717, surrendered his grant to the king. During his administration, a period of about five years, neither the commerce nor agriculture of the country was increased, and the whole population of every description, including the troops, did not exceed seven hundred persons. Marbois, however, attributes to him more statesman- ship than was possessed by the ministers, and adds that his plans were wisely conceived, and as far as depended upon him he sent to the colony only robust and indus- trious people, and families recommended by their morals, who were the only settlers that succeeded. In September, 1717, a charter was granted to a new corporation, styled the “Western Company,’ which originated with the celebrated Scotch adventurer and financier Law, a protégé of the Regent Duke of Orleans. It was also known as the “ Mississippi Scheme.” The lands, coasts, harbors, and islands of the colony were granted to this company for a term of twenty-five years from the Ist of January, 1718, with the exclusive commerce, in which all other French subjects were pro- hibited from engaging. The company was authorized to nominate the go- vernor and other officers, to grant lands, to levy troops, make treaties, and wage war with the Indians, and generally to exercise the most unlimited and extraor- dinary powers. On its part, the company engaged to introduce, during HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 27 the term of its privilege, six thousand whites and three thousand negroes. Of this powerful and privileged company, John Law was appointed Director-General. One of the first acts of the company, in February, 1718, was to recall L’Epinay, and to reinstate Bienville as governor—a measure which gave great satisfaction to the troops, and to the inhabitants generally. The failure of the plans of Crozat induced the com- pany to turn its attention to the introduction of agricul- ture, as promising better results than the fruitless search- ing for mines, or prosecuting a commerce so trivial as that derived from the traffic with the Indian tribes. As the most effectual mode of encouraging agricul- tural enterprise, it was deemed expedient to make con- siderable concessions of land to wealthy and powerful personages: among these were grants of large extent, on the Yazoo River, to a company consisting of Le Blanc, Count de Belleville, Leblond, and others; and on St. Catharine’s Creek, near Fort Rosalie, to Hubert, and a company of merchants of St. Maloes. The Bay of St. Louis was granted to Madame de Mezieres, and Pasca- goula Bay to Madame de Chaumont. The condition of all such grants was, the introduction of a certain number of emigrants upon them within a stated time. The experiment seems not to have been wholly suc- cessful; a few destitute peasants were first sent out to improve these lands, many of whom were prematurely swept away by the diseases attending the improvement of a new country and a change of climate. Experience also showed that, although these large erants facilitated the transportation of settlers, little was obtained from the labor of men brought over from a dis- 28 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. tant clime to cultivate lands, the proprietors of which remained behind. It was a fatal error that the plantations had not been established nearer together for mutual protection. As Marbois remarks, the colonists feeling free from restraint settled wherever fancy or hope conducted them, indifferent even to the sanction of a grant to secure their possessions; they scattered themselves among the natives, and taking the Indian women for wives, were cordially received, and by right incorporated into the tribe. In June, 1718, De la Housaye and Scouvion, with their followers, eighty-two in number, settled upon the Yazoo. Of the emigrants of 1720, three hundred were destined for Natchez, and three hundred and ninety for the Yazoo. Three hundred colonists arrived in 1721, for the lands of Madame de Chaumont, at Pascagoula. In 1719, Bigart had been sent with a small detachment to the Yazoo River, where he built Fort St. Peter’s. War having broken out between France and Spain the same year, the attention of the colonists was mainly directed to attacks upon the Spanish possessions. Pensacola was taken without resistance, but was surrendered again in August to a force sent from Havana to retake it. Three ships of the line arriving on the Ist of September, the place was again taken by the French with the Spanish shipping and eighteen hundred prisoners. In the summer and fall of 1720, Beaumanoir brought over sixty settlers to the grant on the St. Catharine’s. In May, 1720, after a brief existence of little more than two years, the Royal Bank established by Law, and with which the company was intimately connected, failed; and in December, Law was compelled to fly from France, HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 29 attended by a universal malediction, an object of popular abhorrence. A change in the seat of government being again deter- mined upon by the directors of the company’s concerns, in opposition to the views of Bienville and Hubert, the Bay of Baluxi was chosen for that purpose; a detachment of troops was sent to the western shore of the bay to erect houses and barracks, and the place thenceforth became known as New Baluxi. The privileges and powers of the Mississippi Company had been greatly enlarged by the acquisition of the pos- sessions and effects of the China and India Companies, which were dissolved; and from that time it assumed the style and became known as the Company of the Indies. Although a peremptory order had been given for the removal to Baluxi, both Bienville and Hubert were op- posed to it; the former thought New Orleans was the most eligible site, and the latter went to France to induce’ the directors of the company to decide in favor of Nat- chez, near which, on the St. Catharine’s, he had an im- mense grant with a large plantation and considerable im- provements. He was unsuccessful in his mission, and died a few days after his arrival. Finally, after consider- able delay and opposition in the summer of 1722, the order of council was executed, and Bienville and his staff removed to Baluxi. Large additions to the colony had been made the pre- vious year, chiefly of Germans, and negroes from the coast of Africa. On the 4th of June, 1722, a company’s ship, commanded by the Chevalier d’Arensbourg, brought over two hundred and fifty Germans. With this vessel came the confirmation of the utter failure of Law and his schemes, and the consequent ruin 30 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. and distress which had ensued in France. This intelli- gence was received with great dismay, and an appre- hension was felt that the affairs of the colony, if not wholly neglected, would be prosecuted with less vigor; an apprehension soon realized to some extent in the failure of supplies. To provide against impending famine, the troops were distributed in small detachments on Pearl River and Pascagoula, among the Indian tribes, to procure subsistence by hunting and fishing. Exasperated by hunger and distress, some of these mutinied, and attempted to reach the English settlements in Carolina. The Indians were sent in pursuit, and all of them were captured or slain. The arrival of a ship in Sep- tember afforded some relief, and it was learned that the Regent, after the failure and flight of Law, had placed the affairs of the company under the direction of three Commissioners. In December of this year, Father Charlevoix descended ‘the Mississippi River from Canada; he visited the fort on the Yazoo, and spent his Christmas in Natchez. At that time, according to his account, the company had a ware- house, in charge of Seur Le Noir, at the latter place; the appearance of the country he describes as very agreeable, extensive meadows and handsome clumps of trees pre- senting themselves on every side, after surmounting the hill at the landing-place. Fort Rosalie is spoken of by him as a hind of redoubt inclosed with a single palisade. The great village of the Natchez was situated near the St. Catharine, a few miles from the river, and about mid- way between the two French grants which formed a tri- angle with the fort, being distant from the latter and each other about one league; the St. Maloes grant being the lowermost on the creek, which discharged itself into the Mississippi about three leagues below. He describes HISTORICAL OUTLINE. ail this plantation as being “screened on all the back parts by a magnificent cypress forest.” The village of the Natchez he represents as reduced to a very few cabins; the more populous towns of the tribe being at some distance, in order to be more out of the reach of the Great Chief, or Sun, who had aright to take from his subjects anything they possessed. The Tioux, allies of the Natchez, had a village in the neighborhood. Charlevoix regarded the country about Natchez the finest and most fertile in all Louisiana. In January, 1723, Laharpe, on his way to the Arkan- sas, touched at Natchez, and found Fort Rosalie in a state of ruinous decay. Maneval, who commanded it, having only eighteen soldiers. Ascending the Yazoo River at the distance of nine miles from the mouth, he reached the settlement called Fort St. Peter, commanded by De Grave. According to his statement, there was not more than thirty acres of arable land surrounding the fort, which was hemmed in by stony hills. The site of this fort was at the place now known as Hayne’s Bluff, where the limestone is seen cropping out of the base of the hills. A group of mounds, one of them of considerable size, and about thirty feet high, is situated near the spot. At that period, the Mississippi still flowed through what is now known as Old River ; the cut-off, or present channel of the river, according to Charlevoix, having been recently formed, was not passable for boats, except at a high stage of water. In May, the copper coinage provided for the colony arrived at, Baluxi. It was ordered to be used in pay- ment of the troops, and was made a lawful tender in the company’s stores. Specimens of this coin have been found at St. Peter’s, and at several other points in the oe HISTORICAL OUTLINE. State, formerly occupied by the French. An earthen vessel of Indian fabric containing several pieces of it was dug, some years since, from an Indian mound near the mouth of Pearl River. One of these coins, found on the reputed site of the governor’s quarters in New Baluxi, is preserved in the State cabinet; and a similar one, from the mound, in the cabinet of the State university. These coins bear date in 1721 and 1722. They bear on the face the cipher of Louis, the French monarch, surmounted by a crown, and surrounded by the legend, “Sit nomen domini bene- dictum.” Across the reverse is inscribed: “Colonies Frangoises,” with the date below.* The seat of government was again removed beyond the present limits of the State, and Bienville, in accom- plishment of his long-cherished desire, fixed his head- quarters at New Orleans. In September, a destructive tornado desolated the Province, prostrating many houses in New Orleans, and extending to Baluxi and Natchez; the crops were de- stroyed, and the inhabitants were menaced with im- pending dearth. An unexpected crop of rice, however, springing from the seed scattered by the hurricane, promised some relief. The Indian tribes were becoming more open in their hostilities. In 1723, a predatory band of Chickasaws killed a sergeant belonging to the garrison at St. Peter's, and his wife. The Natchez also became involved in an affray with a sergeant at Fort Rosalie, in which an Indian was killed; the Indians retaliated, and in considerable force attacked the settlement, but were repulsed with * See Plate. HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 33 the loss of several of their number. Guendt, the di- rector of the grant on St. Catharine, was fired upon and wounded; some negroes were shot; two planters were taken and their heads cut off, and a number of cattle and horses were stolen. When Dustine, an officer of the garrison, arrived at New Orleans, bringing this in- telligence, two suns of the Natchez were on a visit to Bienville. No punishment was inflicted upon the offending Indians; but these chiefs were dismissed with presents, under a pledge to put a stop to these outrages. In consideration of the spiritual wants of the pro- vince, a number of Jesuits, and monks of other orders, as well as nuns, were introduced into the colony, and liberally provided for by the company, and curates were also provided for the missions. For several years, great distress was felt in the colony, growing out of the failure of Law’s Scheme, and the attempts of the French government to regulate the currency, and to palliate the consequent embarrassment by the alteration of the value of money. The colony, notwithstanding, had made rapid strides since it passed under the charge of the company. The military force had increased to eight hundred men. Twenty-five hundred redemptioners, and eighteen hun- dred Africans had been introduced, and agriculture had engaged to a greater extent the attention of European capitalists. In 1724, Bienville was called to France to answer to charges preferred against him. Notwithstanding his able defence, he was removed, and Perrier was appointed in his stead on the 9th of August, 1726. Of the Indian tribes occupying the country at the period of its settlement by the French, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and the Natchez were the most numerous. 3 34 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. There were many others, however, though too feeble and insignificant to merit more than a passing notice. Among these were the Baluxis and Pascagoulas to the south. The Yazoos, Jonicas, Coroas, Offagoulas, Otasees, Chachoumas, Outayhis, and the Tapouches were distributed along the Yazoo and its tributaries. . Of the larger tribes, the Choctaws were by far the most numerous and powerful. They owned fifty im- portant villages, and could assemble twenty thousand warriors. They were first attached to the French, who managed, by their diplomacy and presents, to retain, throughout, a large majority of them in their interest. The Chickasaws are described as a turbulent, warlike, and ferocious race; from their intercourse and trade vith the English of Carolina, they espoused their in- terest, and were readily engaged in hostilities towards the French, and were consequently embroiled in con- tinual warfare with the Choctaws. The Natchez, by far the most enlightened and furthest removed from barbarism, were rapidly declining from the condition of a numerous and once powerful tribe. The institution of human sacrifices engrafted into their theology was the most efficient cause of their rapid course towards extinction. They were pacific in their disposition; but the French, by their harshness and en- croachments upon their rights, forfeited their friendship and provoked their deadly hostility. It was the policy of Bienville, and most of the other governors, for the security of the colony from the united hostilities of the Indians, against which it could not have existed, to encourage the feuds among themselves. The Choctaws, the most powerful of these, were con- ciliated, and aided in repelling the attacks of their chief enemy, the Chickasaws, until, in turn, they became HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 35 their persevering and victorious assailants. This was done chiefly by keeping the traffic with them in their own hands, to the exclusion of the English traders of the Carolinas, and by supplying them with goods suited to their wants. Perrier, as the successor of Bienville, proved more harsh and less politic in his intercourse with his Indian neighbors; and when, from the failure of the necessary remittances from France, it became impossible to supply all the wants of their red allies, and to make them the customary presents, a considerable faction of the Choc- taws became disaffected, and united with the Chickasaws in a scheme of general and concerted hostility with a view to the total destruction of the French colony in all its settlements; and although this design was suspected, and for the time disconcerted and postponed, the day was approaching when the French colonists were to re- ceive a severe and ruinous blow. The commandant at Natchez under Perrier, an officer named Chepar, was a man of intemperate habits, and of overweening vanity and selfimportance. Professing an utter contempt for the Natchez, his conduct towards them was severe and exacting. On a beautiful and elevated plain on the western margin of Second Creek, about ten miles from Fort Rosalie, was situated the “ Whiteapple Village.” A group of mounds, two of them of considerable elevation and extent, yet clothed with stately elms and evergreen oaks, which have spread their umbrageous shades over them for centuries, and which the good taste of the past and present proprietors have religiously preserved, still marks the spot. The land embracing this favorite vil- lage of the Natchez was coveted by Chepar. Alleging the orders of Perrier, the surrender of it was 36 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. rudely demanded, with a threat to seize it by force if not voluntarily yielded before a stated period, which was not remote. The Natchez could not bring themselves to submit to this new act of aggression. But their remonstrances were unheard, nor was the offer of other lands as an equivalent embraced. ‘They were constrained, there- fore, to feign a reluctant acquiescence in the demand. The suns and chieftains of the different villages held a secret council, and, resolving against submission, de- _ termined themselves to become the principals, instead of auxiliaries in the conspiracy against the French. | coiaeconin ag Ag ou yy I ; af A ; iy E 7 Sr Seal of the Province of West Floridaatiached tothe British Patents : MALU Weerlers elel Crue Lith by LN Rosenthal Plotad ORE i On Stone by M acencieel < Piero A NPB LE LES: A KNOWLEDGE of the origin and character of the vari- ous titles by which lands are held, or have been claimed in this State, cannot be without interest or utility to every planter or landed proprietor in it. The following brief outline, therefore, the design of which is to supply this information, will not, it is presumed, be deemed superfluous or out of place. The first grant of land of which we have any account, was that most stupendous one made on the 13th of October, 1630, by Charles the First of Great Britain, to Sir Robert Heath, of which all that part of the State lying north of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, formed an wnconsiderable portion. In 1637, Heath trans- ferred his grant to Lord Maltravers, and it subsequently became the property of a Doctor Daniel Coxe, of the province of New Jersey; and in 1699, the same year that the French established themselves at Baluxi under Iberville, his title was recognized and reported upon as valid by the attorney-general of King William. How the attempt of Coxe, the proprietor, to take pos- session and occupy it in the latter year, by sending two ships up the Mississippi under Captain Barr, was frus- 118 LAND TITLES. trated by Bienville, has been shown in the preceding historical outline. The next grants in order, were those made by the Company of the Indies, about the year 1718, at Pasca- goula and the Bay of St. Louis, on the St. Catharine, near Natchez, and on the Yazoo, of the number and dimensions of which we are not informed. In consequence of the Indian disturbances, and of the massacre by the Natchez, these French grants seem to have been abandoned. No allusion is subsequently made to them; and those in the Natchez District, at least, appear not to have been recognized by the British go- vernment, upon obtaining possession of the country. Whether such was the case in West Florida proper, is not now certainly known. The acquisition by purchase from the early French settlers, may have been, in a few cases, the origin or basis of the subsequent British patents ; as, in a late decision by the courts in Louisiana, in favor of the heirs of Pontalba, the title to the lands in controversy has been traced back to those early French grants. From January, 1768, to September, 1779, numerous British grants were made by the Governor of West Florida; those in the Natchez District being chiefly made to officers’ of the British army and navy, and in many instances were of large dimensions. The largest em- braced twenty-five thousand acres; two others, twenty thousand each; several were for ten thousand; and very few for less than one thousand acres. These were so located as to embrace a large portion of the most valu- able lands bordering on the Mississippi, for a breadth of six or eight miles from Fort Adams to the Yazoo, and extending along the alluvial lands of the principal streams of the district. LAND TITLES. 119 Extracts from these grants have been given hereto- fore. To each was appended, by a ribbon, a ponderous wax seal, some three inches in diameter, the British arms being impressed on the obverse, with a landscape of forest scenery on the reverse, surrounded by the in- scription: “Sigillum provinciz nostra Florida occiden- talis,” with other inscriptions and legends.* The conditions of these grants as to occupancy, culti- vation, and improvement, were such as, if not regarded as mere words of form, to render them utterly void. Few of the lands granted were occupied or improved to the extent required, proof of which was to have been made within a stated time. They were, therefore, in- choate, if strictly construed, and were never perfected. Many of them, however, were nevertheless recognized and confirmed by the succeeding Spanish government, which, although acquiring the country by conquest, yet with great liberality guaranteed these possessions to the holders, upon the performance of certain reasonable re- quirements, such as presentation and proof of title, ac- companied with occupancy, allowing several years for this purpose. The titles derived from the Spanish government were of two grades; orders of survey and complete patents, the former being the incipient or incomplete form of the latter} To procure a grant of land, the applicant addressed a Requéte (request or petition) to the Spanish governor, in New Orleans, and hence, from the corruption of the word, the term ricket, by which one class of these claims was known to the early American settlers. If the petition was granted, an order of survey was * See Plate I. + See Appendix F. 120 LAND TITLES. issued by the governor to the Surveyor-General Don Carlos Trudeau, to cause the land prayed for to be sur- veyed and put into possession of the petitioner. This duty was performed by the deputy-surveyor of the dis- trict, and the survey being approved and returned, ac- companied by a plat, the governor thereupon granted his patent; the usual fees being paid in all the stages of the process by the grantee. The first warrant or order of survey was issued on the 20th of April, 1784, by Don Estevan Miro, who con- tinued to officiate as governor, and to make grants until the 29th of August, 1791. He was succeeded by Francis Louis Hector El Baron de Carondelet, by whom grants were made from the 8th of March, 1792, to the Ist of September, 1795. All the patents bear the private seal with the coat of arms of the governor, and are counter- signed by the secretary Andrez Lopes Armesto. (See PuatE IT.) It has been objected that the extension of the limits of West Florida, by the British government, to the Ya- zoo River, was an infringement of colonial charters or grants previously made, and that the titles to land made in that portion of the State were necessarily void. Spain, also, in wresting by conquest from Great Britain the same territory, not truly belonging to her, acquired no title thereto to the prejudice of the previous and rightful holders; the Spanish grants, therefore, to the same extent, were equally invalid. This position was subsequently affirmed by the deci- sion of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was borne out and admitted, virtually, in the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, fixing the southern boundary of the independent colonies along the thirty-first degree of north latitude; and by the See page 120 : Plate ll. >< aes aig Fee PEG intr ah esi + ye Mol Facsimilies of signatures and seals of the Spanish GOVERNORS of LOUISIANA BL C Wales On Stune by M Rosens ( Wailes de: n Stone by M Rosencbal Cromo Lith bs tN Rosenthal Uhre LAND TITLES. cn treaty of San Lorenzo, of the 27th of October, 1795, by which Spain finally yielded possession of this territory, to the United States. The American government, however, with a paternal regard for the inhabitants occupying these lands, made provision for the confirmation, not only of the Spanish titles, but those of Great Britain, so far as they had been recognized by the former government, and were duly occupied. The incomplete titles, or Spanish orders of survey, if occupied and cultivated at the date of the treaty, were also to be confirmed under the character of donations from the United States, when in fact the whole series, both of British or Spanish grants, of whatever grade, might so be regarded, being equally void or illegal, ex- cept so far as they were recognized by the act of Congress providing for their adjudication. Large portions of the country being held under Spa- nish grants, covering lands claimed by non-resident British grantees, much uneasiness was exhibited by the holders, to whom they had been confirmed by the Ame- rican government, when the British claimants manifested a disposition to test the validity of their rights, through agents, sent over from England for that purpose. Suits were instituted to eject the holders under the Spanish grants, and the anxiety of the people became so great that Congress was petitioned to compromise and quiet those claims. A report of a committee of the House of Representatives, made as late as 1814, nearly ten years after the claims had been confirmed by the Board of Commissioners, adverse to the prayer of the petitioners, which seemed to accord superior validity to the British grants, from their anterior date, was not calculated to allay the anxiety of the occupants. 122 LAND TITLES. The decision of the District Court of the United States, in the suit instituted by the heirs of Harcourt, and which was fully affirmed by the Supreme Court, settled the question finally, and the British grants are now no more regarded than that of Sir Robert Heath. This decision of the Supreme Court was subsequently ably controverted by Chief Justice C. P. Smith, of the High Court of this State, when engaged, some years since, as counsel for the representatives of Campbell, who claimed a tract of land, embracing the town of Rodney, under a British patent dated 11th July, 1772. It was maintained by Judge Smith, in an elaborate argument, sustained by indisputable authority, “That the British government had the right, and had exercised it re- peatedly, of dismembering or altering the limits or boundaries of its royal colonies; that the crown retained the right of property in the soil; that the extension of the limits of West Florida, from the thirty-first degree of north latitude to a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo, was a right legitimately exercised, and the grants made within those limits, by the Governor of West Florida, were consequently valid.” The rejection of the British claims should have rested, therefore, solely on their non-recognition by the Spanish and American governments, and a failure of the fulfilment of the conditions of those grants, and not upon want of jurisdiction in the British government. So far, all grants of land were confined to districts to which the Indian title had been extinguished previous to the accession of the country to the United States. In 1777, the British government entered into a treaty with the Indians at Mobile, by which the boundaries of the lands claimed by the French, on the sea-coast and in the Natchez District, were defined; and in the year 1779, LAND TITLES. 123 the eastern boundary of the latter district was run, and marked by the English surveyor. By the treaty of Hopewell, made by Col. Hawkins, the American commissioner, with the Indians at Keowee, on the 3d of January, 1786, the boundary was again established, and, finally, by the treaty held by General Wilkinson, at Fort Adams, with the Choctaw Indians, on the 17th December, 1801, was fully recognized, and a survey authorized under the superintendence of com- missioners, which was soon afterwards made by order of the American government. By the treaty of Mount Dexter, made on the 16th of November, 1805, the Choctaws ceded to the United States all the lands embraced in the counties of Lawrence, Covington, Jones, and Wayne, and those lying to the south of them, except perhaps Jackson, Harrison, and Hancock, which probably belonged to the Baluxis, and some other small tribes, which had removed or become extinct before the acquisition of the country by the United States, as it does not appear that the Choctaws claimed the lands in that quarter west of the Chickasa- hay River. A further cession was made, at the treaty of Doaks- stand, on the Natchez road, on the 18th of October, 1820, of the lands on the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Yazoo to a point nearly opposite the Arkansas River, comprising the counties of Washington, Yazoo, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Copiah, and Hinds, as first established. The residue of the Choctaw possessions in the State were ceded by the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, made on the 27th September, 1830, and the Choctaws removed to the west of the Mississippi, to lands given them in exchange by the United States. By the treaty made at Pontotoc Creek, on the 20th of 124 LAND TITLES. October, 1832, the Chickasaws also ceded all their lands in Mississippi, to be sold by the United States, and the proceeds, deducting expenses of survey and sale, paid to them, and within three years removed across the Mis- sissippi River to lands purchased by them from the Choctaws.* By all of these treaties, from that of Mount Dexter, certain reservations were made; these consisted of im- provements of some of the Indians who chose to remain —of larger reservations to the chiefs and others, and for the benefit of Indian orphans. Besides these, Congress, in providing for the sales of the public lands, made other reservations, such as the sixteenth section of every township for schools—the grant of a township of lands to Jefferson College, and two townships for a State University. Congress also granted two sections to the State, for a seat of government, upon which the city of Jackson was laid off. Large grants have also been made to the State, for internal improvements; and lastly, all the swamp lands have been surrendered to it to constitute a fund for the purpose of reclaiming them from inundation, and to fit them for cultivation. In addition to the claims derived from the British and Spanish governments, and the lands sold and patented by the United States, all the grants and reservations enumerated, constitute the basis of title by which the citizens of the State hold their lands. The quantity of land, held by title derived from for- * By a convention at Washington City, the 24th of May, 1834, the Chickasaws obtained a modification of the treaty to allow of grants in fee simple to all heads of families and others. LAND TITLES. 15 eign governments, and confirmed by the United States, amounts to 767,547 acres, 545,480 of which lie in the Natchez district, and 222,067 in the Augusta land dis- trict, east of Pearl River. The whole area of the State has elsewhere been stated at 35,520,000 acres; of this, it would appear, from data furnished by the census report of 1850, 10,490,000 acres are held by individuals, of which 3,444,000 are in cultivation. The unimproved lands amount therefore to 32,076,000 acres, of which 25,036,000 acres are still held by the United States, or by the State of Mississippi. hein dart Nari Soil Ie ie ait ed “Baitatan’ ninb suet (ieay un bloat . bai 'gh, Bladen ier, 000008. OF 08. 1%. Si . iy soltinw dlls ot ah DON, His ae K artnet Oo sittined dicue rely ital haveri) erga ae Fal Hida Ohi: aY(oR mid BEG, bf Wabi moras is Pa : hs %y lige in alle Td ea] 1a oie vs ye pata Steere i - —T a iyipleare Mag “dil - 1@ A Fae ; E i \ eee ii - ; i ee Oi 7 _ : : - y + e : / i ) 7 rr ; rahe a - ip a 1 be f 7 i # ‘ i \ a 7 = } { H : ee 9 ; = a ‘ ei 7 ae 7 ? 5 _ a = ’ > \ 7 i - > 1 ca ' eo aNd a : : ‘ i a ; MA Goh ie: THE EARLY STATE AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. SEVERAL years elapsed, after the establishment of the French colony at Baluxi, before even the common vegetables of the garden were cultivated, and the sterile soil of the sea-shore was not calculated to invite a more extended culture, if the character and habits of the colonists, chiefly soldiers, deriving all their supplies from the mother country, had inclined them to such pursuits. It was, therefore, not until the province came under the control of the Company of the Indies, that the tillage of the earth became to any extent a fixed pursuit. The first impulse was then given to planting by the large grants to Kuropean capitalists, who sent out laborers to open and improve their lands. The most efficient of these were German redemp- tioners; but the nature of the climate, and the heavy labor of removing the dense forests, rendered the pro- gress of improvement tedious and discouraging. It was soon found necessary to resort to Africa for suitable operatives for the prosecution of agricultural enterprise ; these were introduced by the company, from time to time, to a limited extent, and disposed of to the 128 AGRICULTURE. colonists at established and moderate rates, payable in annual instalments in the products of the soil. These products were naturally confined, for a con- siderable period, to articles of necessity for home con- sumption, and notwithstanding some large grants were made near Natchez, and on the Yazoo, ostensibly for the cultivation of tobacco and indigo; and, although some “large plantations, with extensive improvements,” were established near the former place, it does not appear that anything beyond the spoils of the chase, or the peltries procured by traffic with the Indian tribes, was exported from the country. By the massacre of the inhabitants by the Natchez, in 1729 and 1730, these establishments were broken up, and from this period the French were too much engaged in exterminating the Natchez, and in hostile incursions among the Chickasaws, to reoccupy and cultivate, ad- vantageously, their regained possessions. It was, therefore, under the occupancy of the country by the English that we trace the first germ of successful and systematic agriculture in Mississippi. The emigration which ensued, on the change of rulers, being chiefly from the Carolinas, Virginia, Jersey, and New England, was from a class differing essentially in habits from their more volatile and restless predecessors, the French, who were more addicted to the chase and to trafficking with their Indian neighbors, than to more laborious and settled pursuits. Many of these settlers were accustomed to agriculture, and being generally accompanied by their families, re- sorted at once to the tillage of the earth as a means of support. Their cultivation was necessarily rude, and their im- plements few and imperfect; yet their products were AGRICULTURE. 129 varied and for the purpose of subsistence ample. Al- most every article of prime necessity, which the soil could yield, was produced by them to the extent of their wants.* Cattle and swine required little other attention than protection from the bear and wolf of the forest, and were raised abundantly; whilst the small farms, frequently confined to a few acres, exhibited a variety of productions that is now rarely found together in the country. Indian corn, wheat, oats, rye, rice and pota- toes, cotton, flax, tobacco and indigo, were almost uni- versally cultivated, but rarely, if at all, for exportation. In the early stages of the settlement of the colony, many of the common conveniences of life were neces- sarily dispensed with, or supplied with such substitutes as ingenuity or skill could devise and fabricate from the productions of the country. Not many years since, were to be seen the moulds in which the head of one of the most respectable and wealthy families of the present day was wont to cast the pewter platters and spoons which constituted the only plate of himself and neighbors. The inventories of the confiscated effects of some prominent, and as then regarded, opulent persons, yet preserved among the Spanish archives, exhibit a simplicity of attire and fur- niture in strong contrast with that which would now satisfy those of very contracted means or humble station. The scarcity and high price of iron, and the con- sequent imperfection of agricultural implements, was perhaps most felt and least easily remedied. At that * In 1775, Mr. Dunbar enumerates among the productions of his plantation, rice, tobacco, flaxseed, indigo seed, corn, buckwheat, barley, peas, besides many other things. 130 AGRICULTURE. period cut-nails were not invented, and the wrought-nail cost a dollar a pound. Tools and all iron implements bore a corresponding price, owing, in some degree, to the high freights on heavy articles up the Mississippi; the voyage from New Orleans to Natchez, made by keel- boats and barges, requiring several weeks. A set of plough-irons was, therefore, an acquisition of no little value. Iron entered into the composition of few of the wagons or carts, and the wheels were often made of a transverse section or disk sawed and properly fashioned from the trunk of a tree of suitable diameter. These trucks constituted, to considerable extent, the only means of transportation of heavy articles. Even as late as after the introduction of Whitney’s saw-gin, a now opulent planter, a venerable and highly respected citizen, a native of Adams County, states that, in a wagon of this kind, he hauled his crop of cotton for two years to a neighboring gin; a framework of cane serving in lieu of plank in the construction of the body. Not many years before, the same gentleman was reduced to the necessity of fabricating his only plough by framing a common mattock into a beam, that being the only implement suited to the purpose left on his plantation by the depredating Indians. This was only about sixty-five years since, and oc- curred within ten miles of Natchez, and to an individual belonging to one of the most opulent and influential families in the country at that day. Flax was raised chiefly for shoethread and similar uses, but in some families linen cloth was made. Leather was commonly tanned throughout the country in large troughs dug out of the trunks of trees. From the earliest occupancy by the English, cotton in small quantities, sufficient for domestic purposes, was AGRICULTURE. Pu habitually cultivated; it was of the black or naked seed variety, was planted in hills, and cultivated with the hoe. Ffty or sixty pounds was the ordinary quantity gathered ina day. ‘The seeds were picked out by the hand, or separated from the lint by means of the small roller gin.* It was spun and woven at home, and con- stituted the chief apparel of the inhabitants; the small quantity of indigo then grown, and the numerous dye- stuffs that the forests afforded, supplied all the coloring materials required for dyeing the cloth.+ Rice formed an important article of diet, supplying largely the deficiency of flour; the colonists, especially the French, accommodating themselves slowly and re- luctantly to bread made from the Indian corn. It was prepared by pounding in common wooden mortars, and perhaps was not as fair as that which we now purchase, but of far richer flavor and more nutritious. In the absence of mill-stones, when they could not be obtained, the Indian corn was reduced to meal by pound- ing in the same way. Large herds of cattle were owned by the more opu- lent inhabitants, for which the garrison at Natchez afforded the chief market, and some were driven to New Orleans shortly previous to the change of government. The price of common stock cattle was about the same then as at this time. * See Plate VII., Figs. 1 and 2. + The first indigo made by Mr. Dunbar was by steeping it in barrels. 132 AGRICULTURE. THE CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO. When the country came under the dominion of Spain, a market was opened in New Orleans; a trade in tobacco was established, and a fixed and remunerating price was paid for it, delivered at the king’s warehouses. ‘Tobacco thus became the first marketable staple production of Mississippi. The tobacco plant, indigenous to the country, soon came into general cultivation. The larger planters packed it in the usual way in hogsheads. Much of it, however, was put up in carrets, as they were called, resembling in size and form two oe sugar-loaves united at the larger ends. The stemmed tobacco was laid smoothly together in that form, coated with wrappers of the extended leaf, enveloped in a cloth, and then firmly compressed by a cord wrapped around the parcel, and which was suffered to remain until the carret acquired the necessary dry- ness and solidity, when, together with the surrounding cloth, it was removed, and strips of linn-bark were bound around it at proper distances, in such a manner as to secure it from unwrapping and losing its proportions. The rope used for this purpose was manufactured by the planter, from the inner bark of the linn, or bass- wood, then one of the most common trees of the forest. One end of the rope was made fast to a post, in front of which the operator, seated with the roll of tobacco * In 1783, Mr. Wm. Dunbar, writes: ‘‘ The soil of Natchez is par- ticularly favorable for tobacco, and there are overseers there who will almost engage to produce you between two and three hogsheads to the hand, besides provisions.” AGRICULTURE. 133 on his knee, and his foot against the post, connected the other end with the carret, turning it with his hands whilst the necessary tension was maintained upon the rope, wrapped it securely and evenly from end to end. In those days, when the roads were indifferent, and wagons and carts were few, the tobacco hogsheads were frequently geared to a horse by means of a pair of rude temporary shafts, connected with the heading, and in this manner rolled to the shipping point, or to market at Natchez; much being transported in this way from the settlements on Cole’s Creek, and from greater dis- tances. To convey the tobacco to market in New Orleans, it was usual for several planters to unite and build a flat- boat, with which one of the number would accompany the joint adventure, deliver the tobacco at the pub- lic warehouse, and, if it passed inspection, receive the proceeds, and return home by land, generally on foot; the payment being made in a written acknowledgment, or bon, as it was called, which entitled the holder to re- ceive the amount from the governor or commandant at Natchez, thus obviating the labor and risk of packing the specie several hundred miles. The monopoly of the tobacco trade was retained by the King of Spain, and the price paid for all that passed inspection at his warehouses was uniform. The price was regarded as liberal, and yielded a fair return for its production, whilst the stability and cer- tainty of a market encouraged an increased cultivation ; the country began to prosper, and the planters were en- abled to make hice: of slaves, the current price of which averaged about three hundred and fifty dollars. There was no classification in the sale of the tobacco. If the article passed inspection, it was taken, and the 134 AGRICULTURE. quality was generally such that for that cause it could not be rejected. Nevertheless, it sometimes happened that an unobjectionable article was left upon the planter’s hands, if, from ignorance of established usage, he had omitted the customary douceur to the inspector. This, however, soon came to be better understood. The capacious pockets of the inspector were not worn without a purpose, and the expected purse was habitu- ally dropped into it without at all shocking the moral sense of the wearer. It was not necessary, or perhaps altogether proper, to couple the offering with expressed conditions; that, if not indelicate, would have been quite superfluous, it be- ing quite safe and effectual to make the silent contribu- tion. Nor was any particular secrecy or concealment at all necessary. This was not considered bribery; the king always paid his servants indifferently, and these were but the perquisites of office which indemnified the needy official for his poorly requited services. Whether these usages, reacting upon the producers, had any effect upon the quality or condition of the tobacco in the end, is not, perhaps, altogether clear; but it is certain that, from some cause, either from fraud in packing, the falling off in quality, or from the com- petition of the Kentucky tobacco introduced into New Orleans, under General Wilkinson’s contracts with the Spanish authorities, or by their connivance, the price was so reduced, that the further cultivation of it in Missis- sippi, for exportation, was in a few years wholly aban- doned, greatly to the injury and embarrassment of the planters, who had, for the purchase of slaves, contracted debts which they now found it difficult to discharge. AGRICULTURE. VSS THE CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF INDIGO. The tobacco crop being no longer profitable, indigo, which had been cultivated for some time in Louisiana, was now resorted to.* This most offensive and unwhole- some pursuit was nevertheless the most profitable one in which the planter could engage. Seed was obtained at the cost of about fifty dollars per barrel, and some of the small farmers engaged in cultivating the indigo exclusively for the seed to supply those whose larger means enabled them to erect the necessary fixtures, and to prosecute the cultivation and manufacture on a profit- able scale, Indigofera tinctoria, from which the indigo pigment of commerce is prepared, said to have been introduced from India, flourishes luxuriantly in the Southern States, where a variety termed the Atramentum anil is said to grow spontaneously. It was cultivated in drills, and required careful handling when young and tender, the subsequent cultivation being similar to that of the cot- ton plant. When mature, in good land, it attained the height of about three feet. It was then, previous to going to seed, cut with a reap-hook from day to day, tied in bundles in quantities suited to the capacity of the steeping-vats, to which it was immediately transferred. These vats or uncovered reservoirs were constructed in pairs above ground, of thick plank dovetailed together in such a * Indigo had not been cultivated in the Natchez District as late as 1783, and until after the failure of the tobacco business it was produced only for the seed, which was supplied to the Point Coupee and other settlements on the Mississippi. 136 AGRICULTURE. manner as to be perfectly water-tight; the larger one, or steeping-vat, so elevated as to permit the draining off of the liquid into the smaller, or beater, in which it is churned or agitated. This vat was usually about four feet deep, eight feet wide, and about fifteen feet in length. Two or three pairs of these vats were sufficient for the largest indigo establishments in the country. One pair ordinarily sufficed. The vats were placed near a pond of clear soft water (spring or hard water would not answer), and the shallower the ponds, and the greater the surface of water exposed to the sun, the better. Into the steeping-vat the indigo weed, as cut, was thrown, and the water pumped on to it. The steeping generally required a day; but this depended in a great degree upon the temperature of the weather during the process and that of the water used. When the steeping was carried to the proper point, and the fermentation suffered to continue until all the coloring matter or grain was extracted, which was ascer- tained by examining the liquid in a silver cup, the turbid liquid was drawn off into the beater. If drawn off prematurely, a loss in the coloring matter was sustained, and if deferred too long, putrefactive fer- mentation ensued, which injured the quality of the dye. Attached to a shaft, revolving across the smaller vat, was a set of arms or paddles, by which the liquid was churned or agitated. In small establishments, the shaft or beater was turned by hand, but generally horse- power was connected with it. The beating or churning process was continued for several hours, during which the precipitation was aided by adding a small quantity of lime. Other substances AGRICULTURE. K37 were often substituted, however, some using a mucilage obtained from the ocra plant, the sassafras, or from a plant known as the moave. The grain or coloring matter being separated, as ascer- tained by test with the silver cup, flakes of the pigment being seen spreading or settling on the bottom, it was suffered to subside, and the supernatant liquid was drawn off through a series of holes descending towards the bottom. The indigo deposit was then removed by wooden shovels from the vat into draining-boxes lined with canvas, and placed upon beds of sand, afterwards tranferred to moulds lined in like manner, dried in the shade, and cut into cubes. After undergoing a further curing by being laid on smooth plank shelves, where it underwent a sweat, it was packed in boxes for exportation. ! A variety of a delicate light blue color was called “floton ;” but that termed the “pigeon neck,” from its prismatic colors, was most esteemed. The price obtained for the best quality is variously represented, some affirming that it was from one and a half to two dollars per pound. A second cutting of the suckers or sprouts was ob- tained, but the indigo produced from it was of inferior quality. About one hundred and fifty pounds of indigo are said to have been produced to the hand. The whole process was of the most disgusting and dis- agreeable character. Myriads of flies were generated by it, which overspread the whole country. The plant itself, when growing, was infested by swarms of grass- hoppers, by which it was sometimes totally destroyed, and the fetor arising from the putrid weed thrown from the vats was intolerable. The drainings from these 138 AGRICULTURE. refuse accumulations into the adjacent streams killed the fish. Those in Second Creek, previously abounding in trout and perch, it is said were destroyed in this way. It is not surprising, therefore, that the cultivation of indigo was abandoned in a few years, and gave way to that of cotton,’so remarkable for its freedom from the disagreeable concomitants of tobacco and indigo culture, and comparatively so light, neat, and agreeable in its handling. THE COTTON PLANT, ITS ORIGIN AND VARIETIES, AND ITS ENEMIES AND DISEASES. The cotton plant, to which the generic term Gossypium has been applied by botanists, is of the order Polyandria, belonging to the Monadelphia class of plants. Although comparatively of recent introduction here, the cotton plant was known in the earliest ages in the Old World. Herodotus describes the plant as “producing in the Indies a wool of finer and better quality than that of sheep.” Pliny mentions certain “wool-bearing trees which were known in Upper Egypt, bearing a fruit like a gourd of the size of a quince, which, bursting when ripe, dis- plays a ball of downy wool from which are made costly ~ garments resembling linen.” At the commencement of the Christian era, it had beconte an article of commerce in the ports of the Red Sea; and the remote provinces of India had at that early period acquired a celebrity for their cotton fabrics. * See Plates III. and IV. aes : rr 1 by WeRuseuthall BLC Wailes del Crome thith sy IN Bosenthal Phil” AGRICULTURE. 139 The popular name Cotton, from the Italian Cotone, is said to be derived from its resemblance to the down which adheres to the quince, termed by the Italians Cotogni. Many varieties of the plant are described, and among them the perennial or tree cotton, which grows sponta- neously in Brazil and Peru. The annual herbaceous varieties, only, are those cultivated in the United States. The average height of the plant in land of medium quality, is about five feet. In a very fertile soil, it at- tains to double that height, whilst in one exhausted and sterile it becomes quite a dwarf. Its appearance somewhat resembles that of the ocra plant, but is much more branched, and the leaves less in size and of more uniform shape. The branches are long and jointed, occasionally bifur- cated, and bearing at each joint a boll or capsule con- taining the wool and seed. Each boll is accompanied by a broad indented leaf, springing from the same joint of the branch, resting upon a footstalk three or four inches in length. The woody fibre of the plant is white, spongy, and brittle, but is invested in a thick, brown epidermis, which is very pliant and tenacious. The root is tuberous, penetrating deeply into the sub- soil, and is thus less affected by drought than most other plants. The blossom is cup-shaped, two or three inches in length, never very widely expanded, white on the first day until past noon, then changing gradually to ared— closing, gradually, for the next day or two, with a twist at the extremity over the germ of the young boll, by which it is speedily detached in its rapid growth, when it withers and is cast off, leaving the boll invested by a 140 AGRICULTURE. capacious tripartite, dentate calyx, sufficiently large to inclose it until half grown. The calyx containing the germ of the flower is trian- gular in shape, and is technically known as the square, or form. In this stage of growth, these are liable to be disjointed and fall, from the long prevalence of drought; but more so when a rainy season suddenly suc- ceeds, occasioning a second growth from the rapid elabo- ration of sap, which in its circulation seems not to enter into the footstalk as freely as into other parts of the plant. The flower of the Sea Island cotton is, in its first stage, of a bright sulphur color, the boll small, trilobate, and more elongated, whilst the other varieties produce bolls of larger size, which open or divide into four and occasionally into five valves or cells. The cotton plant commences flowering about the first of June, and ceases about the first of November, when the plant is killed by the frost. — The bolls are egg-shaped, rather under the size of the ege of the domestic fowl, pointed at the extremity, ex- panding widely when fully mature, exhibiting a brown tough, woody, membranous seed-vessel, somewhat horny in texture, to which the expanded locks of fibre or lint adhere. The culture of cotton was introduced into China about the thirteenth century, and has extended largely ; and the Nankin variety especially, produced there, has acquired a wide notoriety, forming a distinct fabric, which is even yet imported to some extent into the United States. In England, although among the last countries where its manufacture was introduced, it had become well established at Manchester as early as 1640. In 1719, it was suggested that the climate of South ‘- Plate VIII ot Cotton. Culture and Preparat Vhilad? Y Rosenthals Lith AGRICULTURE. 141 Carolina was favorable for its production, and the first Provincial Congress of that State, in 1775, “recom- mended to its people to raise cotton.” Georgia is said, however, to have taken the lead in its cultivation; yet the first shipment of cotton known was in 1784, when eight bags were seized by the custom- house officers at Liverpool, it not being credited that even the small quantity of two thousand pounds had been raised in the United States. Seed was introduced into Georgia from Jamaica and Pernambuco in 1786; but the cultivation of the Sea Island variety was not established until 1789. The Upland, or the Georgia (bowed cotton), was successfully introduced about the same time. Cotton was doubtless indigenous to America, having been found growing wild in Hispaniola and other West India Islands when discovered by Columbus; and at the period of the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, the natives made “large webs, as delicate and fine as those of Holland.” Their other cotton fabrics were varied and beautiful, and constituted their chief article of dress. When and from whence the plant was first introduced into Mississippi, is not certainly known, most probably by the early French colonists from St. Domingo, which was a touching point for the company’s ships, and the place whence they derived much of their supplies. It would seem, indeed, that its cultivation here and in Louisiana on a small scale for domestic purposes pre- ceded that of Georgia. | Charlevoix, on his visit to Natchez in 1722, saw the cotton plant growing in the garden of Sieur Le Noir, the company’s clerk. Bienville states, in one of his dispatches, dated in April, 1735, that the cultivation of cotton proved ad- vantageous. 142 AGRICULTURE. It is stated by Major Stoddard to have been culti- vated in the colony in 1740; and Judge Martin quotes from a dispatch of Governor Vaudreuil, of 1746, to the French Minister, in which he mentions cotton among the articles received by the boats which came down annually from Illinois to New Orleans. This period is some thirty years prior to that in which it is claimed to have been cultivated in Georgia. Among the varieties of the cotton plant may be enumerated the Sea Island, the Upland, the Tennessee green seed, the Mexican, Pernambuco, Surinam, Deme- rara, Eeyptian, &c. Xe. The four first named are those which have been chiefly cultivated in Mississippi. The Sea Island is confined to a very few plantations on our seaboard. It is superior to all others in length and fineness of fibre, and is on that account in much request on the continent of Europe, for delicate and costly fabrics, such as laces, and for intermixture with silk goods; it bears a high price, generally thrice as much as the best Uplands; but, being necessarily prepared for market in the roller-gin, at a heavy cost of time and labor, and being more difficult to gather, is upon the whole not more profitable than the short staple. The Upland first cultivated here, differs from the pre- ceding in the color of the blossom, the size and form of the boll or capsule, and in the length and fineness of the staple. Both have the smooth, black, naked seed. All other varieties seem to have a tendency to return to this by long-continued cultivation. The Tennessee cotton has a seed invested with a thick green down, adhering firmly to it. It is difficult to gather, and superseded the latter, or black seed, for a AGRICULTURE. 143 few years, from its freedom from the rot—a disease with which the latter became infected. They both gave way in time to the Mexican, which is now itself chiefly cultivated, or is the basis of all the varieties now in favor. The superiority of the Mexican consists in its vigor- ous growth, the size of the boll and its free expansion affording a facility of gathering by which three times the quantity can be picked, as was formerly the case. The objections to it originally, and these have been in a great degree corrected, were the coarseness of the staple, and the loss sustained by its falling out, if not gathered speedily. Like the Tennessee, the seeds, although larger, are coated with a coarse, felt-like down, of a dingy white or brown color. The Mexican seed is believed to have been first intro- duced by the late Walter Burling, of Natchez. It is related by some of our older citizens, who were well acquainted with him and the facts, that, when in the city of Mexico, where he was sent by General Wilk- inson, in 1806, on a mission connected with a threatened rupture between the two countries, in relation to our western boundary, he dined at the viceroy’s table, and in the course of conversation on the products of the country, he requested permission to import some of the Mexican cotton seed—a request which was not granted, on the ground that it was forbidden by the Spanish government. But the viceroy, over his wine, sportively accorded his free permission to take home with him as many Mexican dolls as he might fancy—a permission well understood, and which in the same vein was as freely accepted. The stuffing of these dolls is understood to have been cotton seed. Many accidental varieties have been introduced of late 144 AGRICULTURE. years, originating in a promiscuous cultivation of differ- ent kinds, by which the pollen became intermixed, and the different qualities assimilated. Some new and excellent varieties have thus been pro- duced, which have been preserved and further improved by a careful and judicious selection of seed in the field. These, together with some spurious kinds, which have been palmed off upon the planter from time to time, have been known by rather whimsical and fantastic names, having little or no relation to their distinctive character. Many of them have had their day, whilst others deservedly maintain the high estimation to which their superior qualities entitle them. The diseases of the cotton plant are the rust, the rot, and the sore shins. The first is most probably attributable to the mineral properties of the soil, as it is local and partial in its effects; and on the spots of ground affected by it, the difference of soil is obvious to the eye. The appearance of the plant so diseased, suggests the existence of micro- scopic fungi, which exhaust, by their parasitic growth, the sap of the leaves, and cause them to wither and fall. The rot, or disease of the boll, has been assigned to various causes. The first external indication of its ap- proach is the appearance of an’ almost imperceptible puncture on the side, and generally near the base of the boll, surrounded by a slight discoloration or change of tint, presenting the semblance of a minute spot of grease —a character given it in the common conversation of planters, in speaking of the disease.* The most received opinion, and that best supported is, * See Plate VI. RLCWates del On Stoneby M Rosential Crome Lith b LN Rosenthal Phil® ahem sale Mind — Tee vit se r nat - iy ; - = E f 1 - ; a Lie ' ‘ n.¥ 7 6 7 ey >: of Paty be burp Bae >! i : ‘iif ‘ oye 4 ? >! . ae . is 1 ; f €.4 J / “. othe ¢? ‘, » a) 6 | ; fs ¥ ar 7 1 5 x , o % ial ¢ ae ’ Licey re ‘Am pecs % sale te flee % rhe ‘Mes ‘ ‘ 3 + \ ot ae , 7 iY s bls . cea y Ave ty we Lene tee _ : tees tae ey } ‘ " Y ; oe, FS , jet tr ee ay n\n va. 7 . a As »* i bags ino p« a. I v oa ty a e > . - . - 2 - < . * ‘= _ , ltt Ah, oe a 7 TH shah Ade i ian at yh (Paps: S ie en onl (hie Geet s Po er Le tis : ab Gieleid:, ae rel spine ‘4 wit i Ngee a opty Mast AGRICULTURE. 145 that it is occasioned by the larvee of a small beetle or bug, which is hatched from the egg deposited in it, in some unknown manner, at an early stage of its growth, and which, feeding on the succulent and pulpy seed in their early stage of formation, produces the disease without immediately destroying the boll, which not unfrequently is only partially damaged, and continues to grow nearly to its mature size, but in the end becoming externally black and hard; the decayed state of the interior of the boll presenting an analogy to the peach or plum, which, though often presenting even a fair and perfect exterior, is found, upon opening, to have been long preyed upon by the curculio, or peach worm. It is certain that the diseased and blackened boll, when broken open, often reveals a variety of small in- sects, sometimes in the different stages or conditions of their metamorphoses. Which of these is the real enemy can only be determined by the close and continued ob- servation of the practised entomologist. This disease made its appearance as early as 1810, and prevailed more or less for more than ten years, and occasionally to such an extent as almost to cause the abandonment of the cotton culture—a contingency pre- vented by the introduction of the Tennessee green-seed variety, which was exempt from the disease, or much less affected by it than the naked black-seed variety first cultivated. For many years the rot was unheard of; its partial and unfrequent occurrence being too inconsiderable to create alarm, or occasion any appreciable injury. Its reappearance in 1852, and during the late season, has, however, on many plantations, been attended with considerable damage. The remaining disease, popularly known as the sore 10 146 AGRICULTURE. shin, attacks the plant in its early stage. If not wholly destroyed, the bark of the stem becomes diseased and hardened, and the sap vessels dried up or obstructed at or near the surface of the ground. The disease is most prevalent during the occurrence of the cold nights of a wet and backward spring. To this cause it is attributed, and may be owing in some degree to the plant-louse, apis pauceron, which prevails most in such seasons. The growth of the young plant so affected is languid and slow, and although the damaged epidermis may be repaired and overgrown by a new bark, it is question- able whether the plant ever becomes as vigorous or pro- lific as those that have not sustained this injury. The cause of this malady—too early planting—sug- gests the proper remedy. The casting of the forms or germs of the bolls may perhaps also be regarded as a disease attendant on a deranged circulation in the plant, owing to an unequal and irregular supply of moisture. It is manifested most generally upon a sudden transition from a very dry to a very wet season, and is consequently so far without remedy; it is, however, doubtless sometimes occasioned or aggravated by injudicious cultivation. The enemies of the cotton plant, besides those enume- rated, are chiefly the caterpillar and boll-worm.* The ravages of the chenille or cotton caterpillar (Depressaria Gossypioides) has long been known in other countries. It»prevailed destructively in South America and the West Indies, having been described previous to the present century, and is probably coeval with the cul- tivation of the cotton plant. In 1788 and 1794, two- * See Plate V. a ss ‘ ; —_ 7 cin is iT . “? , , Ore”: bias — 5 - weed 7 we prereset bee, b = 1 ww p a : a : , : ne eae f 4 ~ Sok & wae Ay | or Ba a ip Deed gd Ll) Waid hid? Mey ro a2 : : a : 7 { ~~ - “; ts = ‘ a Faa3 ; 5 ak Wee ce ' i ' . ro ; sae te, i predes WOG-D CL warriors Juz . tnets” a bes nf he “a 7 oe & ’ 7 >! ; , ay ab AMWMAGY Hib. e¥25 rs ot 7 Ss + ia rae. PTT Ff { ye 2 > eo . . 1 - , i ae a } ‘ -' 2 7 ‘ 7 tie AEN EA WARD deviindweta tins 0 a lt pala . - = - ~~? 4) a ee a) Lg a oe ares . . “ghee “un . tail; 1. a » . adit ‘ Fs we; hee 0 ae L / ; nt) * om 7 = al t u 7 £ m7 a > a , 7 i 7 i ee a , v1 ‘> ive ; _— La a * bd Y - , ‘ ew (ya - _ . — > " > * I, al ‘alll ow) ath? “4. we ? uy wipe ' reside) a ye.” ad | Sie ‘4 ioe oe ttt? pele Note Bred 2 eS ° f ee ey. saihbliie OSE5ai)) 42 SPR, celta: cs Cee tthe j 4 7 + “ as ; > a, So by | > a ne f roe : , wir af « Tt ‘te ° ‘ip — e 7 Pg ie pie iy paral a is i rls \y) ie et eS ee ay oe a : sat be miata A's ee wv! $ret (ir ‘ ini er Ty m +1 c ; : . a “a Dinter _ ers $80) ieee) ities air “els ree cs ; ee bis \ ZS qi - é a ty « 7 - i J ; : ey hs ' 7 =a : 2 fs ( , : —- | ‘6 { a ‘ Y . ‘ " Ki s eT a . 7 = * a ; @ 7 vw ———_ : 7 ; nade hry lz a ee ‘ 7 oe 7 adic, or OVS OY. 7 ce “4 vic [3 ane s q an Y i : 7 “as eR * 5 > ‘ - “ = a, as = of Re : Yo 7 7 - ° a0 - ' 7 . 7 ‘” 7 Ly ie AGRICULTURE. 147 thirds of the crops in one of the Bahama Islands were destroyed by it. The remedy first resorted to was the burning of the cotton-stalk in which the eggs of the insect were sup- posed to be deposited. This seems to have been ineffectual; it was certainly so as respects the insect that occasions the rot, as, during the whole period of its prevalence in this country, the burning of the stalks was universal, and no diminution of the disease was known to have resulted from the practice. The most feasible remedy I can suggest is one I pro- posed more than ten years since: it is the destruction of the enemy by means of torches at night immediately after the perfect immago or moth emerges from its pupa- rium or chrysalis state, and flies abroad, it being well known that fire-light attracts insects of this class. If the hands on a plantation were each provided with a lighted torch of pine wood, dried cane, or some similar material, and made to pass through the fields at inter- vals of five or ten rows apart, shortly after twilight had closed, myriads of the moth would perish in the flame, each of which would have deposited its hundreds of eggs in a few days. If this plan was generally adopted, and persevered in for a few successive nights at the proper season, its effect would doubtless be, if not entirely to destroy, at least to diminish to a very beneficial extent these mischievous pests. The first hatching of the caterpillar in the spring could not at first be thus destroyed, or their ravages pre- vented; but the second brood, if it may be so termed, which is generally considered most numerous and de- structive, and which furnishes the egg for the supply of the ensuing year, would be cut off to a great extent. 148 AGRICULTURE. However this suggestion may be received, it is at least as practicable as any of the plans that have been proposed for the same object, some of which have been promulgated through respectable Agricultural Journals ; such as the powdering the leaves of the plant with finely pulverized quicklime, or the fumigation of each separate plant with sulphurous vapor produced by burning brimstone on chafing dishes, each plant being inclosed, during the process, in a tight canvas hood, ten minutes being considered sufficient time for each plant! If this was at all practicable, one hand, with great diligence, might at this rate go over one acre in fifteen or twenty days. The caterpillar, which does not usually appear until the cotton plant is pretty well matured, feeds chiefly upon the leaf, and the degree of damage done depends upon the period it commences its depredations; if so early that but few bolls are matured, the plant must cease to grow when thoroughly stripped of leaf. Instances have occurred, but it must be confessed very rarely, when the growth of the plant was too vigorous, and continued too late in the season, in which a partial cropping of the leaves by the worm has had a beneficial effect in arresting the growth, and causing the bolls to mature and open. If their appearance is de- layed until a period immediately preceding a killing frost, and during a dry season, a conjuncture not often happening, they do a benefit in removing the leaf, which, after a frost, stains the cotton and renders it very trashy, by crumbling and falling upon it. The boll-worm is comparatively small, resembling at first the silk-worm in its early stages; its attacks are made within the calyx, and about the base of the boll, AGRICULTURE. 149 which it perforates, and when first forming and tender, it wholly devours or causes to drop off. The insect theory, in connection with the cause of the rot, is sustained by the observations of intelligent planters made last year. It was remarked that, on lands where the different varieties of cotton had been planted separately, in alternate rows, for experiment, the most tender and succulent varieties, which would naturally first invite the attacks of insects, were those most damaged, whilst the more hardy and firmly wooded remained uninjured. The increase of these maladies may probably be traced in some measure to the extirpation or disappear- ance of birds, owing chiefly to the destruction of our forests, leaving them in a degree without protection or shelter. A beneficent Providence, in the economy of nature, designed these little winged scavengers for useful pur- poses. To restrain the exuberance of insect life is their peculiar office; and, so long as they are preserved and protected, their office is effectually performed. If man wantonly, and with mistaken impressions as to the extent and character of their depredations, will destroy them, he must make his account in submitting to ra- vages of a more formidable kind, and which may baffle his ingenuity to prevent. This lesson has been taught with hee cost, nowhere perhaps more clearly than on the rice plantations, where the planters would now gladly woo back the little deni- zens of the air, which they have frightened away or destroyed. 150 AGRICULTURE. MODE OF PLANTING, CULTIVATING, AND GATHERING THE COTTON CROP. There must ever be some diversity of practice, in the details of all agricultural operations. The character and situation of the land, the nature of the soil, the variations of the seasons, will influence these more or less. The following details, therefore, must be received as descriptive of the general practice under the most usual combination of circumstances. We will suppose that the land has been previously cultivated in cotton, and has been already laid off and circled according to the undulations of the surface, at distances suited to the quality and capacity of the soil. The cotton stalk of the previous year having become sufficiently decayed and brittle, is first beaten down and broken to pieces, and left strewn upon the ground. This is done by the women and the younger hands, provided with stout sticks or clubs suited to the purpose. Between the rows of the previous year, a furrow is now run, with a bar-shear plough without a coulter, and two other furrows are lapped upon it. In this state, it remains until all the ground is gone over, and the sea- son for planting approaches. ‘Two or more furrows, according to the width of the row, are then thrown up on both sides to the previous ridge, and the middles are thus broken up. So far, the work has been done with large two-horse ploughs suited to breaking up the hard ground. In the subsequent cultivation, a lighter one-horse plough is used. Over the bed or ridge thus formed, if the rough and lumpy condition of the ground requires it, an iron toothed harrow is drawn, and the ridge is split or opened by a small plough, or more usually by a lighter imple- AGRICULTURE. 15a ment contrived for the purpose, and consisting of a suitably fashioned block preceded by a coulter. In the furrow made by the opener, the cotton seed are sown by the women from a quantity carried in the apron, gathered together at the lower end, and held by the left hand so as to form a sack which is replenished from time to time from piles of seed previously deposited in the field at convenient distances. The sowing is done adroitly at a brisk pace by a vertical or downward move- ment of the arm, by which the seed are strewn along the row several feet at each cast of the hand, and with the requisite regularity. A light harrow follows, to the hinder part of which is frequently attached a small roller, which smooths down and compresses the loose soil over the seed. When the cotton has come up, and grown to the height of a few inches, in a week or ten days it begins to require thinning out and scraping. This was formerly done almost entirely by the hoe, by which the grass and cotton on the sides of the ridge were scraped away, and the cotton blocked out in the row by cutting it out to the width of the hoe or about twelve or fourteen inches. It is now performed by first running a bar-shear plough lightly on each side of the row, and barring off, as it is called, and throwing the dirt from the plant. The process also is greatly facilitated by the use of a properly constructed scraper, an implement of modern and not yet of universal, if of general use, which acts well, and saves a great amount of labor to the hoe hands. It is desirable to follow this operation with as little delay as practicable, the ploughs on this occasion giving an inverted direction to the soil, and throwing it back to the plant with the mould-board—a process which is termed dirting or moulding the cotton. The hoes follow tb2 AGRICULTURE. immediately, thin out to a stand, leaving one or two of the most vigorous and promising plants, freeing them from grass, and drawing the loose soil well around them for their better support. If the planter has accomplished this much of his work thoroughly, and in good season, his crop may generally be accounted safe. The after cultivation is varied according to the nature of the season; and the plough, hoe-harrow, or the sweep will be used as they may be found best adapted to the condition of the crop. The latter implement is, like the scraper, of modern introduction. It resembles one of the hoes of a harrow flanked with wide-cutting blades, or wings, forming two sides of a triangle; and mounted on a plough-beam, is capable of sweeping the whole width of the row, or the greater part of it at once, loosening the soil and destroy- ing weeds, vines, and everything that does not require to be turned under and effectually buried. It is a very efficient tool, and is employed with advantage, and especially in dry seasons, in keeping under the tie vine (convolvulus, or morning-glory), which, if not thoroughly done, is an after source of great annoyance and damage. This course of cultivation supposes the planter to have kept pace with the regular order of his work; but if, from a backward season and late frosts, he is compelled to replant, or if, from an unusual prevalence of rains, he is unable to run his ploughs, or, from the same cause, to scrape out his cotton in proper time, and consequently gets into the grass, he has necessarily to adopt such expedients as the emergency requires; and sometimes it is necessary to throw out of cultivation or abandon a part of the crop to save the balance. , The first of April is early enough to commence the AGRICULTURE. 153 planting of cotton, which is continued to the middle of May, and occasionally later. The only motive for plant- ing in March is to get more forward with the work of the plantation, and put in a larger crop; and this is often done at the expense of a bad stand, or having to replant, which is apt to retard and derange all the operations of the planter. Cotton, planted in well-prepared land after the ground has become sufficiently warm, comes up sooner, grows more rapidly, and is much less liable to be injured by the “sore shins,” or the plant-louse, than that which has been chilled by the cold winds and rains from getting above the ground too early in the season. The practice of horizontal cultivation, or circling the rows, so as to keep them on a level on hilly and rolling land, was introduced by the late Mr. William Dunbar, of the Forest in Adams County (as Mr. Dunbar is known to have stated in conversation in the town of Washington, in 1810), at the suggestion of Mr. Jefferson, of whom Mr. Dunbar was a correspondent for many years, when the former was President of the United States. Having observed, when in France, this economi- cal manner of cultivating the mountain sides, Mr. Jeffer- son recommended it as well adapted to our broken lands. The practice was tardily adopted, and, like all similar innovations on established usages, met at first with its share of ridicule. Many planters rely upon the eye alone in circling their lands, altering and correcting the rows in subse- quent years as the direction of the rain water may show to be necessary. The most careful and judicious class, however, have their fields carefully staked out in the first instance by 154 AGRICULTURE. means of a triangular spirit-level resting on a tripod for more convenient adjustment. Like type-setting, cotton-picking is and must still continue to be performed by the fingers; but its rate has become as accelerated as if some new motive power was applied in the process. Fifty years since, fifty pounds a day was accounted fair work. Now the chil- dren double this ; and two hundred pounds is not unfre- quently the average of the whole gang of hands, to say nothing of those who pick their four or five hundred pounds of cotton (dolls ?). The cotton is gathered from the bolls in the field in sacks, made of Lowell cotton, suspended over the neck and shoulder, and from which it is emptied from time to time into large baskets made generally of white oak splints, and capable of holding about one hundred and fifty pounds. It is generally weighed at noon and at night, in the field, and the baskets emptied into a wagon, hauled to the gin yard, and spread upon scaffolds, exposed to the sun, to dry. It is there picked over and trashed by the invalids, and such of the hands as are suited to this light employment. When a long-continued drought prevails, after the frosts have checked the further growth, and the cotton becomes very dry in the field, it is not necessary to put it upon the scaffolds. If put up in bulk a /vttle damp, it undergoes a heat by which the essential oil of the seed is discharged, imparting to the fibre a creamy color, highly prized by some purchasers, and which sometimes effects a good sale of a really inferior article. This is rather a dangerous experiment, however, to make on a large scale; for, if the heat rises too high, Plate Vil. AGRICULTURE. toe putrefaction and mildew will supervene, and serious damage will result. In an average of ten years, in which observations have been recorded, the first cotton blooms made their appearance about the first of June, and the plant was killed by frost about the first of November. WHITNEY’S GIN—INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY. The implements and machinery used for the prepara- tion of cotton for market were, in the first instance, of the most simple and primitive kind. Next to the separation of the seed from the fibre by the fingers, the small roller gin was used. It was ordinarily attached to the middle of a common rude bench supported on legs inserted in auger holes (Plate VII. Fig. 1). Astride of this, two boys, seated face to face, operated each by turning a crank, one feeding the rollers with the seed cotton, the other freeing them from the lint on the oppo- site side, as it was drawn through, leaving the seed behind. The rollers were less than an inch in diameter, and about eight inches long, revolving of course in opposite directions, but in close contact. The next step, in advance, was a modification of this gin, by which the rollers were rotated by means of a treadle worked by the foot, leaving both hands of the operator free to attend upon the rollers; by which means one person was enabled to manage a single stand. This description of gin was in use in the West Indies in 1764 (see Plate VIII. and Fig. 2, Plate VII.). Tron in the minutest particle did not necessarily enter into the construction of these gins, nor is it believed to be indispensable to this day in their improved forms. 156 AGRICULTURE. No additional power or efficiency can be attained by the enlargement or lengthening of the rollers, and it is only by multiplying the stands or pairs of rollers, each requiring its attendants, but simultaneously put in mo- tion by some efficient power acting upon the whole, that they have been rendered at all adequate to the demands of even moderate plantations. The adaptation of these stands toa common power, by means of an extended cylinder or drum with which they were connected by bands is attributed to Mr. Longstreet, a merchant of Augusta, Georgia, the father of Judge Longstreet, the President of the University of Missis- sippi; and was introduced about 1792. The roller gin is only adapted to the Sea Island and naked seed varieties of cotton. The upland Georgia cotton required the preparatory process of bowing, in the manner that hatters prepare their felt. Hence the bowed cotton, formerly known in commerce. Short as the rollers are, with the accelerated velocity given by the combined machinery and horse power, they are very liable to become sprung, and to admit the seed or any foreign substance that may be in the cotton. A single seed so taken in will instantly scorch a notch in the rollers, and render them unfit for further use. Great pains is therefore required in picking over the cotton and rendering it perfectly clean before gin- ning. The liability of igniting the lint or fibre by friction from this cause renders it necessary to employ the most cautious and expert hands in attendance upon the rollers, and to keep vessels of water constantly at hand to guard against such casualties. AGRICULTURE. tat New rollers have to be supplied, and it is estimated that two or three pair are daily required on an average to each stand, and one hand is kept constantly employed at the lathe to furnish the necessary supply. Perhaps half a bag can be ginned per day with five pair of rollers under favorable circumstances; but the process is greatly retarded in damp or wet weather. Such, until the introduction: of Whitney’s invention, were the miniature gins in use. The small hand gins were to be seen in nearly every planter’s house, and, indeed, for many years after, were often met with on the small farms in the interior, where cotton was only raised for home consumption. It will readily be imagined that with such means of preparing it, the culture of cotton in Mississippi was restricted to a very small space. A mere spot of ground sufficed for all that was required for domestic purposes, or which the grower could in a reasonable time free from the seed. The long staple or Sea Island cotton had not been introduced into Mississippi; and it does not appear, from the most diligent inquiry, that more than a single small lot of only three bales, or rather round bags, was ex- ported from the country previous to the introduction of the saw gin. This was produced by Mr. William Vousdan, near the site of the ancient Whiteapple Village on Second Creek. To prepare it for the roller gin, it was kiln-dried in the seed on latticed scaffolds, formed of cane, under which fires were placed. The dawn of a new era in the agriculture of the coun- try was, however, at hand, and was ushered in by the introduction of Whitney’s gin—an invention in ma- chinery which has not only added to the wealth of our 158 AGRICULTURE. nation, but extended the manufactures and commerce of the world in a degree without example in its history. Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765, eraduated at Yale College in 1792, and went shortly after to Georgia, to assume the duties of a private tutor. Being disappointed in this expectation, he became an inmate in the family of the widow of General Green, and commenced the study of law under her hospitable roof. Among other acts done in requital of the hospitality and kindness of his obliging hostess, Mr. Whitney had presented her with a tambour frame, made on a plan entirely new, and of his own construction. This and the various toys he had made for her child- ren, acquired for him the reputation of great ingenuity and mechanical skill, and caused the invention of a ma- chine for the separation of the lint or fibre of the cotton from the seed, to be suggested to him by some gentle- men, visitors of his hostess, to whom she had consider- ately introduced him. Although not seriously proposed, or with the expecta- tion that the suggestion would be acted upon, a direction was given to Whitney’s views, which neither his kind patroness nor her friends dreamed of. His active and inventive mind was stimulated to action by the great importance of such a discovery, and he determined to grapple with the task, sensible of the vast benefits that must ensue from the successful accom- plishment of the undertaking. Never having seen in his life the cotton or cotton seed, with some difficulty, by visiting Savannah, he pro- cured a small quantity, which he brought with him, and acquainted his friend, Mr. Phineas Miller, with his in- tentions, in which he was warmly encouraged, and an AGRICULTURE. 159 apartment was assigned him in the basement of the house for a workshop. Here, with such rude tools and materials as a Georgia plantation then afforded, he went to work, and near the close of the winter had progressed so far as to render his success certain. When the machine was erected, Mrs. Green invited to her house a number of planters from different parts of the State, to witness its operation; “and they saw with astonishment and delight that more cotton could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single hand, than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many months.”* It is not my purpose here to write the biography of Mr. Whitney. That has already been ably done by Professor Olmsted of Yale College. But it is of some interest to preserve the history of an invention to which the people of our State owe all their prosperity. In order to gratify the curiosity which every cotton planter must naturally feel on the subject, I have been at some pains to inform myself on the subject, and have had the rare opportunity of examining critically, in all its parts, an early model of the gin on a small scale constructed under Mr. Whitney’s direction, and which is now. exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in New York. I have also seen a working-stand made in 1807, to serve as a model, under a contract between Mr. Whit- ney and the State of South Carolina.; This latter stand has recently been used as evidence in a suit in relation to infringement of patent between two gin builders, and * Professor Olmsted. + Plate VII. Fig. 3. o the cylinder, B the brush, A the breastwork, H the hopper, and @ & the grate. 160 AGRICULTURE. was identified as the original gin stand of Whitney by the oath of one of his early workmen. The model shows the progress of the invention as elaborated in the ingenious mind of its author; and his first idea seems to have been that of carding the lint or fibre from the seed, rather than that suggested by the use of the saw. The cylinder in the model is divided into three parts; one-third of it at the left end is armed with stout crooked wires driven in, flattened at the sides, and the ends brought to an edge, as shown in Plate VII. Fig. 4. (The middle third of the cylinder is provided with a similar arrangement of wires, not flattened as in the first, but pointed, asin Fig. 5.) And the remainder of the cylinder is mounted with the circular saw rags, similar to those now in use. Figure 3, of Plate VII. exhibits an end view of the stand, showing the position of the cylinder and brush, or clearer, as it was then termed in the specification of the patent, for which the reader is referred to Appendix G. The gin stand made for South Carolina in 1807, con- sists of a frame supporting an iron form, upon which the saw cylinder and brush are hung. An end view of the machine shows the mode of boxing the journals and retaining them in place. ‘The seed- board of the hopper is connected with the upper part by hinges, and may be placed at any required distance from the saws. The back of the hopper descends nearly to the saws just behind the grating, and the rear branch of the grating makes the bottom of the moting trough; it also contains a movable false bottom of tin, which catches the motes. The cylinder contains forty saws, six and three-fourth AGRICULTURE. Ket inches in diameter, each having one hundred and six teeth ; they are separated at distances of three-fourths of an inch by block tin or pewter castings. “The seven-inch cylinder brush has six wings, each extending from one inch below to two inches above the surface, where they receive oblique tufts of bristles. The wings of the brush extend beyond the heads, and form what are called projecting lags. “The machine has a large opening against the ends of the brush to admit the air freely to these lags, and thus prevent the cotton from winding upon the axis of the brush ; the mote-board is made of slats two or three inches wide. “The hopper, moting-trough, &c., form one part of the gin; and the top and ceiling, back of the openings, are each hung upon the upper bar of the iron form, and may be turned back at pleasure.” The experiments, made in the presence of the gentle- men assembled at the house of Mrs. Green, to witness the operation of the machine, as before stated, proving so satisfactory, no further doubt of the utility of the invention was entertained. A partnership was entered into with Mr. Phineas Miller, who, hike Whitney, had come out from New England to Georgia as a private tutor, and resided in the family of General Green, with whose widow he sub- sequently intermarried. Mr. Miller in this manner had become possessed of the requisite funds for carrying on the business of the concern, which was, from May, 1793, conducted in the name of Miller & Whitney. A patent was procured on the 14th of March, 1794, and Mr. Whitney established himself at New Haven, for the purpose of perfecting his invention and of availing 162 AGRICULTURE. himself of greater facilities for manufacturing the stands, which were to be shipped to Georgia to supply the anticipated demand. “An invention so important to the agricultural in- terest (and, as it has proved, to every department of human industry) could not long remain a secret. The knowledge of it soon spread through the State, and so ereat was the excitement on the subject that multitudes of persons came from all quarters of the State to see the machine; but it was not deemed safe to gratify their curiosity until the patent right had been secured. But so determined were some of the populace to possess this treasure, that neither law nor justice could restrain them —they broke open the building by night, and carried off the machine. In this way, the public became possessed of the invention; and before Mr. Whitney could com- plete his model, and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful operation, constructed with some slight deviation from the original, with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent right.”* The following account of the invention, and of the performance of the first machines manufactured, is given in a letter written in November, 1793, by Mr. Whitney, in answer to one received from Mr. Jefferson, who took much interest in the invention, and sought information respecting it:— “Tt is about a year since I first turned my attention to constructing this machine, at which time I was in the State of Georgia. “Within about ten days of my first conception of the plan, I made a small though imperfect model. “Experiments with this encouraged me to make one on * Olmsted’s Biography of Whitney. AGRICULTURE. 163 a larger scale; but the extreme difficulty of procuring workmen and the proper materials in Georgia, prevented my completing the larger one until some time in April last. This, though much larger than my first attempt, is not above one-third as large as machines may be made with convenience. The cylinder is only two feet two inches in length, and six inches in diameter. It is turned by hand, and requires the strength of one man to keep it in constant motion. “Tt is the stated task of one negro to clean fifty weight (I mean fifty pounds after it is separated from the seed) of the green seed cotton per day.” The biographer of Mr. Whitney thus alludes to the unfortunate and mistaken scheme of Mr. Whitney and his partner at the outset of their business, which was to erect the machinery in different sections of the cotton region, and to engross the whole business of ginning themselves, the profits of which were very tempting, being no less than every third pound taken for toll. “This did not at once supply the demands of the cotton growers, and it multiplied the inducements to make the machines in violation of the patent. Had the proprie- tors confined their views to the manufacture of the machines, and to the sale of patent rights, it is probable that they would have avoided some of the difficulties with which they had afterwards to contend.” In 1796, Miller and Whitney had ‘thirty gins in operation at different places in Georgia, either by horse or water-power. The consequence was that their patent was infringed, and they became involved from the outset in a series of expensive lawsuits to protect their rights; and it was nearly thirteen years, when their patent had nearly 164 AGRICULTURE. expired, before they succeeded in obtaining a verdict in their favor. In the mean time, they were subjected to a series of the most disheartening losses and embarrassments. It has been stated that Whitney did not at first use the circular saw plates in his machines, although subse- quently it was satisfactorily proved in one of his suits that the idea of such teeth had early occurred to him. The application of this form or description of the gin rag was first made by Hodgin Holmes, of Georgia, who obtained a patent for it in May, 1796. It is related in Georgia that this form of tooth was first accidentally suggested by sawing through a board partition with a common handsaw into a room partially filled with seed cotton, into which the saw penetrated, and was observed to draw a portion of the fibre through attached to the teeth. A gang of saws working vertically through grates was tried, but no means could be devised for detaching the lint or fibre. The saws were therefore worthless for the purpose except in connection with the cylinders of Whitney’s machine; they were essentially a part of his invention. In the celebrated decision made by Judge Johnson, in December, 1807, the Judge thus disposes of Mr. Holmes’s pretensions. | ‘*A Mr. Holmes has cut teeth in plates of iron and passed them over the cylinder. This is certainly a meritorious improvement in the mechanical process of constructing this machine. But at last, what does it amount to, except a more convenient mode of making the same thing? Every characteristic of Mr. Whitney’s machine is preserved. The cylinder, the iron tooth, the rotary motion of the tooth, the breastwork and brush, AGRICULTURE. 165 and all the merit which this discovery can assume, is that of a more expeditious mode of attaching the tooth to the cylinder.” Of the merit of the invention, Judge Johnson, at that early day, in the same opinion, uses the following em- phatic language :— “We cannot express the weight of the obligation which the country owes to this invention. The extent of it cannot now be seen. Some faint presentiment may be formed from the reflection that cotton is rapidly sup- planting wool, flax, silk, and even furs in manufactures, and may one day profitably supply the use of specie in our East India trade. Our sister States also participate in the benefits of this invention; for, besides affording the raw material for their manufacturers, the bulkiness and quantity of the article afford a valuable employ- ment for their shipping.” By the introduction of this gin the value of the cotton crop of the United States was increased, in the short period of ten years, from about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to at least eight millions. And what estimate shall we place upon the value of the invention when we view the present production of cotton ? Constituting considerably more than half the value of the whole domestic exports of the United States, it has become so identified with the wants of mankind; is so essential to the industry and capital of the world, that to withhold the produce of a single crop from our princi- pal customer, Great Britain, would involve her manufac- tories in ruin, reduce her operatives to pauperism, and seriously derange all her commercial interests and rela- tions.* * The lives of nearly two millions of our countrymen are dependent upon the cotton crops of America; their destiny may be said, without 166 AGRICULTURE. With what ingratitude has this great benefactor of his country and the world been treated? Millions would not adequately have rewarded him for his great boon ; and yet the very name of Wuitney has almost ceased to be used in connection with the machine of his invention, which is now known familiarly by those of the present manufacturers, and who at most can only claim some slight modification or improvement upon the original. Thus, we have Carver’s gins; Bates and Hyde’s, At- wood’s, Parkhurst’s, Taylor’s, and numerous others, known only in the neighborhood in which they are made. It is true that Mr. Whitney was not wholly uncom- pensated. The State of South Carolina made Miller and Whitney a grant of fifty thousand dollars, payable in four instalments. The State of North Carolina, in 1802, levied a tax on each saw employed, for the term of five years, for their benefit, and the following year Tennessee did the same for the period of four years. Both South Carolina and Tennessee suspended the payment of the stipulated sums for some years. North Carolina, however, was true to her engagement. In Georgia, although the patent was generally in- vaded, there were some who respected the invention, and purchased the right of using it. One of the instruments by which this privilege was conveyed having, by rare chance, been preserved in the family of the writer, is given in the Appendix (see H.). as a document of curious interest, and as serving to show any sort of hyperbole, to hang upon a thread! Should any dire cala- mity befall the land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock, ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms, and two million mouths would starve for lack of food to feed them. DICKENS. AGRICULTURE. Lox the exact date both of the invention and the patent, and the terms on which its use was accorded. Whitney’s gin was introduced into Georgia in 1794. In the following year, it came in use in Mississippi, so speedily was its value made known through the whole cotton region. In 1795, Daniel Clarke, living then near Fort Adams, in Wilkinson County, had one constructed almost entirely by a Negro mechanic owned by him, chiefly from a rude drawing and an imperfect description obtained from a traveller who had seen Whitney’s gin in Georgia. It is known that several gins were in operation in Adams county previous to the evacuation of the country by the Spaniards.* In 1798, cotton was shipped from a gin of Thomas Wilkins, on Pine Ridge, near Natchez; it was then put up in round bags. This, next to Clark’s gin, on his plantation near Fort Adams, was probably the earliest construction, and must, at the time referred to, have been in operation about two years. In the then condition of the country, and in the ab- sence of mechanical skill, the first machinery employed was, of course, rude and imperfect; and it is said that the first rags or saws manufactured were hammered out of hoe-blades, and had only two or three teeth to the inch. Well-made and tempered saws were worth five dollars each, separate from the other machinery. The price of gin stands is now about three dollars and a half per saw. The improvement in machinery having ob- viated the old, tedious, and expensive process, the seg- * Mr. Dunbar mentions being from home for the purpose of in- specting a cotton gin in September, 1795; and states that, in 1797, cotton had become the “ universal crop” of the District of Natchez. 168 AGRICULTURE. ments of the saw are now made at a single cut, and afterwards the teeth are cut on them very accurately and expeditiously, by a machine nicely adapted to the purpose. David Greenleaf became one of the earliest, if not the first ginwright in the country, and was unquestiona- bly the most skilful of his day. He settled here pre- vious to 1795, and soon after was known to have seen and examined a model of the Whitney gin, at the house of Philip Six, near Selserstown. Mr. Greenleaf subsequently built a gin in the same neighborhood, on his own account, upon the land of Richard Curtiss. This was long afterwards known as the public gin of Edmund Andrews, and formed one point on the boundary line between the counties of Adams and Jefferson. As an evidence of the skill of some of our early gin- wrights, Mr. Dunbar may be quoted. Writing to a friend, in May, 1799, he says: “I have reason to think the new gin has been much more improved here than anywhere else. The latest and best gins cannot injure the cotton more than a pair of cards might do.” Eleazer Carver commenced the business of making cotton gins near the town of Washington, in the Missis- sippi Territory, in the year 1807. “There were then no labor-saving machines in the country for making or preparing any parts of a gin. «‘Saw-mills had not been introduced to facilitate wood- work, nor forges or foundries for the metallic parts of the gin. “The gin-saws were made either of inferior sheet-iron, or forged from the bar by the hands of common black- smiths, who had no better implements for finishing them than cold-chisels and files; and the making of the other AGRICULTURE. 169 parts of the machine were attended by corresponding inconveniences for the lack of workshops, lathes, and other suitable tools.” : To obviate some of these inconveniences, Mr. Carver erected a small saw-mill, about the year 1810, one of the first known to him in the country. The business of Mr. Carver in gin-building increasing, in order to have the benefit of other facilities, he esta- blished himself in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and has continued, up to the present time, either singly or in connection with other parties, to manufacture and supply gins very extensively to the cotton-planters of the southwest. One of his principal improvements of the cotton gin was in the construction of the grate, to prevent it from becoming clogged or choked by the lodging and collect- ing of the fibre in the open spaces. This was patented in November, 1838, the plan and specification of which may be seen in the American Polytechnic Journal, vol. i. p. 382. Some of the merchants of Natchez erected public gins in and near that city, and at Washington and other points, in which the seed cotton was received by weight and ginned for one-tenth, calculating it to yield only one- fourth of ginned cotton. Few planters were then so opulent as to raise cotton enough to give employment to a single gin, and those who were enabled to erect them received the crops of their less favored neighbors at the established rates. This was a profitable business, and was the foundation of the fortunes of some of the proprietors. The cotton culture received such an impulse from the introduction of these gins, that they could not keep pace with the production. Some of them were kept running 170 AGRICULTURE. unceasingly for several years; cotton being brought to them continually from every quarter. It was frequently packed on horses in sacks, from the Homochitto and other remote settlements, a distance of twenty or thirty miles; the seed became a nuisance, and the gin holders were required to keep them inclosed to prevent the hogs of the neighborhood from feeding upon them, which was regarded as destructive to the hog. Attempts were made to get rid of the seed by burning in the heap. No suspicion of their value as an applica- tion to the land seems to have been entertained. The stalks, also, were universally pulled up and burned on the field. On the delivery of his crop at the gin, the planter received what was termed a cotton receipt. These re- ceipts became literally the circulating medium of the country, protected by legislative enactment, and were recoverable with damages for non-delivery of the cotton after a period of forty days, if not otherwise stipulated. They were received by-merchants in payment of ac- counts, or for the purchase of goods, and were also readily disposed of at the rate of five dollars per hun- dred pounds of seed cotton, thus relieving the planter of all further trouble and charge; the expense of pack- ing, hauling, storing, shipping, &c., being borne by the purchaser. PREPARATION OF COTTON FOR MARKET, EXPORTATION, AND SALE. Many meritorious modifications and improvements have from time to time been introduced in the construc- tion of the gin. These consist chiefly in the size of the eylinder and brush, the construction of the teeth, and the form and arrangement of the grates, by which the AGRICULTURE. . 171 efficiency of the machine has been more than quad- rupled. Gins are now constructed to run from forty to eighty saws; the sixty-saw gin is, however, most generally used, and is capable of turning out a daily average of three or four bales of clean cotton. The cotton gin, in the form now used, is composed of a stand of about six feet in width, inclosing a cylinder and brush, arranged horizontally, and running on iron axes in composition metallic boxes. On the cylinder are arranged a series of circular saws, or rags, as they are familiarly termed, made of best cast-steel plates, in seg- ments, or two parts. They are placed about one inch apart, and are so stayed and secured to the cylinder as to insure a perfect accuracy and uniformity of action. The teeth are very pointed and oblique, and are very carefully and smoothly dressed. The cylinder, when put in motion by a band running on a trundle-head attached to it on one side of the stand, and by which it is connected with the running gear, revolves in such a manner that the teeth pass between a corresponding series of metallic grates, curved or bent so as to conform to the circumference of the saws, and placed in such a manner as only to permit the free pass- age of the teeth of the saw, together with the lint which it removes in its revolutions. The grates form one side of a movable hopper, the breastboard or fall in front forming the opposite; the hopper working on hinges at the bottom, by which the grates can be elevated above the saws as occasion re- quires. In its working position, the teeth of the saws pass through the grates and enter the hopper just so far as to take a proper hold on the cotton with which it is 272 AGRICULTURE. kept supplied, by raking in from the pile of seed cotton deposited on the top of the stand. In operation, the saws passing through the cotton causes it to revolve in the hopper, and form a roll from which the seed, as the lint becomes detached, falls to the bottom, and is removed by means of a spout. In the rear of the cylinder, and in contact with it, is a circular brush of bristles supported on arms, which revolving, by means of the gearing, with a largely accele- rated velocity, compared with the revolutions of the saws, whips or brushes rapidly and completely from them the lint or fibre drawn through the grates. The velocity with which this fanlike brush revolves causes a strong draft of air through the apertures in the stand, which wafts or blows the lint in light flakes or fleeces through a trunk or flue to a chamber or lint-room, made tight and close for its reception. The flues are con- structed with a false floor of slats, between which much of the false seed and trash, which may have passed through the grates with the lint, falls in passing to the lint-room, and the cotton is thus freed from these 1m- purities. It has been stated that the capacity of Whit- ney’s gin, when first put into operation, was about one bale per day. Sixty saw gins are now guaranteed to gin five or six bales in the same period; but the average per- formance is not more than three where pains are taken to make a good article. A very slovenly habit having grown up chiefly on the river plantations and swamp lands, of gathering the cotton with a great deal of dirt and trash, consisting of parts of bolls and leaf, an appendage to the gin, termed a trasher, was devised to get rid of these impurities. It consisted of a long hollow cylinder or trunk placed in an inclined position, the under side of which was con- AGRICULTURE. Hs structed of coarse wire grating forming an open sieve. A long shaft extending lengthwise through the trunk, armed with short pegs, being made to revolve rapidly, the cotton, which was placed in at the upper end, was very thoroughly beaten in its passage through, and a large portion of the trash was extracted by falling through the grating. A comparison, however, of returns of sales of clean, neatly handled cotton with those of the most dirty and foul, seems to have established the fact that dirt and trash command too good a price to be thus wasted. At least a sufficient discrimination was not made to com- pensate for this particularity of handling. The trashers have consequently gone almost entirely out of use. It was thought by some that the rotary motion of the trasher gave the fibre of the cotton a twist which ren- dered it liable to be napped or cut by the saws in the ginning process—or at least injured for the purposes of the manufacturer. Much progress has been made in the modes of pack- ing cotton as well as in ginning it. In the first instance, it was put up in long round bags containing about three hundred pounds, and Sea Island cotton is still so packed. A long sack, having been well soaked and _ partially dried, is suspended through a round hole in the floor of an upper apartment, and kept extended by stitching a wooden hoop to the upper end, and forming a rim or ledge which supports it on the floor. The cotton is then put in gradually, whilst a man within the bag treads and rams it down with an iron bar. A small block of wood is placed in each corner and tied for con- venience of handling. In Mississippi, square bales were first made in a rough lever press. This was about the year 1779. Mr. Dun- 174 AGRICULTURE. bar, who experienced the inconvenience of the ma- chinery then used for this purpose, ordered from Phila- delphia a cast-iron screw-press, which was sent out to him at the close of 1801, at the cost of about one thou- sand dollars; at which time he proposed to indemnify himself for the expenditure by using it in the manufac- ture of cotton-seed oil. The lever press, however, was soon superseded by the press introduced by Greenleaf, composed of two wooden screws, which were turned alternately in the packing; this press has not yet gone entirely out of use. The detached single wooden screw-press, with the long and ponderous A sweeps, connected with the upper end of the screw, common in Georgia, is very generally used in the eastern and northern counties of the State. It seems to be an awkward heavily-timbered structure, and never fails to excite surprise that it has not long since given place to one which is more convenient, efficient, and economical. One serious disadvantage attending it is that, from its being disconnected from the gin-house, and frequently at some distance from it, it becomes necessary to pack the ginned cotton to it in baskets down from the lint-room in the gin-house and up to the box at the press; and, not being under the same shelter, this must necessarily be done in fair dry weather; whereas, in the other presses, the work can go on in wet weather, when the hands cannot be otherwise employed, and when, from the humidity of the atmosphere, the cotton can be more perfectly compressed. The press invented by Dr. Newel, of Lake St. Joseph, in Louisiana, which goes by his name, has come into very general use, especially on large plantations, where heavy work is required. AGRICULTURE. 175 It is worked by a single cast-iron screw bolted securely at the upper end to the follower, and presses upwards against a straining beam on the top of the box; the bale being taken out on the upper floor, on a level with the lint-room. The screw ascends, without turning, through a cast- iron, movable nut or female connected with the lower beam of the press. To this nut the lever is attached, and through it also the lower end of the screw, in bring- ing down the follower, passes into a hollow cylinder of plank sunk into the ground. Twenty bales is perhaps the average number turned out with five hands in a day. The objection to the press is that ninety revolutions, up and down, are required to make a bale; but the application of steam-power to this press, as has been done on large plantations, obviates this objection. McCombs’s press is worked by lever power. Two beams, the lower ends extended, and resting on rollers, stand under the press like an inverted Y (A), on the top or point of junction of which the follower rests. These beams are drawn together by a stout cable or chain, made fast to them at the bottom, passing through blocks on opposite sides, and winding around a detached up- right shaft, which is turned by power attached to the end of a suitable lever. It is a very efficient press, and is used by many. The principal objection made to it arises from the danger of the breaking of the chain or rope. The number of revolutions is fifteen to the bale. Lewis’s revolving lever-press, recently invented, seems to have brought this application of power for this pur- pose as near perfection as perhaps can be attained. It operates under the box by two beams placed in a man- ner similar to those in McCombs’s press; but the ends - 176 AGRICULTURE. of the levers are made to approach each other by rack and pinion work connected with the lower ends; the whole press and levers revolve around the stationary pinion. Less than four revolutions are sufficient to drive the follower up to the proper point; the whole number of revolutions up and down being only about seven. On the principle of this press and McCombs’s, there is a gain of power as the pressure is increased. By either of the latter presses, it is said, fifty bales can be turned out in twelve hours. Both of them are Mississippi in- ventions, introduced by ginwrights of the neighboring counties of Claiborne and Warren. There have been many previous improvements and modifications of the cotton-press, but which, having mainly gone out of use, it is not necessary to particu- larize. The boxes in which the cotton is packed in pressing, are made of wide three-inch plank, and are four and a half feet long and twenty-two inches wide, securely keyed together, and having side doors hinged on the ends to take out the bales when pressed and tied; the top and bottom of the box, either of which is called the follower, as the pressure is applied from above or below, according to the construction of the press, are made of similar timber, with seven grooves at regular and corre- sponding distances, through which to pass the rope. Preparatory to making the bale, a piece of bagging of suitable dimensions is spread on the bottom of the box. A proper quantity being packed or trodden in, another piece of bagging, of sufficient size to complete the cover- ing, is laid on, the screw or lever is put in motion, and the follower ascends or descends into the box, as the case may he, to the edge of the side doors, which are then thrown open; the ends and edges of the bagging AGRICULTURE. 177 are gathered together, and stitched with twine, and the ropes passed through the grooves and tied. The move- ment of the screw or lever is then reversed, the pressure removed, and the bale taken out. Although compressed to nearly a square form, by the expansion of the rope when the pressure is taken off, it assumes a flattened shape. Bales are estimated as averaging four hundred pounds; but, as freight is charged by the bale, many planters, especially those remote from market, prefer making them heavier, and five hundred pound bales are not unusual. Hoop iron has been introduced of late years; but the use, as yet, is confined to a few large planters. It makes a very neat compact bale, and there is not that stretch- ing or expansion as in the bales tied with rope. The hoops have generally a light coating of paint or varnish to prevent oxidation, and are very adroitly and speedily fastened by means of iron rivets passed through holes previously punched at proper distances. The material used for wrapping the cotton is chiefly of hemp manufactured in Kentucky, and hence known as “Kentucky bagging.” It has become so inferior of late, however, being frequently so open and slaizy that the gin mark cannot be legibly printed upon it, that it has been superseded to considerable extent by the India bagging and gunny bags, which present a neater appear- ance. Five gunny bags will wrap a bale, and can be properly joined without cutting. They are, however, inferior in strength to the other materials used, and are very liable to be torn by the iron hooks used by the boat hands in loading and unloading the cotton. The rope used is chiefly manufactured in Kentucky and Missouri, and is generally regarded as the best. for 12 178 AGRICULTURE. the purpose, inferior only to the iron hoop, which has this advantage over it, of affording greater security in case of fire on shipboard, as the cotton, in a well-com- pressed bale, burns slowly with a smouldering flame, affording time to extinguish it; whereas, if the ropes were burned in two, the bale bursts open, and goes off with a fierce blaze that would probably baffle all at- tempts to save the cargo. Gin houses are generally built with a single floor resting on high blocks or pillars to admit of the running gear below; a superstructure with one low story, to- gether with the span of the roof, ordinarily affording all the space required; the gin stand being at one end, and the lint room and cotton press at the other. The running gear consists of a large central wheel, twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, the periphery of which rests upon arms framed into a massive upright shaft, which rests on an iron gudgeon, and turns in a metallic ink in a large wooden block sunk in the ground. The circumference of the wheel is provided with vertical cogs formerly made of hickory, or some hard wood, but which are now very generally superseded by iron, cast in segments of convenient dimensions, and securely bolted to the rim of the wheel; these cogs play into a wallower, or a vertical spur-wheel, on one end of a hori- zontal shaft, to the opposite end of which the band wheel or drum is attached; a leather band, about a foot in width, connects this with the trundle-head of the gin stand, and puts the machinery in motion. About four mules are employed to propel the ma- chinery. One careful experienced hand attends the gin stand, and two small boys are required to drive the mules. The seed cotton, beyond what is required to keep AGRICULTURE. 179 the gin employed, is generally put up in separate cotton houses, as a measure of precaution to guard against its loss in the event of the burning of the gin, which not unfrequently happens from the friction of the machinery, carelessness, or by the act of the incendiary. The great majority of gins are propelled by horse- power. Steam, however, is coming very much into use on the large river plantations, and the gin houses are constructed of enlarged dimensions and at considerable cost; two or more gin stands sometimes are placed in the same building. In Washington County, there has recently been erected a very spacious and complete gin house, con- taining four eighty-saw stands, in which a very complete steam-engine supplies the power by which the seed cotton is elevated, ginned, and pressed, and the bales lowered. At the expense of some tediousness of detail, all the principal machinery employed in preparing the cotton crop has now been sufficiently described to afford the uninitiated a reasonable knowledge of all the processes it undergoes in fitting it for market. The bales are now weighed and numbered, and the name of the proprietor, or of his plantation, or both, is printed or marked on one end. Formerly, the weight was also added. The cotton is then hauled in wagons or carts, with ox or mule teams, chiefly the former, to the nearest and most convenient shipping points, from which it is consigned to the agent or commission merchant of the planter. That on or convenient to the Tombigbee River goes to Mobile; the residue to New Orleans, accompanied by bills of lading given by the boats, a copy or duplicate of which is retained by the shipper. 180 AGRICULTURE. The smaller planters find a market nearer home, and generally prefer selling at the shipping port, chiefly at Yazoo City, Jackson, Vicksburg and Natchez, and at Aberdeen and Columbus on the Tombigbee. A considerable portion from North Mississippi goes to Memphis, Tennessee. That which goes to New Orleans and Mobile, is delivered at the cotton presses, or is de- posited on the wharves, and thence hauled on drays to the warehouses of the consignees. Each bale is then sampled by cutting into the edge and drawing a small portion of the cotton, which is classi- fied and put up in packages of cartridge paper, and ex- posed in the counting-room of the merchant to the inspec- tion of the cotton-brokers, who are employed to purchase for the manufacturers, or those who speculate in the article. When sold, it is reweighed, and sent to the steam- presses, where it is recompressed and reduced to equal dimensions on the sides for greater economy of space in storing on shipboard. If carefully and correctly weighed, there will generally be a gain on the gin weights in favor of the planter of two or three per cent. Accounts of sales are returned to the planter, and the proceeds credited to him, deducting two and a half per cent. commission for selling and the incidental charges, such as freight, drayage, storage, weighing, and river and fire insurance; the latter being covered by what are termed open policies, kept by the merchant with the in- surance offices, and which embrace all consignments ex- cept those on which the shipper prefers taking the risk himself, and notifies the consignee accordingly. AGRICULTURE. 181 MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN—VARIETIES—CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION. It is needless here to discuss the question of the eastern or western origin of this most nutritious and invaluable grain. That has already been satisfactorily done, and the evidence justifies us in placing it among many other similar contributions for’ which the Old World is indebted to the New. It is certain that the first Europeans that set foot in Mississippi found it generally cultivated by the Indian tribes. In the progress of De Soto’s expedition, it was noticed as “of such luxuriant growth as to produce three or four ears to the stalk.” With us, as an article of food, it has become by far the most important that our soil produces. The varieties which seem best adapted to our climate are the Tuscarora, the Gourd Seed, and the White and Yellow Flint. Other varieties thrive well, but being less generally applicable to the varied uses of the grain, are not esta- blished as a common production. Among these are the White Flour corn, the Sweet Rareripe, or Mandan, the small Flint “pop-corn,” and some fancy kinds, such as the Golden Grain, &c., which are occasionally introduced. All these kinds are valued for particular qualities, which are combined in none, and are more or less in favor with different planters, according to the uses or purposes for which they are designed, or as they accord 182 AGRICULTURE. with the standard of excellence which each one, in the diversity of taste or judgment, may have formed. Generally, they are kept distinct, and preserved at least in their original purity, if not improved. Some planters, who are noted for good management and good living, cultivate at least two or three kinds, which are not suffered to become mixed, so as to have the benefit of all the distinctive qualities of the grain in all the forms in which it is used. Too many, however, content themselves with a single kind, if such may be said of a heterogeneous mixture of every variety that results from indiscriminate cultiva- tion. As a stock corn, the gourd seed, from its easy masti- cation, is perhaps generally preferred, a preference, not- withstanding the property and the size of the ear and grain, to which it is not fully entitled, being perhaps the lightest and least nutritious of all the varieties. The white flint is unequalled for bread, which, when properly prepared, approaches most nearly that made from wheat; and for that famed Maryland and Virginia dish, “great hominy,” a luxury which few substantial planters will forego at their tables, is indispensable. lis great hardness forms the objection to its use for stock, particularly for old horses and oxen—an objection which, however, may be obviated by soaking it in water for a few hours. It is a heavy corn, and contains a large proportion of nutriment; is perhaps as little affected by weevil as any other, and withstands the drought better than any other kind; and it is admitted that it yields most fodder. The Tuscarora, which is an intermediate variety, originating doubtless in a mixture of the white flint and gourd seed, and in which the opposite and objectionable AGRICULTURE. 183 properties of these are in a measure overcome, is de- cidedly, for common purposes, the most valuable, as it is believed to be the most generally cultivated variety ; for the size of the ear, the smallness of the cob, and perhaps the yield per acre, it is unsurpassed. It requires careful selection, having a tendency, in rich land, to run too much to stalk or to return to one or the other of the varieties in which it originated. Contrary to the too generally entertained opinion that all our seeds run owt in time, and require continual changes from abroad, this corn has been cultivated for more than thirty years on the same plantation, in which time it has been greatly improved. The Flour Corn is highly esteemed by many for bread, being very white, and pulverizing readily in the mill to a soft impalpable meal, free from the gritty character of that from the flinty varieties. Its chief excellence, how- ever, is found in its superiority for use in the green or immature state, as the roasting ear, being unequalled for the pulpy sweetness and tenderness of the grain when so dressed. It is claimed, for some of the yellow varieties, that they are the most nutritious, as evidenced by the relative weight of the grain and the percentage of alcohol pro- duced by distillation; they are, however, unsuitable for bread, having a raw dough-like taste, and are believed to be unwholesome, intestinal diseases being sometimes traced to their use. Corn with us is cultivated chiefly in the drill, being planted on the ridge or in the water furrow, according to the character of the ground, whether flat and low or higli and rolling; the success of either mode depending somewhat on the moisture or dryness of the succeeding season. 184 AGRICULTURE. The most usual time of planting is about the first of March; the only motive for planting earlier being to get out of the way of the cotton crop; the cultivation of which is too much embarrassed by a late crop of corn. The plough is the principal implement employed in the cultivation, and it is rarely gone over more than twice with the hoe. The blades are generally in a condition to be gathered for fodder between the laying by of the cotton and the commencement of the picking season. The tops or top fodder are very rarely saved, as in the northern States; and the blades, after being dried in the field, and tied in bundles, are put up in stacks in or near the barnyard, but more usually in convenient places in the fields where they grow. Some planters gather their corn in the latter part of August, or before the press of the cotton-picking season. If it is suffered to remain in the field, as it frequently is, until the approach of winter, it is usual to bend down the stalk below the ear, as in that inverted position it is better protected from the weather, the shuck, or husk, very effectually shedding the rain, and preventing the mildew and sprouting of the grain. It is also less ex- posed to damage from violent winds, which frequently occur about the period of the autumnal equinox, and better protection against the depredations of the wood- pecker, blackbird, and other enemies, is thus afforded. The proper time and mode of housing corn, with reference to the ravages of the weevil, have long been a contested question among planters. Many store it away in open, well-ventilated cribs, with latticed sides. Others sprinkle the different layers of corn, always put up in the shuck, with a weak brine, AGRICULTURE. 185 or strew the berries or leaves of the China tree, or the bark and leaves of the sassafras, through the mass in the same way. None of these expedients have proved effectual, and I am inclined to think, from conversation with many ju- dicious, practical planters, that the cribs cannot be too close or dark. It is the result of their experience, also, that the de- struction of the weevil, which is deposited in the field, is best accomplished by gathering the corn when quite wet, immediately after a rain, and housing it in that state. Sufficient moisture is retained to occasion a de- gree of heat in the mass, adequate to the destruction of the weevil, either in its mature or larva state, without at all damaging the corn. The close, dark crib secures it then from further damage, as very few weevil will find access to it. It must be understood, however, that the corn is not to be exposed to rain after being pulled from the stalk, or when lying in heaps on the ground. If so, it be- comes saturated, and, if put up in that state, would in- fallibly mildew and spoil. In gathering corn in the field, it is slip-shucked, as it is termed; that is, the footstalk is broken off within the shuck, so as to leave the outer coarse and weathered folds attached to the stalk, the ear remaining enveloped in two-thirds of the inner sound and softer folds or layers, which serve not only to protect the corn from shelling off and wasting in the hauling and housing, but supply a large store of valuable forage for mules and cattle, even more nutritious, when properly treated, than the blades themselves. It is difficult to estimate the average production per acre, throughout the State. Perhaps it is as low as 186 AGRICULTURE. twenty bushels. Thirty bushels are accounted a very fair crop, and forty a large one. The total production of corn in the State, m 1849, was stated at 22,446,000 bushels, equal to about thirty- seven bushels to each individual inhabitant. Mississippi ranks only as eleventh as a corn-producing State, making a little over a third of the quantity pro- duced in Ohio and Kentucky. Three other States, in- cluding the adjoining State of Tennessee, make double the quantity. If our corn crop was suitably distributed, it might perhaps afford a scant subsistence, but the river counties are largely indebted to the Western States for their supply. WHEAT, OATS, RYE, BARLEY, RICH, ETC. Of these less cultivated and comparatively less im- portant cereals, some of which are imperfectly adapted to our climate, this notice will be quite brief. The humidity of the climate, especially of the south- ern and western counties, subjects wheat to the smut; and the want of water-power, and suitable mills for preparing the flour, together with the facility of pro- curing it from the wheat-growing States, at a cost below that of producing it, prevents its cultivation in this quarter. In the northern and eastern counties, where these considerations do not apply to the same extent, and where there are in many neighborhoods convenient, and in some cases very efficient, merchant mills, it becomes more an object of attention. The quality and weight of grain in that quarter, and the yield per acre, are AGRICULTURE. 187 spoken of favorably; but of this I have been unable to procure more minute particulars. The quantity raised in Mississippi, in 1849, was 138,000 bushels. Oats, of which, in the same year, there were produced 1,500,000 bushels, are better adapted to our climate. Of the two varieties, Spring and Winter Oat, the latter, known also as the Egyptian or Black Oat, is cul- tivated chiefly for pasture, and may be grazed with little deterioration of the crop until the first of March. It succeeds well, and would be more cultivated if the abundant production of Indian corn, in the general esti- mation of planters, did not render it unnecessary. — It is, however, much more extensively sown than the census returns would indicate; as, being in a great measure de- signed for winter grazing, perhaps not half the quantity grown is harvested. Some planters are in the habit of sowing the winter oat between the cotton rows, when they go over their fields the last time with the hoe-harrow. The sced lie dormant whilst the ground is shaded, and do not germi- nate until the cotton plant is killed by the frost. The oats are not sufficiently advanced, therefore, to injure the crop, or to present any impediment to the gathering of the cotton. After supplying the winter grazing, the green crop is turned in, in the spring, by which the land is thought to be enriched; the oat also protects the ground from washing into gulleys by the heavy winter rains, Rye and barley may be said to be grown almost ex- clusively for pasturing. By the last census returns, about 10,000 bushels of the former, and only 229 bushels of the latter, were the amount produced in 1849. The former is adapted to every part of the 188 AGRICULTURE. State. Barley I have only seen in the northern coun- ties. In Washington County, it is said to thrive as well as in Kentucky. A class of grain-bearing plants, which can hardly be said to be cultivated, at least to any extent, but which are often found growing in vacant spaces in the fields, frequently, from a chance scattering of the seed, have a value for some purposes which should entitle them to more attention. I allude to the Holcas bicolor, Guinea Corn, or Chicken Corn, as it is variously termed, and the allied species, the Broom Corn, and another kind known to me only as the “ Hebron Corn.” These all resemble the maize in the stalk and blade, growing equally as high, the stem more slender and of a tougher and more reedy character. The grain is produced on large heads, on the extremity of the stalks. The first two species are too common and well known to require further description; the latter, or “‘ Hebron Corn,” grows in a compact and heavy cluster, the stalk generally curving downward a few inches below the head, which grows to maturity in an inverted position ; the grains in each head are very numerous, and more than double the size of those of either of the other species. These all afford a valuable grain for young poultry ; but their chief value consists in shading and fertilizing the land, and more especially for stopping washes and gulleys in the fields, which is done very effectually by the matted roots, and for which purpose it is coming to be the practice of many planters to strew the seed of the Guinea corn about the ends of the turn-rows and heads of hollows, a usage much to be commended. Of rice, the census returns give about 2,700,000 pounds, as the crop of Mississippi in 1849. It is very AGRICULTURE. 189 generally cultivated in the southeastern counties, rarely, however, beyond an acre or two on a farm, although there are some plantations of considerable extent, as on the tide-waters of the gulf, one of which was observed on Back Bay, a few miles in the rear of Mississippi City. The Upland variety is chiefly cultivated, and is in some cases partially irrigated. It is principally cleaned by pounding by hand. A mill was met with, however, in Marion County, where both the hulling and winnowing were very effectually performed by water-power, on a scale adequate to the wants of a considerable neighborhood. The flavor of the newly-prepared rice met with in those counties is much richer and sweeter than that which we ordinarily purchase. SUGAR-CANE. The sugar-cane is cultivated to a limited extent in some portions of the State. By the census returns, it appears that the crop of 1849 was equal to 388 hogs- heads, and about 18,000 gallons of molasses. Molasses has been made as far north as latitude 39° 40’ north, in Chickasaw County, where an experi- ment of three years has encouraged the belief that sugar can be profitably produced there to the extent of the local demand. Sugar has also been made in Hinds County on a small scale for experiment, and small patches of the cane be- come more common as we approach the sea-shore. East of Pearl River, and south of Covington County, many of the most substantial planters make all the sugar 190 AGRICULTURE. and molasses required for their own use, and some to spare to their neighbors. The cane is obviously becoming gradually acclimated, and may at no distant period be grown advantageously throughout the greater portion of the State, for home consumption. The sugar-mills are, of course, rude, and of small dimensions, consisting, in fact, of little more than the rollers for grinding the cane. which are made of seasoned oak timber, and stand generally in the open air; a com- mon shed suffices for a protection of the kettles, which are common iron ones, such as are used for stock. There are two of these mills in Pike County, and as many in Amite, where molasses has been made. In Marion County there are some eighteen or twenty, and several in Perry. Should the ravages of the army worm and the rot continue to increase, and the present price of cotton not be maintained, the period is not remote, perhaps, when the cane will, to considerable extent, supersede the culti- vation of cotton on the river plantations as high up as Natchez or Vicksburg. SWEET POTATO—BATATUS. EDULIS. The esteem in which the sweet potato is held may be estimated by the extent to which it is produced, 4,742,000 bushels, worth more than two millions and a quarter of dollars, being the crop of Mississippi of 1849. In the production of this esculent, Mississippi ranks fourth among the States of the Union; Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama only excelling her. Five varieties are cultivated with us, which will be AGRICULTURE. 191 mentioned in the order of their excellence, as generally estimated. First in quality, as in extent of cultivation, stands the Yam, which, if surpassed by some in average size, is approached by but one in delicacy of flavor. Its shape is oval or roundish, with a smooth exterior, and yellowish tint. It is as prolific as any other, and keeps remarkably well. The next in place is the Spanish, or White potato; it is long and crooked, with large veins or nerves running lengthwise on the exterior, by which it is universally cha- racterized. Another characteristic, which distinguishes it from all others, is an aptitude of the flesh, or meat, if I may so designate it, when cooked, to divide or separate in layers or flakes lengthwise, the fibre at the same time being destitute of any stringy property. Karly in the season, 1t is rather too milky to suit the taste of many, but when thoroughly cured, it becomes very sweet and rich, differing somewhat in flavor from the yam. It grows to a large size, and, singularly enough, notwithstanding its excellence, it seems to be greatly neglected of late, and is not now often met with. The Bermuda potato has a deep crimson or purple skin; but the interior is very white. In form, it is more cylindrical than the yam, somewhat elongated, and is regarded by some as the largest and most prolifie va- riety. Its flavor, however, is coarse and flat. The Red is the earliest variety introduced here. It was formerly very generally cultivated; it is inferior to the foregoing in size, and not now very much in use. It is rather dry and mealy, and is best early in the season, when newly dug, and it is perhaps the earliest to mature. The Poplar Root, which somewhat resembles the yam in outward appearance, but not generally so round, with 192 AGRICULTURE. a smooth skin, and the color rather a deeper yellow, was introduced ten or fifteen years since with high com- mendations. It proved a watery, insipid kind, however, and is now generally banished. Up to the period of 1810 or 1815, the yam potato was rarely seen; the old red and white Spanish being altogether cultivated—the former much the most exten- sively. The Bermuda is the most recent introduction. All the varieties of the sweet potato succeed best in a loose sandy soil, although the yam is said to flourish in the prairies of the eastern counties. I have seen one of that variety raised near Macon, which weighed ten pounds. The proper time for planting is about the first of April, and the most approved mode of raising the yam is to spread the small roots or potato plantings on a rich bed about the first of March, covering them with three or four inches of loose rich soil. When the sprouts make their appearance above the surface, they are drawn and set out in newly-made ridges after or during a rain. These beds continue to throw out a succession of sprouts, which may be planted every favorable season as late as the first of August, and if well worked, and the weather be not too dry, will make good potatoes. It is said the red potato does not succeed so well when planted in this way. At some seasons, the sweet potato is sufficiently matured for early use by the first of September; but it is attended with great waste to commence on them so soon, as it is thought the tubers grow more in October, after the vine begins to decline than before. The best time for digging potatoes is the first good dry mild weather succeeding the first frost that kills the AGRICULTURE. 193 vines. They are then better ripened, freer from water or sap, and consequently keep better. They should not be suffered to remain undug until the ground freezes, as they will become frostbitten and rot. The most approved mode of preserving the sweet potato, is to place them in piles or heaps of about twenty- five bushels each, on raised ground, with a flooring of corn-stalks and straw, the sides being lined with the same material, the whole covered with three or four inches of earth or sod, a small aperture being left near the apex of the cone for the escape of the moisture which passes off from the potato when undergoing the sweat, which always takes place soon after they are placed in bulk. Put up properly in this way, they will keep perfectly sound and sweet until June or even later. The potato patch affords a good gleaning to the fatten- ing hogs, which are usually turned upon it, and find in the small tubers, cut and waste potatoes, a favorite food, on which they thrive rapidly, and is a good preparation for after feeding on corn in the close pen. Some planters put in a large crop of sweet potatoes for this purpose, and when corn is scarce give no other food. The meat is said, however, to be less firm, and the lard more oily, than that of the corn-fattened hog. THE IRISH POTATO—SOLANUM TUBEROSUM. The Irish potato is not extensively cultivated, and seldom beyond the limits of the garden. Two varieties—the Meshanic, and the Purple Eye— are those which seem to be most approved, the red being rarely planted, under the common belief that the white 13 194 AGRICULTURE. varieties succeed the best.. For what we do plant we are dependent every year almost entirely on those brought down the Mississippi from the Western States. A course embracing the planting, cultivation, and after treatment, which has been tested many years, may be confidently recommended as one attended with much success. In suitable weather, soon after the first of January, on the even, clean, but unbroken surface of the ground appropriated for the purpose, place the cuttings, with the eye upwards, three inches apart, in rows two feet distant from each other. Cover well with light rich vegetable compost. Well rotted corn-blades, straw, or leaves from the woods are well suited for this purpose. Draw over this a moderate ridge of earth. As soon as ' the tops show themselves generally above the surface, an inch or two high, ridge up with earth, again covering the top entirely, and repeat this in ten days or so, when the tops appear the second time. This will give a ridge of sufficient size, and completes the cultivation. About the middle of April the potatoes are fit for use, and are to be dug daily, as required. About the first of June, especially if the season be dry, the tops begin to fail and gradually die; the grass and weeds which spring up between the rows must not after- wards by any means be removed; otherwise, when de- prived of the shade afforded by the top, the potato will become partially scorched or baked in the ground by the intense summer heat, which makes them watery, and causes them to rot. Protected by the grass and weeds, they remain fresh and sound, and will keep in excellent condition until frost. It is generally conceded that the Irish potato cannot in our climate be kept through the summer out of the AGRICULTURE. 195 ground. For this reason, and possessing no value for stock, together with the preference which most. south- erners give to the sweet potato, it is not more culti- vated. The crop of 1849 was about 260,000 bushels. There is a considerable consumption of the Irish po- tato in our cities and towns convenient to the river, which are obtained from the Western States, at a price much below what they can be produced for here. PULSE. The bean is not cultivated at all in Mississippi as a field crop. Several varieties of the cornfield pea, how- ever, are extensively grown. One million of bushels is reported as the production of 1849; but, when it is remembered that a very large portion of the crop is consumed by stock in the field— that being cultivated with us mainly for the ameliora- tion of the land, the period for gathering coming on also in the press of the cotton-picking season; and that con- sequently a large proportion of planters save little more than is necessary for seed, it will at once be perceived that the quantity stated in the census returns, as the production of Mississippi, is very greatly below that actually raised. The chief varieties cultivated are the Cow Pea (pha- seolus), the Crowder, and the White Pea. The first is supposed to be indigenous to the United States, as it was found in cultivation among the Indians by the first English settlers in Virginia. The color of this pea is a dark yellow inclining to red, and tinges the 196 AGRICULTURE. water in which it is boiled a dark color, inclining to purple. It is of coarse flavor, and fit only for stock. The Crowder is considered more prolific. The pod is larger and longer, and the peas, which are numerous in each pod, cylindrical in form, the ends truncated or flattened by compression one against another, growing in close contact. It is for this reason very subject to mildew and rot in wet weather—an objection from which the other named varieties are in a great measure exempt. The last mentioned, or White Pea, introduced within a few years, and not yet very generally, seems to remain sound in the field for a length of time, and can therefore be housed at the convenience of the planter. Besides this good property, it forms an excellent dish for the table, being light in color when dressed, and even of more delicate flavor than the marrowfat pea of the gar- den. ‘There is reason to believe that if it could super- sede the other varieties, the prejudice against the pea, arising from the frequent loss of stock of all kinds from feeding too freely upon it in the fields, would in a great measure be overcome, these casualties arising probably from the unsound and consequently unwholesome con- dition to which the Crowder especially is subject. The pea is most usually sown broadcast between the corn rows at the time it receives the last working with the plough or harrow; sometimes in the rows at an earlier stage of the growth of the corn—a practice that many object to, as it impedes the gathering the fodder which becomes entangled by the vine. A new variety, said to come from Oregon, has been introduced the present year, and highly recommended as a fertilizer of the soil. In the first stage of its growth, the Oregon pea stands AGRICULTURE. 197 erect, and is not unlike the cotton plant, branching somewhat in the same way, the stalk near the ground being at least an inch in diameter. After attaining the height of about three feet, it bends to the ground, which it soon covers with a-heavy mat of tangled branches or vines. The hull or pod is perfectly cylindrical, nearly straight, and not exceeding three or four inches in length, quite black, and well filled with a small green pea, resembling in form and size the oera seed. From the size and strength of the stalk or vine, the ploughing it in the green state is quite impracticable. It returns, however, a large amount of vegetable matter to the ground, and on this account will probably be found to excel the common pea vine. The pea itself seems to be too small and insignificant to be of any value, GRASSES. Of our grasses, no attempt will be made here to give even a catalogue. Only a few of the most characteristic and useful will be noticed. Foremost of these, although an introduced species, stands the Bermuda. It is rather a later grass, and revels in the hot, dry weather of midsummer, when most of our other grasses fail. It will bear two or three heavy cuttings, and produces an almost incredible quantity of delicate nutritious hay, excelling, it is believed, in this particular, any other grass. Like the sugar cane, it has not yet been so far natural- ized as to perfect its seed, and is therefore propagated 198 AGRICULTURE. wholly by transplanting. The facility with which it extends itself by means of runners, which trail to a great length over the ground, striking root at every joint, from which spring also numerous narrow fine blades, forming a thick, matted, luxuriant growth, soon spreads it over a considerable space. Indeed, this property, its tenacity of life, and the depth to which it drives its rootlets, render it a terror to many planters almost as great as the bitter coco, of the sugar plantations in Louisiana. It is true that it is rather troublesome to contend with in the cultivation of a corn or cotton crop on ground on which it has become thoroughly established; but with proper management it can be eradicated. Shade is inimical to its growth, and any crop that will cover the ground very densely through the summer and fall, will in a year or two destroy it. It is emphatically the best grass for our climate, and the only one that fully withstands the scorching heats and severe droughts of our summers. Forming a dense compact sod, it is destined to be the chief agent in reclaiming those extensive tracts of broken lands in the river counties, once unsurpassed for fertility and productiveness, but which, by negligent or injudicious cultivation, have become defaced with unseemly gulleys and gaping ravines, to arrest and fill up which, must be the first step in reclaiming them. The Natchez grass, a native which derives it name from first being noticed about the commons of that city, is found overspreading the bluff lands of the river coun- ties. ‘To what extent it has spread in other sections of the State, I am not fully prepared to say. It is a coarse luxuriant grass, growing in tufts or bunches, and _ bear- ing its seed in a head, enveloped in a black powder, or smut, which renders it unsightly and disagreeable. It AGRICULTURE. 199 appears to stand the drought well, and, notwithstanding it is coarse and tough, cattle seem to thrive upon it. The crab grass '(panicum sanguinale), which has a very wide geographical range, is perhaps the most abun- dant and persistent species here. It is that with which the planter has chiefly to contend in the cultivation of the cotton and corn crop. It has ample time to come to maturity after the cultivation of the latter has ceased, producing generally a heavy and luxuriant crop between the corn rows, from which most of the crab-grass hay saved is pulled by the hand. There are many other native grasses, such as the crow- foot and other yard grasses, but none of them has assumed any importance for producing or saving of hay. The timothy, blue grass, and orchard grass, receive some attention in the northern part of the State, but are rarely met with in the other portions of it. The white clover is pretty generally distributed, grows luxuriantly in good soil, and might be turned to good account but for its objectionable property of salivating stock, especially horses, when grazing upon it. Experiments have been made in the cultivation of red clover with the use of plaster of Paris with very satis- factory results. 200 AGRICULTURE. STATISTICS. PROGRESS AND CONDITION OF THE PLANTING INTEREST. Having passed in review the chief products of agri- cultural industry of the State, I subjoin a set of tabular statements, compiled from the United States census re- turns, and from other sources, to exhibit, in a condensed view, the progress and present condition of the planting interest, and which will afford some reliable data for estimating its future prospects. The progressive in- crease of the population of the State is also given for convenient reference, in connection with the agricultural statistics. Population of Mississippi, decennially ascertained. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 8,850 | 40,352 | 75,448 | 186,621 | 375,651 | 606,555 Statement of the Cotton Crop of the United States for the last ten years, with the Receipts, Average Price, and Value at New Orleans. Receipt | Receipts of first | to Sept. |Total receipts Average| Total value in | Total crop of Year.| balein | 1, in in New price | New Orleans. the United New New Orleans. per bale. States. Orleans. |Orleans. 1843/Aug.17| 292 | 910,854 | $32 | $29,147,828 | 2,030,409 1844 July 23| 5720 | 979,238 | 24 | 28,501,712 | 2,394,503 1845|July 30| 6846 | 1,053,688 | 32 | 33,716.256 | 2,100,537 1846/Aus. 7| 140 | 740,669 | 44 | 32,589,486 | 1,778,651 1847|Aug. 9| 1089 | 1,213,805 | 29 | 35,200,345 | 2,347,634 1848]Aug. 5| 2864 | 1,142,382 | 27 | 30,844,314 | 2728596 1849|Aug. 7| 477 | 887,723 | 50 | 41,886,150 | 2,096,706 1850/Aug.11| 67 | 995,036 | 49 | 48,756,764 | 2,855,257 1851|July 25| 3155 | 1,429,188 | 34 | 48,592,992 | 3,015,029 1852\Aug. 2| 5077 | 1,664,864 | 41 | 68,259,424 | 3,262 882 AGRICULTURE. 201 Cotton Crop of the United States, of 1849, in bales of 400 pounds. Alabama 564,429 Georgia 499,091 Mississippi 484,293 South Carolina 300,901 Tennessee 194,523 Louisiana 178,737 North Carolina 73,849 Arkansas 65,346 Texas . 57,596 Florida 45,131 Virginia 3,947 Kentucky 758 Indiana 14 Total (statement per census returns) 2,468 624. Total, per annual statement New Orleans price current of Sept. 1, 1853 2,096,706 Discrepancy 371,918 Comparative Summary of Cotton Crop of the United States, from New York Shipping List, in bales of 400 pounds. a tay 1850. 1851. 1852. New Orleans 953,369 1,373,484 1,580,875 Alabama 451,748 549,449 546,029 Texas 45,820 64,052 85,790 Florida . 181,204 188,499 179,476 Georgia . 3 322,376 325,714 349,490 South Carolina 387,075 476,614 463,203 North Carolina 12,928 16,242 23,496 Virginia 19,940 20,820 25,783 Elsewhere . 979 175 9,740 Total crop . 2,353,257 3,015,029 3,262,882 202 AGRICULTURE. Agricultural Productions of Mississippi from Census Returns of 1840 and 1850. Bales of | Bushels of | Bushels | Rye and Bushels | Pounds of Year.| cotton. corn. of wheat. oats. sweet rice. potatoes. 4840 13,161,237 |196,626| 680,068| 1,630,100} 777,195 1850/484,298 | 22,446,552 |187,990| 1,515,894 | 4,741,795 | 2,719,856 Live Stock in Mississippi, from Census returns of 1840 and 1850. Year. Horses. Mules. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. 1840 109,227* | 623,197 1850 | 115,460 | 54,547 | 733,970 128,367 | 1,001,209 304,929 | 1,582,734 Agricultural Productions of Mississippi in 1849, per Census Returns of 1850. COUNTY. Bales of | Bushels | Bushels | Bushels | Rye and | Pounds cotton. | of corn. |of wheat.| of oats. | barley. | of rice. Adams 17,473 | 334,353 6,660 Amite 7,847 | 380,917 15,310 16 | 151,608 Atala 5,631 | 522,503| 1,109 115,244 78 | 27,015 Bolivar 4,723 | 107,075 60 Choctaw 4,458 | 404,244) 8,082 | 36,794 162 23,350 Chickasaw 9,644 | 771,452) 7,802 | 25,623 182 7,040 Covington 1,164 | 108,920 104 9,417 101 41,235 Coahoma 2,430 | 134,815 255 6,727 Copiah 9 318 | 436,485 42,174 5 | 241,685 Claiborne 20,795 | 488,003 13,924 20 Clark 1,817 | 174,235 215 2,690 20 6,690 Carrol 17,989 | 727,340 744 |82,122 308 39,070 De Soto 20,278 | 741,519 | 4,482 |68,278 | 107 10,275 Franklin 4,347 | 189,195 4,995 83,220 Green 81 | 41,275 115 30,810 Harrison 9,524 81,380 Haneock TO: | 223825 305 129,420 Hinds 19,829 | 853,305 61,689 90 | 105,650 Holmes 12,635 | 548,155 | 1,814 |48,177 611 72,550 Itawamba 5,519 | 533,507 | 4,480 | 26,592 11g 473 Issaquena *| 8,461 | 148,130 1,045 Jefferson 16,193 | 417,745 14,055 Jones 250 | 60,988 Ef} 3,411 5 74,555 * Horses and mules, AGRICULTURE. 203 Agricultural Productions of Mississippi in 1849—Continued. COUNTY. Bales of | Bushels | Bushels | Bushels | Rye and | Pounds cotton. | of corn. |of wheat.| of oats. | barley. | of rice. Jasper 1,422 | 209,691; 194 | 14,923 80 | 39,110 Jackson 29,848 118,975 Kemper 5,115 | 504,685) 238 | 40,495 60 | Lawrence 8,304 | 229,129) 2,820 | 14,281 21 | 76,103 Lafayette 10,387 | 562,530) 14,749 | 57,964| 887 | 45,985 Leake 1,644 | 180,637; 321] 9,071 308 | 70,040 Lauderdale 4,195 | 324,459) 2,808 | 21,771| 129 | 102,203 Lowndes 15,127 | 871,864] 1,166 | 41,120 | 5,850 Marion 1,411 | 130,504, 10| 5,806 30 | 184,540 Madison 14,863 | 785,485} 331 | 76,964] 628 | 54,891 Monroe 17,814 | 901,136] 7,485 | 62,696; 644] 4.436 Marshall 32,775 |1,236,006) 19,326 |147,232| 2,932 | 82.683 Noxubee 12,555 | 895,713] 1,853 | 52,631| 134 123 Neshoba 1,422 | 153,235) 1,703 | 9,197 260 | 14,050 Newton 1,474 | 165,186] 305 | 12,861 5 | 32,330 Oktibbeha 5,479 | 589,796) 2,094 | 24,124 100 7,189 Pike 4,128 | 245,751 27,366 D1 | 290,550 Panola 8,918 | 451,909) 4,809 | 45,062! 359 | 15,889 Perry 388 58,360 1,705 9 | 88,000 Pontotoc 9,017 | 667,012} 8,389 | 80,381} 334 | 32,131 Rankin 2.676 | 217,673 11,626 66,105 Smith 1,111 | 128,641) 212} 8951! 108 | 36,195 Scott 881 95,500 3,869 | 57,590 Simpson 1,851 | 165,099] 113 | 6,199 7 | 33,207 Sunflower 1,900 33,390 | Tishomingo 3,945 | 526,769) 8,559 | 50,704 406 | 10,600 Tunica Gg 94,735 680 50 | 50 Tallahatchie 4,977 | 190,930} 203 | 10,962 16 | 282 Tippah 12,098 | 865,131) 22,011 | 83,440 475 | 32,333 Winston 3,091 | 826,408] 6,235 | 34,221| 269 44,394 Washington 26,178 | 424,600 1,400 Warren 18,513 | 451,875 7,790 580 Wilkinson 96,381 | 504,795 19,450 | 17,690 Wayne 1,217 | 84,280 580 6,300 Yazoo 22.052 | 556,505 30,270 36 | 16,210 Yellobusha 14,314 | 640,775} 3,318 | 59,335 547 5,135 204 AGRICULTURE. Agricultural Productions of Mississippi in 1849. COUNTY. Adams Amite Atala Bolivar Choctaw Chickasaw Covington Coahoma Copiah Claiborne Clark Carrol De Soto Franklin Green Harrison Hancock Hinds Holmes Itawamba Issaquena Jefferson Jones Jasper Jackson Kemper Lawrence Lafayette Leake Lauderdale Lowndes Marion Madison Monroe Marshall Noxubee Neshoba Newton Oktibbeha Pike Panola Perry Pontotoc Sweet potatoes. | potatoes 35,220 111,335 112,153 29,066 88,674 111,815 51,849 22.837 117,006 83,854 78,675 176,360 137,170 44,039 17,236 19,395 33,925 240,435 124,892 105,692 18,595 77,129 32.615 78,945 29,669 175,960 66,139 105,700 46,534 111,444 98,418 62,405 175,230 168,860 216,640 96,035 55,696 58,047 66,490 64,040 74,583 44,980 116,371 Trish 4,380 6,289 2,042 1,395 3,796 1,043 2,621 10,858 10,336 280 6,398 16,846 1,208 435 330 18,711 10,319 3,132 1,829 10,635 84 525 880 1,413 7,620 1,309 3,765 1,014 9,806 6,481 21,513 5,239 1,034 194 2,262 126 6,933 270 2,297 Peas and beans. 12,847 24,485 2,190 806 18,479 12,789 14,897 2,430 52,208 65,217 485 65,315 38,231 19,000 780 735 1,070 79,001 53,856 20,166 2,240 46,079 4,660 1,821 2,389 4444 12,413 31,566 3,957 15,411 6,439 22,340 45,957 48,896 52,458 4,345 1,185 2,299 5,214 6,841 29,108 6,428 3,546 Butter 22,753 42.607 90,193 15,732 94,836 140,032 23,642 35,150 73,720 83,013 50,476 139,965 191,175 23,190 10,710 205 3,405 114,327 131,968 161,376 23,535 85,874 6,895 18,680 10,517 187,175 34,463 180,430 33,373 69,922 145,347 14,705 111,481 117,500 278,540 171,500 40,050 55,518 66,658 48, 664 95,283 16,000 130,030 Pounds |Gallons of 120,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 4,000 10,000 150,000 and cheese.| of sugar. | molasses. 480 12 115 1,110 750 1,680 5,999 140 5,945 AGRICULTURE. i) = Or Agricultural Productions of Mississippi in 1849—Continued. COUNTY. Sweet Trish potatoes. | potatoes. Rankin 68,206] 1,467 Smith 46,450 660 Scott 34,367 35 Simpson 40,280 672 Sunflower 9,410 Tishemingo 73,990} 9,566 Tunica 7,270| 2,768 Tallahatchie 38,052| 3,836 Tippah 125,675) 7,915 Winston 87,173) 2,213 Washington 22,515 | 10,000 Warren 71,374 | 20,630 Wilkinson 33,727 740 Wayne 37,605 Yazoo 128,272 | 10,014 Yellobusha —|135,424| 5,263 Peas and beans. 8,000 3,527 808 21,589 8,578 368 9,708 9,484 8,901 13,433 23.319 13,069 41,140 65,824 Butter Pounds and cheese.| of sugar. 54,034 25,620 |100,000 14,008 26,143 5,655 132,900 8,855 29,164 216,464 100,869 17,710 88,664 10,965 7,510 59,633 173,901 Gallons of molasses. 200 iw ; A : - : mole be Tee aa tt « C- oo a Pens We “ae ‘ yi at. ee : : te a . 9 € o_™~ ‘ S ~ 7 Pd : @ + * ~e _— , ’ - — aoe ou ar mj 2 s ' ’ t ’ & 9 ‘ i * ¥ ¥ \, 4 ys . * 7 4 -? + a . 7 “~ — a ‘ . rv & : ; a m . S * . ‘ . + =: . we . x > : : “i » A ; Ls “s * . 7 4 . 4 - é 2 « j * - * al . ele ‘ . ee ay . a F 45 & ‘ - ea s = ve <7 - ® . a. - ‘ < , —_ + - » ‘ i ‘ » — ‘ = ae a, > - ~ ? ? 9 ’ “s . ‘ ' 1 - ‘ ’ ‘ > 7 * 72 - Plate IX Page 207 | heel Vilerpume | / | | | be | Lliocerte x LITT” Miocene = ° = Lacewe a J00 CTrOn S ttlttl ee «900 | Weadcien Oolele J? lite Sokilitlic 1000 \ Litas 900 New Redsartd Store 300 3000 \ Coal Mai ilestiaie Litt POMC 2400 \learbomniyerous Lipte Store Carbonifer is — Sila 10000 Weired 8’ Store Ludi eee SSS Se bertlak 7700 Secondary Caaatloc Llariletla Upper Cia b? 270 10000 LOVOCUPOT UR My |e sea orrbletcde Mica Schist Crs Littcstore Cuartz : Gneiss YY Uff Wy Uf YY jy Y, Hornblerate Srstern Crys Limestone Vuarle GEOLOGICAL STRATA B.L.C.WANES o€t LN ROSENTNALS CRomo Lrte Pun 4 Pe GhoueGyr: INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. ADDRESSED, as the present report is, mainly to those engaged in agricultural pursuits—a class which, how- ever intelligent or educated, it is no disparagement to suppose, in common with many others, not deeply versed in the principles of geology, or conversant with its teachings—a familiar style, and an avoidance of technicalities as far as practicable, will obviously be regarded as most appropriate. Whilst scientific details will, therefore, in a great measure, be omitted, explanations will, to some extent, be unavoidable, which, to the well-read and practised geologist, would seem commonplace and unnecessary. This earth is not composed, as some may suppose, of a heterogeneous and chance agglomeration of rocks and minerals; but these are found distributed through the different strata with an order and consistency that indi- cates design, and a conformity with fixed laws. These laws, properly understood, present the only safe guide to those who engage in exploring the earth’s crust for its treasures. Apart from the speculations as to the composition of 208 GEOLOGY. the earth’s centre, of which, practically, we know nothing, the investigations of geologists as to its exterior coating or crust, so far as it can be explored, have re- sulted in establishing, out of several different systems that have been proposed, certain principal divisions, separated by such striking differences of character as to be easily distinguished, and which for convenience it has been found desirable to adopt. These are composed of groups of allied or analogous strata, supposed to have been produced under similar circumstances and about the same epoch, and are desig- nated in general terms, as the Primary, the Secondary, and the Tertiary formations; and, although they have become less adequate to represent the present state of geological knowledge, are sufficiently definite for the present purpose. The Primary is composed of the primitive, earliest existent, or hypogene rocks, so called, as being formed most remote from the surface. They are of a crystalline structure, and are referred to an igneous origin, and, so far as known, are desti- tute of organic remains, indicating a commencement anterior to that of animal or vegetable existence. The Secondary succeeds in the ascending order, and is composed of marine and fresh-water deposits. Arena- ceous, argillaceous, and calcareous rocks form the prin- cipal masses, and are associated with beds of chert, ironstone, and coal. The strata of this formation are characterized by innumerable organic remains of fish, mollusca, crustacea, &c., belonging wholly to extinct species, and especially by numerous and gigantic forms of saurian reptiles, indicating that the portion of the earth which, during this period, had emerged above the surface of the waters, was too frequently subject to in- GEOLOGY. 209 undations and atmospheric irregularities to be occupied, to much extent, by a higher order of beings. With this period, also, two distinct assemblages of terrestrial plants appear to have flourished and become extinct, embracing the flora of the Carboniferous era. With the cretaceous system (including the Maestricht beds), which sometimes connects it with the succeeding formation, ends the series of deposits which are ranked as strata of the Secondary period of geology. The Tertiary formation comprehends all those varied stratiform deposits, more recent than the Secondary, which underlie the modern group, and are characterized by distinct species of fossil animals and plants; present- ing the striking feature of repeated alternations of marine deposits and those of fresh water. During this period, there appears to have been a con- stantly increasing provision for the diffusion of animal life. Its most ancient deposits contain organic remains related to those of the Secondary period, and the most recent contain many existing species of animals asso- ciated with forms now extinct. Mr. Lyell has subdivided the Tertiary into the Kocine, the Meocine, and the older and the newer Plio- cene, founded on the relative proportions of the extinct and recent species of shells which they contain. In these divisions are found also the unconsolidated rocks, such as the sands, clays, and marls, as well as lignites and conglomerates. Above these principal divisions we have the Quater- nary, embracing the modern group “to which belong all those formations now completed, or in progress, upon the face of the earth or in its waters, which contain the remains of man, or of his works, or the remains of 14 210 GEOLOGY. plants or animals of existing species, unmixed with any that are extinct.” Some geologists include under the Quaternary division some of the upper strata of the Tertiary; but in a more restricted and accepted sense, it will be used here to comprehend only the Post Pliocene deposits, and will include the modern diluvian or northern drift, which here separates the Modern group from the Tertiary ; the ferruginous sands and clays, presumed to have had a contemporaneous origin; the recent lacustrine marls, the series closing with the alluvium of the surface. The foregoing description will be better understood by referring to the section of geological strata represented in PLATE IX., in which, however, many of the subordinate strata, according to the different systems, have been omitted as not essential to the illustration. Although all the foregoing principal divisions or for- mations are found to exist in all the countries that have been geologically explored, it is not to be inferred that all the strata of which they are composed pervade the whole globe. Many of them, on the contrary, are absent in different countries, owing to the relative position of the earth’s surface, and the distribution of land and water at the period of their deposition. They are repre- sented, therefore, in the order they assume in point of time, being governed by the mutations which the earth has undergone, and the paroxysms of upheaval and sub- sidence, more or less active and general, which, at remote and widely separated periods, have repeatedly occurred. But, although important strata, or even entire groups, may be missing or non-existent in some quarters, in none is their relative order inverted or transposed; but they maintain an undeviating succession consistent with the oH cae tad: were ‘s 2 re Liat x ae aa aan 2 4 . < G =p 1 > i a : a ocala 5 . an ee an em . | > hue a '% a - : ay et 7 4 - — ei ettio . ‘fa Bithicnd be “oa —_ 9 wie. ; 7 a a . wi aTeng tee ie 1a shee | zr Z s > Saw 2% a PR GET i 4 ‘i © Die | a a ot 7 - ° b ve. Palew ‘ ea. Rostellaria velfata. Con. B.zbo Pecten nuperum. Con. , 25% Rostellaria extenta. Con. fp 26¢ ([\ Scalaria. Lam. MULTIVALVE. Scalaria nassula. Con. 24 / Teredo. Lin. Strepsidura. Swain. Teredo Mississippiensis. Con. Strepsidura dumosa. Con. Trochita. Schum. UNIVALVES. Trochita alta. Con. Architectonica. Bolton. Umbrella. Lam. — Architectonica bellastriata. Con. 2G/ Umbrella planulata. Con. pi28G Architectonica acuta. Con. 2 6! Volutalithes. Swain. Volutalithes dumosa. Con. Volutalithes symmetrica. Con. pb. 269 } Capulus,. Mont. Capulus Americanus. Con. ; 19 | Bev cligoriplima 1) thee apeerss dee Povo. Mead. Not, Sec Chala VIP, p.2b/, (SSS. 290 GEOLOGY. ANALYSIS. It is well known that some soils are, by nature, un- suited to the production of particular plants, even where climate and other conditions would favor their cultiva- tion, and that from other soils, originally prolific, the productive elements are continually abstracted in the course of tillage until, in the end, they become exhausted and sterile. It is the province of Agricultural Che- mistry, therefore, to determine the elements of plants derived from the earth in which they grow, and the presence or deficiency of those elements in the soils in which they are cultivated, in such manner as to make this knowledge available to the husbandman, and to in- struct him also in the chemical composition of the ma- nures, animal or mineral, proper to be applied to supply the exhaustion, or to fit the otherwise unfruitful soil for his purpose. As to the practical value of analysis of soils as usually conducted, or the ability, in the present state of chemical knowledge, of determining those minute constituents in a soil—such as alkali or potash and phosphoric acid—generally regarded as the greatest cause of fertility, eminent chemists are at issue, and, in our own country, many distinguished for high scientific attainments are found to agree with Boussingault, that we are much less interested in the chemical composition of the soil than in its mechanical mixture. But, whatever may be the differences of opinion as to the value of analysis of soils, and whether the benefits would justify the expense attending the minute and mul- tiplied chemical examinations required to impart a useful GEOLOGY. 29] knowledge of their properties, there can be none as to those of the marls or mineral fertilizers employed, as no one would be willing to apply an ingredient to his land which a simple test might prove to be not only unsuita- ble, but absolutely pernicious. In view of the general use into which they must come eventually, when their existence and value shall be better known, adequate analyses of all the varieties of marls which abound in the State are highly desirable. As yet, few have been made, and we are in a great degree left to conjecture their probable value and im- portance from the general aspect which they present, . and from the character of the attendant fossils, as well as from the effects which similar substances have pro- duced in other States where they have been extensively used. Such analyses as I have been able to procure of our marls, as well as those of the cotton plant and our mineral waters are here subjoined. / Analysis of Lake Marl, Washington, Adams County. Insoluble silica ’ 2 ; ‘ : ; ere Peroxide of iron. : : : ‘ : ao eho Carbonate of lime . : ] : ; +) O44 Potash . 3 2 ; ! : : : «, *o264: Soda . 3 : i ; ; , : : 36 Magnesia : : : : 3 : ; 64 Soluble silica ; 2 4 \ 4 : . a trace 99.62 “This will be found a valuable fertilizer; it contains almost half the amount of potash which the green-sands of New Jersey do.”—J anuary, 1847: Dr. Emmons. 292, GEOLOGY. Indurated Marl, or the Rotten Limestone of the Prairies, according to Dr. Troost. Carbonate of lime . d ; ; 51.00 Earthy matter, insoluble in water, composed of green- sand and particles of white silvery mica 34.00 Carbonaceous matter 2.00 Alumina, water, and loss 15 00 100.00 “The particles of green-sand are very minute, and are only perceptible with the aid of the microscope.” Composition of the Green-sand Marl of New Jersey. By Prof. H. D. Rogers. Silex 51.00 Protoxide of iron 25.10 Alumina 7.00 Potash . 9.30 Water 6.50 Lime . a trace 99.40 “In a few instances, thé deposits are a pure green- sand. The composition of the marl in a great number of instances is green-sand, clay, and quartzose sand; the green-sand varying from 35 to 95 per cent.” Analyses of Green-sand of Tennessee. By Dr. Troost. Silica 48.00 45.30 51.70 Protoxide of iron 20.70 18.00 21.20 Alumina . 7.00 6.20 6.50 * Potash 10.10 10.40 11.30 Carbonate of lime 5.70 10.80 2.00 Vater : 8.00 8.50 7.30 Loss : : : : 50 .80 0.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 The foregoing analyses of the green-sand of Tennes- see will probably be found to assimilate more nearly to the lower green-sands of Mississippi. GEOLOGY. Analysis of Cotton from the Santee in South Carolina. Prof. SHEPARD. COTTON WOOL. Carbonate of potassa : Phosphate of lime, with aess of magnesia Carbonate of lime . Carbonate of magnesia Silica Alumina, probably sboider(al Sulphate of potassa : . Chlorite of potassium Chloride of magnesia Sulphate of lime and loss Phosphate of potassa Oxalic lime in minute traces J COTTON SEED. Phosphate of lime, with traces of magnesia Phosphate of potassa, with traces of soda Sulphate of potassa Silica é Carbonate of lime . Carbonate of magnesia Chloride of potassium Carbonate of potassa Sulphate of lime Sulphate of magnesia Alumina and oxides of iron Manganese in traces and loss See oo Analysis of the Fibre of Sea Island Cotton. Carbonate of potash Muriate of potash . Sulphate of potash Phosphate of lime Carbonate of lime Phosphate of magnesia Peroxide of iron Alumina a trace, and loss 44.19 25.44 8.87 6.85 4.12 1.40 2.70 100.09 61.64 31.51 2.55 1.74 41 26 25 1.64 100.00 By Dr. URE. 44.08 9.09 9.03 9.00 10.06 8.04 3.00 5.00 100.00 9) an 93 Made by 294 GEOLOGY. Analysis of Cotton Stalk. By Dr. J. LAWRENCE SMITH. Lime . ; ; ; s ; : F . 3803.00 Potash : : ; : ‘ ; : . 248.00 Phosphoric acid. ; . : ; ‘ 1 91.00 Magnesia. ‘ ; ; é ‘ ‘ . 58.00 Oxide of iron. ; : 5 : : : 4.00 Sulphuric acid. ; : : : i . 13.00 Chlorine. : : : ; : : C 8.00 Carbonic acid : : : E : . 270.00 Sand . : : : : : : : ; 5.00 995.00 Analysis of the Ash of a Cotton Stalk, of the Mexican Variety, grown on the Mississippi near Bruinsburg. Made, at the Yale Analytical Laboratory, by ORANGE JUDD. Potash . : ; : : 3 : : . 29.58 Lime . : : ; : . : : . 24.34 Magnesia x. : : , : , soy ace, Chlorine : : : : ; ‘ P .68 Phosphoric acid ; : : ; : . 84.92 Sulphuric acid ‘ . : : ; , . 8.54 Silica. fk : : ; ; : : . 38.24 100.00 Analysis of the Water of Cooper's Well, Hinds County, Mississippt. By Davin Stewart, M. D. REACTION ACIDS. Specific gravity, 1004.3. Solid contents of one gallon, 150.2 grains. COMPOSED OF IODINE, AS— Hydriodate of potash. Hydrochlorate of lime. i of soda. ic of magnesia. 2 of lime. Sulphate of soda. § of magnesia. ‘“¢ of potash. Hydrochlorate of iron. “of magnesia. GASEOUS CONTENTS. Sulphuretted hydrogen. Carbonic acid. Nitrogen. GEOLOGY. 295 Chemical Examination of Cooper’s Well Water, Hinds County. By Dr. J. LAwrence Smiru. Made December, 1851. Temperature, 64° Fahr., the air being at 50°. Taste, not unpleasant. Odor, little or none. Color, transparent, with small yellow flakes floating on it. Specific gravity, 1.00147. Gas contained in one wine gallon, in cubic inches :— Oxygen : : ; 2 : : : seen EOD Nitrogen : : ; 3 : : : Sai EO Carbonic acid : $ : : z 4 5, S00! 5 Solid contents of one gallon, 105 grains, composed as follows:— Sulphate of soda . : , é ; 2 ,oU05 Sulphate of magnesia . : : : : . 23.280 Sulphate of lime . ; ‘ ‘ g : - 42.122 Sulphate of potash 2 5 ‘ ; : : .608 Sulphate of alumina. ‘ : : 5 . «96.120 Chloride of sodium : : : : =. 3, Os 800 Chloride of calcium : 5 : ‘ « 4:322 Chloride of magnesium : : 2 ‘ . 938.480 Peroxide of iron . ‘ ; : ‘ 2 - 98.302 Crenate of lime . : Z 3 : : : 311 Silica . s f : : : : : a. ASOT 105.471 The deposit which collects in concentrating the water contains, in 100 grains— Water . ; ‘ d : ‘ : : . 38.00 Crenate of lime. : é 3 : ; - 2.00 Sulphate of lime . : : : : : . 25.00 Peroxide of iron . : ; ; : : . 85.00 100.00 Analysis of the Water of Ocean Springs, near Baluaxt, in Jackson County, Miss. By J. LAwRence Smiru, M. D. The water colorless, even when kept in bottles for a length of time, pro- vided the bottles be well corked; as soon as opened, the water begins to blacken, from a deposit of sulphur of iron; the odor of the water 296 GEOLOGY. is that of sulphuretted hydrogen, which the water contains in con- siderable quantity; the taste, that known to belong to this class of waters. Specific gravity, 1.00082. Gaseous contents in one gallon in grains :— Carbonic acid “ : ‘ ; B : . 4,632 Sulphuretted hydrogen ; ‘ : : ; 481 Solid contents of one gallon in grains:— Chloride of sodium sx. : : : : . 47.770 Chloride of calcium : ; : ; . 38.882 Chloride of magnesia . ‘ : ‘ é - , 4:989 Protoxide of iron : 2 : : ; 2 aed ae Iodine, a strong trace. Chloride of potassium, a trace. Organic matter, a trace. Alumina, a trace. The iron doubtless in combination with both the sulphuretted and car- bonie acid gases, the excess of the carbonic acid holding both these combinations in solution. VY. METEOROLOGY. As introductory to the subjoined meteorological tables, it may be remarked that here, as in other and older States, few are found who have made such observations, or have persevered in them for a long period. The tables of the late Dr. Henry Tooley, of Natchez, are perhaps the fullest, most continuous, and uninter- rupted, and extend through a greater period of time, than those of any other similar observations known to have been made in the State. Those given in this report were compiled, chiefly from the notes of Dr. Tooley, by Mr. G. L. C. Davis, for the Southern Rural Almanac, published by Mr. Affleck, in 1852, who is entitled to credit for thus preserving them. IT am indebted to Dr. Coleman, of Jefferson County, and to Alexander H. Pegues, Hsq., of Lafayette, for their observations made for several years past on the fall of rain, and to Mr. Oakley, of Jackson, for the use of his Meteorological Register, kept for the Smithsonian Institution; all of these will be found in the following pages, and will form interesting matter for reference. Other materials have been collected in relation to meteo- rology generally; but these, not being as full and com- plete as is desired, or as they can hereafter be made, will be reserved for a future report. 298 METEOROLOGY. I will only add, in answer to inquiries from abroad, that I have no authenticated instance of the fall of me- teoric iron or stone in the State. The past year (1853) has been a remarkable one for its atmospheric variations. An unusually late spring, of excessive drought, succeeded by profuse rains in the summer, occasioned an injury to the crops, for which the long-continued mild and favorable season for cotton picking could not make amends. 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Yun ‘garsnjour OGST % GZ8T Uowf 6 LDOX ay} U2 hog IS9}j0FT PUY ysapjog ay? buanoys 9799], METEOROLOGY. 304 806113 876 ‘LES 000‘0Zz 000‘0F% 000 ‘OFT 0¢9‘98T 060°00% 9F8 ‘001 000 ‘OFT 00006 000°L8 000°ETE 0000 000°¢9 000‘0L 00008 000‘00L 000°¢L 000‘0L 000°¢L 00002 000‘8F 000‘88 (00008 ‘ZZ8T 000'¢z ‘8181) ‘Spun *SOyeqS poz jo dowo aeang ‘Qarsnpour (GR OP GR woul ‘paumeddnsigg puw pasmaddy you yoryn yo wax ayn uy hogy oy Guzaoys 2190], +000‘00F 69L°L8P 680814 GLL‘TSG LEO‘ LGF L69°GGP 000688 FPL ‘OFS PIL Sse 0°8°L93 882 ‘L6G S61 ‘G63 810‘9LZ $90‘9FS OFS ‘SSS $8L‘98S 888‘91Z SIP‘96L CIF F6L 008 ‘ELT GFL‘G8L GIS ‘9ZL $98‘8IL 869 O31 ESF FOL “soled *"s07B1S por) jo uondumsuog +000 ‘008 % 901°960°% 96¢‘82L' $89‘ LF8'S 1¢9‘8LL'T 18¢‘001'S £09‘F68‘S 60F‘080'S G18‘818‘°S FL9‘889‘T Ch6‘F89'T Ges‘ LLL‘S G89 ‘098 ‘T L6F‘108‘T 086 ‘ZGF‘T GoL‘098‘T 868 FSS‘ F683 ‘C0G‘T 88P‘0L0‘T LLP‘L86 8F8‘880‘T GF8‘9L6 FFL‘LGS 000‘°ZTL 000°L86 “soled "807818 porta jo doip 9% 1049390 g dequiosaqg, ou0N 9% TOqMIoAON 6T 1049990 @ Jaqwoaon 66 ” 8G 1040390 [ doquiaon 9 &G 9G 1040390 “4souy Aq portet ao “dOUd NOLLOO 40 SWALT “PoyVUIsy x FG ” 9 ” I ounr 0g ABW OL oune Os ” GS ARI 6 eun¢ LI Avy OL ” 9 eune *sumOO|q qsay Jo aye ‘astauns 4% “duno, 9G 1040790 Q «IOqUIOAON GL ToqUIOAON, 61 ” GL ” 61 ” 8G ” 9G ” 83 ” GB 1040390 L JOq{MeAoN GG ” 9G ” GG ” OL ” 0G 9 0% 1040390 6 ToqueAoN 8S ” 0Z 19q0190 1 ” GL ” 0s ” ST I9QUI9A0 NT 6L 19G 00D ‘a0 “TIVA NI LSAITUVaA “ONIUdS NI LSGLVT Ghalies Ip | 9F Tdy ep | FI 3 OF | Lo = Youvyy ep | FI tady Ge fone a gg | 1g yourvyy Pie | a Tady GP zz Aaeniqe,7 Gh: | St 5 Ip | 18 9 1g 619 " Sh | SL yoaryy tr | 6 tady Sh | 93 i" GP | 82 r 6g | 08 ” tr | 08 oe og | SI 5 1h | 16 | Woe IP FL Aavnaqoa7 GS GG ” Girl » FP | 6L = -Woavyy eh IL tady ocr | Gt Arenaqay ‘astauns ye ‘due, “oye "SLSOud ALIN A ‘op Jong ha pay vayn puv Gung uonog ayy fo buywong fo awry aye yun OS8T 6F8E 8P8T LY8T 9PF8T GP8T PSL SPSL GP8L I¥s- OF8L 6E8T 8esT LE8L 968L Gest Fest Sé8L GS8T T&8L 088L 668T 8c8L LC8T 9681 esl “MVvad METEOROLOGY. 305 Statement of the Amount of Rain (in inches) that fell at Ohurch iil, Jeferson County, Mississippi, during the years 1850, ’O1, 752, and ’63. By Dr. Cotmman. at a a ee eae MONTH. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. Jarmarys at tay aes 7.37 2.25 1.57 15 Hebraany tG (4 2%: 4.95 9.85 4.57 7.92 Die Cbe ahh a: 2.41 2.85 3.08 5.23 Aris eee oh, 6.87 1.61 3.89 2.08 Di scatid 33 «22%, 5.49 96 1.3 4.75 Seep) ehh ue 9.09 1.03 24 1.97 Ciyae jt ua Le 3.55 tO 3.38 7.92 Ameyst 4.) Ss, 3.78 5.16 81 9.13 September . . . , 70 46 2.27 1.37 Optower! ...5 36 19... .20 3.27 1.89 4.19 Neyembers:'.7 0. 2... 2.47 8.09 5.10 2.58 December. 2... 11.52 6.64 8.81 4.83 Total 57.40 44.16 37.00 62.72 The instrument by which the above facts were ascer- tained, is one of Pike’s Conical Raingauges, with a scale attached graduated so as to determine the fall of 52, part of an inch. It was placed in an open and exposed situation, ele- “vated several feet above the surface of the ground, and at a distance from any building, trees, or shubbery. 20 306 METEOROLOGY. Register of the Fail of Rain kept by A. H. Pegues, Esq., at his Residence, near Oxford, Lafayette County, Miss. | : 1849. | 1850. | MONTH. | 1851 1852. 1853 JaMUAEF 2 es | 94 | 9% 1545 215 80 February o heen 6¢ | 143 61% 8.90 March 42 104 43. 445 8.30 April | aa gi | 43 | at | 6.40 May 48 5 | 4% | 28 | 3.00 . June 2 BRO) aoe | tee S|. 1408 July 2) sag) | loge} coe), a6 August . 33 6 | 5 4.3, 3.90 September . ce 0 | 0+ 5 6.00 October 6% 1 | 23% 1 1.30 November . | 98 | 98 | ba. |. 2,: | ao December . | 113g 8 | 5s | T+8 1.40 Total | 63¢ | 62g | 48%, | 453 | 46.90 oo Oo “I METEOROLOGY. Meteorological Register of the Oakland Institute, Jackson, Miss., for 1850 and 1851.* TEMPERATURE. | DAILY VARIATION.| Mean Fall of MONTH. = SS | Lompera—\) Tain Highest.| Lowest.| Greatest.) Least. | t¥re- 1850 Inches. dasary) (. > +s | 25° | Bs? | 2° 4° | 54.53°| 14 February . . ./| 838 20 33 5 | 51.49 5.38 March . . . .| 85 30 32 5 | 59.06 3.06 morte 4 7 | 86 38 29 4 | 63.41 9.70 MAG gait atan ill, eo) 47 27 1 68,52 9.17 Ontos 2 a COME ll 32 3 | 16.21 3.40 Smet te Oe 68 20 2 | 80.09 3.71 AUGUBt 302) > cn | 98 68 20 1 | 81.54 | 3.80 September. . .| 91 56 27 Ot) WGA 0.43 Octoyer™| 2° 2" 3.|° 90 29 43 101) 65:70 0.39 November. . .| 84 O38 30 ah ye Do.99 1.25 December . . .| 81 a 34 1 | 47.50 8.91 1851 | January =. .(| 16 23 33 3 | 50.16 | 5.30 Keprary 2. 5 | 18 29 28 1 | 54.21 9.50 Maren 2). 5 2 76 32 31 4 | 58.17 1.82 GEN eek 1 OO 42 9 34 | 63.14 2.74 Rivet er oO A2 30 2 | 74.41 2.30 June les) 3.) 792 62 20 6 | 77.88 5.92 mye af BAe OS 62 28 Tie eed aie 0.98 mupish s : | LOO 65 22 4 } 81:38 3.16 September. . .| 95 41 31 TON TG 75 October . . .| 90 BD 44 ih |e0s. 52 2.22 November. . ./| 82 2D 19 2 | 53.24 9.23 December . . .| 76 | 20 39 1 | 538.24 8.11 * Kept by the young ladies of the institution, under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. Oakley. 308 METEOROLOGY. Meteorological Register of the Oakland Institute, Jackson, Miss., for 1852 and 1853. (Continued.) | TEMPERATURE. | DAILY Ey ER Mean Fall of MONTH. tempera-| rain. Highest.| Lowest.| Greatest.| Least. oe: 1852 Inches. January pao ons eNO | Sel? Wl ode 1+ | 38:19?) 2202 Hebraary; ae . . | 88 43 36 6 | 67.87 0.76 November ..... | 89 27 31 2 | 58.08 5.50 December . . .| 78 29 o7 1 | 54.84 7.00 1853 January ©