Census Reports Tenth Census. June 1, 1880: Cotton production in the United States

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Page 319 - Ship called the whereof is Master for this present Voyage and now riding at Anchor in the and bound for to say being marked and numbered as in the Margin, and are to be delivered...
Page 319 - In witness whereof the master or purser of the said ship hath affirmed to three bills of lading, all of this tenor and date, the one of which three bills being accomplished, the other two to stand void, and so God send the good ship to her desired port in safety.
Page 25 - Of the two principal soil varieties above named, that of the red lands is derived from the decomposed hornbleudic gneisses and slates, which in many places, where exposed in washes or gullies, are seen to be mere stratified clays, containing fragments more or less angular of the quartz veins or seams which are nearly always interbedded with the other rocks of this region. This red soil (the color of which comes from the iron of the hornblende) is considered best adapted to the production of corn...
Page 74 - ... whites, there are the originally most fertile lands of the State. The natural advantages of the soils are, however, more than counterbalanced by the bad system prevailing in such sections, viz : large farms rented out in patches to laborers who are too poor and too much in debt to merchants to have any interest in keeping up the fertility of the soil, or rather the ability to keep it up, with the natural consequence of its rapid exhaustion and a product per acre on these, the best lands of the...
Page 74 - ... 1. That, where the blacks are in excess of the whites, there are the originally most fertile lands of the State. The natural advantages of the soils are, however, more than counterbalanced by the bad system prevailing in such sections, viz : large farms rented out in patches to laborers who are too poor and too much in debt to merchants to have any interest in keeping up the fertility of the soil, or rather the ability to keep it up, with the natural consequence of its rapid exhaustion and a...
Page 24 - There are all gradations between the hard, almost indestructible quartzites to the easily-eroded marble ; from the warm, fertile and undulating granitic and gneissic land to the much broken, often sterile tracts formed by mica slates and other highly siliceous rocks. With the varying composition of the rocks come varying degrees of resistance to decay and erosion, and hence the great variety in the scenery of this region, where high and almost mountainous ridges alternate with rolling and sometimes...
Page 42 - In this estimate are included also those calcareous lands derived from the limestones of the Mountain Limestone formation where they occur in the valleys and not upon the mountain slopes. The general character of the valley lands has already been alluded to. They are nearly level or gently undulating, especially near the Tennessee river, on both sides ; but in the gaps between the mountain spurs the surface is more broken. On account of the fertile nature of the soil most of these lands are cleared...
Page 25 - The top stratum of this soil, from two to three inches in depth, has often a dark chocolate-brown color, but below it becomes a brighter red, and at varying depths, from ten to fifteen feet, becomes a yellowish hard clay. Where the freshly decomposed rocks are seen the color is yellowish rather than red, the latter color being darker and more intense apparently the further removed the soil is from its original position and the more it is affected by the decay of the vegetable 'matter. When first...
Page 20 - ... south, but the yearly mean directions are nearly evenly balanced. Temperature. — Extremes of temperature are comparatively rare, and the extremes of heat during the summer months are especially moderated by the tempering winds from the Gulf of Mexico. In those parts of the State most remote from the Gulf their elevation above sea-level secures immunity from excessive heat.
Page 72 - The system of credits in the large cotton-producing regions prevails to such an extent that the whole cotton crop is usually mortgaged before it is gathered ; and when we consider that the prices charged for provisions, etc., thus advanced are at LEAST 50 PER CENT. HIGHER than regular market rates, and that the cost of producing cotton is given by our correspondents, almost without exception, at...

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