STATISTICS AND GENERAL DISCUSSION.

REVIEW OF THE GENERAL SOIL MAP OF THE COTTON STATES.

[It was intended to present under this head a general review and summary of the agricultural features and statistics of cotton production in the southern states, but the necessary closing of the census work at a fixed date precludes any extended comments.]

This map represents, so far as the smallness of the scale will permit, the chief soil regions of the cotton-growing states in thirteen colors, most of which are made to represent several distinct features, belonging, however, to districts so widely separated that no confusion can arise from this joint use, the meanings of which are indicated in the legend. (a) Since differences of soil necessarily find their expression in the vegetation covering the ground, the designations of the regions are largely based upon the characteristics in regard to tree growth.

It is apparent at a glance that in the coastward portion of the cotton states the agricultural divisions (Nos. 28, 26, 24, 23, 4) form, roughly speaking, belts more or less conforming or parallel to the present coast-line, while inland they are measurably governed on the east by the location and trend of the Alleghany range (Nos. 1, 3, 8), and farther west by the great northward prolongation of the Gulf of Mexico that existed at the end of the Cretaceous period, and was gradually filled up nearly to the present shore-line during the succeeding Tertiary period (Nos. 17, 14, 16, 18, 27). In the axis of this great embayment, which had its head near Cairo, Illinois, lies the alluvial plain of the Mississippi river, bordered and underlaid mostly by early Quaternary deposits lying in a Tertiary trough several hundred feet in depth. The greater part of Texas belongs to the western portion of the ancient embayment, and we find there, only in inverted order (as regards east and west), the same or corresponding formations and soils as those met with east of the Mississippi river in traveling toward the southern end of the Appalachian region; that is, we pass first from the recent to the older alluvium, consisting largely of heavy calcareous or "prairie" soils; thence again across calcareous black prairies derived from the Tertiary formations (18) to a broader belt of Cretaceous black prairies (17), which in their turn are followed, in part at least, by black calcareous prairie soils, derived from the Carboniferous limestones. Between these several prairie belts there intervene east of the Mississippi more or less of sandy or loam uplands, not of prominently calcareous character (16, 23), while in Texas the prairies corresponding to the four ages of limestones mostly adjoin each other directly. It thus appears that, from the Chattahoochee west to the Nueces river of Texas, calcareous soils are widely prevalent; and the parallel map of intensity of cotton production shows a marked increase of the cotton culture whenever one of these calcareous belts is reached.

East of the Chattahoochee, and northeastward to the James, few prominently calcareous soil areas are met with, and all such are rather local and of small extent. The soils here, being derived from the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, are prevalently of a light siliceous character, and below the break of the highlands into the coast plains (or what is popularly known as "the falls of the rivers ") they are but rarely influenced by the underlying Tertiary marls. They are mostly what, in a wide application of the term, might be termed "alluvial" soils, chiefly of early Quaternary origin; and, aside from the narrow" live-oak belt" of the immediate coast, the long leaf pine is their characteristic tree. This pine, as analysis shows, is everywhere an indication of soils poor in lime; and experience shows that until the use of fertilizers becomes part of the agricultural system only the bottom lands of a long-leaf pine area are usually utilized for cotton production. Hence the great pine belts of the Gulf coast produce but very little cotton, while on the Atlantic border, with the use of fertilizers, the culture is more extended.

a Owing to the failure of the printer to furnish proof-sheets of the map before striking off the edition, the following erratum requires notice:

The region along the Rio Grande river in Texas should have the same color as the coast and southern prairie region No. 19, on the east of the "Desert ".

Discrepancies are apparent in some instances between this general map and the several state maps, which are in part due to differences in depth of color, and in part to the fact that changes were made in some of the state maps by their authors after the entire edition of this general map was printed. The most apparent among these occur in North Carolina, where the sand-hills region (of the general map) have in the state map been merged into the oak uplands or metamorphic region; and the region of long-leaf pine hills, which is very prominent here, is there narrowed down and shows its limits more in detail and with a different shade of color.

Inland the proportion of lime in the soils usually increases, and correspondingly the long-leaf pine gradually gives way to the short-leaf species and an increasing proportion of oaks and hickories, until finally the latter alone occupy the ground. With local modifications, this order of things holds good pretty generally from Virginia to eastern Louisiana, but by far most strikingly so in the Gulf states east of the Mississippi. In the bottom plain of the latter, near the line between Arkansas and Louisiana, we find the maximum of cotton production on natural soils (see page 14) on the highly calcareous and otherwise also profusely fertile "buckshot" soils of the great valley, with which only some of those of Red River bottom can dispute precedence. Under their influence cotton culture is carried far into Missouri, while in the hill country to the eastward and westward, in Kentucky and in northwestern Arkansas, it forms but a subordinate feature. In Texas again the Tertiary and Cretaceous prairie regions (Nos. 16 and 17) produce the bulk of upland cotton, while in the coast prairie region the river bottoms are almost alone employed in its production thus far; and westward of the Cretaceous prairie region, where the rainfall becomes more scanty, it has not yet had time to establish itself on a permanent footing, save locally.

While natural advantages thus clearly point to the Mississippi valley and regions immediately adjacent as the natural and future center of cotton production in the United States, it is interesting to notice to how great an extent these advantages are at present balanced by a more rational, thorough, and systematic culture of the less fertile soils of the Atlantic cotton states. The following table shows the total production of the several soil regions given on the map, as well as the partial production of each in the Atlantic cotton states on the one hand, and of the states west of the Chattahoochee on the other. The figures are, of course, only approximate, being based upon the returns by counties, which very often embrace within their areas small sections of other regions outside of the chief region to which each county is referred:

TABLE I.-APPROXIMATE AREA AND COTTON PRODUCTION OF EACH OF THE AGRICULTURAL REGIONS OF THE COTTON-PRODUCING STATES.

TABLE II.-TOTAL POPULATION, TILLED LAND, COTTON PRODUCTION, AND AVERAGE PRODUCT PER ACRE FOR THE UNITED STATES.

TABLE III.-COUNTIES IN EACH STATE HAVING THE HIGHEST COTTON PRODUCTION.

It should be kept in mind that in the case of the cotton crop the data collected by the euumerators during June, 1880, necessarily refer to the cotton crop of 1879, at least so far as the product is concerned. It may be questioned whether the same is in all cases true (as should have been the case) of the acreage reported; for, unless specially admonished by the enumerators, the producers would be very likely to give them the acreage of 1880, which would be most readily present to their minds. Since the acreage of 1880 was doubtless greater than that of the preceding year, this error would tend to depress the calculated average production per acre to some extent. In Table II the cotton-producing states are arranged, in the order of their rank, according to total production in 1879. The first column gives the state areas; the second the approximate areas of each state over which cotton is planted; the three following the population of these states, divided according to color, as bearing upon the question so much and contradictorily discussed as to "who produces the cotton". The next group of three columns gives the number of acres of tilled land, the percentage of these as referred to the total areas, and the number of acres tilled per square mile. Columns 9 to 19 give details of production; No. 9, the percentage of tilled land devoted to cotton culture; 10, the corresponding number of acres in cotton; 11, the number of bales produced; 12, the number indicating the rank of each state among the fifteen as to the average product per acre; 13, the fraction of a bale (of 475 pounds) produced per acre; 14, the corresponding product in pounds of seedcotton; 15 and 16, the corresponding amounts in pounds of lint and cottonseed, (a) respectively. Columns 17 and 18 give the totals in tons of 2,000 pounds of lint and cottonseed produced, and 19 gives the respective percentages contributed by each state to the grand total.

From the reports received in answer to schedules sent, as well as from statements received from the prominent cotton-shipping ports, it appears that, outside of Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, the average weight of the "bale" may be assumed to have been 475 pounds in 1879. Upon this basis, and upon the commonly-accepted average proportion of one part of lint to two of seed in the "seed-cotton" as it comes from the field, are based the data given in columns 14 to 19. In the case of other states, the number of bales given is that reported by the enumerators; but as their average weight was about 500 pounds, this figure has served as the basis of all others concerning these states.

In Table III the states are arranged in the order of rank according to average product per acre, as given in column 12, Table II. In the ten columns following are given the names, acreage in cotton, total production in bales, and average product per acre of the "banner counties" of each state, considered, first, in relation to total production, and then in respect to highest product per acre. The rank of counties according to the first point of view is, of course, largely accidental, on account of their unequal areas; yet it is the one most commonly looked to by the producers. The figures under the second head, however, are of the greatest intrinsic significance, the last column showing irrefragably the effect of the fertility of the soil, of intelligent culture, or of both combined.

SUMMARY DISCUSSION OF COTTON PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

The accompanying map, compiled from the several state maps (which may be found in the respective state reports), gives a general view of the regions of varying intensities of cotton acreage as compared with the total land area throughout the cotton states.

The regions of high percentage devoted to cotton (10 to 20 per cent. of the total area) are confined almost exclusively to the central portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, the cotton acreage averaging above 65 acres per square mile within the respective areas. Small patches (representing counties) of the same occur in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Regions of maximum intensity of cotton culture above 20 per cent. of the total area form two prominent belts (shown by the deepest shade of color), one lying along the Mississippi river within the alluvial region, while the other embraces the black prairie region from northeastern Mississippi, southeastward nearly through the central portion of Alabama. The cotton acreage within these belts averages 130 acres per square mile, and upon them was produced in 1879 about 753,550 bales of cotton. A penumbral region of very sparse culture is seen almost to surround, both inland and along the coast, the cotton-producing portion of the states, while outlying areas (representing isolated counties) occur in Kentucky.

A comparison of the total population of the states of the cotton belt proper, from North and South Carolina to Texas, shows in all but two cases an approximation to the proportion of one bale for every two inhabitants. These exceptional states are Mississippi and Arkansas, in which the ratio is from two-thirds to over three-fourths of a bale per head. No obvious relation between the total production and the number, or the ratio to the total number of the colored population, is discernible in the footings by states. Such a relation, however, can be shown in the detailed discussion of the agricultural subdivisions of each state.

I now proceed to discuss the determining causes of the position occupied by each of the states in the column of total production (No. 11 of Table II), as well as in that showing average product per acre (No. 1 of Table III).

a I venture upon the innovation of spelling "cottonseed" as one word, as is done in the case of flaxseed or linsced, moonseed, etc., in order to obviate the occurrence of such grammatical monstrosities as "cotton seed oil cake meal", and similarly constituted expressions that can hardly be avoided unless such a change is made. In the above case, "cottonseed-oilcake meal" will be understood at a glauce.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR