bales are much easier handled, particularly in loading and unloading vessels, and the above paragraph from the Mobile letter was intended, I suppose, to set forth, ironically, this advantage. In stowing ships with cotton a great number of bales have to be dragged endwise, upon other bales, half the length of the hold or more; and in finishing, not a few have to be driven, by means of jack-screws, a long distance into apertures scarcely large enough to receive them. The outward pressure of the bale (up and down as it lay in the press, for there is very little sidewise) causes it to swell an inch over the band, on the two sides which may be called the top and bottom. The two other sides of the bale, (of cotton in ropes,) has, of course, a very uneven surface-the ropes on one side and ropes and knots on the other. In driving these bales into a small hole between other bales, with like ropes and knots, they frequently hitch against each other, the knots become torn loose and the ropes dragged off. This is what the letter, in the jesting pleasantry of the writer, alludes to in saying "the ropes are loosened." All these inconveniences are, of course, avoided by the use of hoops. From conversations I have had with ship-masters and mates, and other authentic information from them, I have been surprised to learn that in consequence of the difficulties above alluded to, it is by many said to be double the labor to stow a ship with cotton in ropes that it would be with bales in hoops. The letter again says: "A few years ago a lot of cotton came to this port with iron hoops, but it was pronounced unmerchantable, because, in compressing, the hoops had to be taken off and ropes substituted." It "In compressing?" I thought the principal object in putting cotton in iron hoops, was to put it into shipment size at once. certainly would be very unwise to put iron hoops on bales which would have to be repressed. If there is a mercantile, or any other, objection to the use of iron hoops on cotton bales, it ought to be fairly and seriously stated, and if there be none, then every planter ought to use them. I am well pursuaded there is none, except that it is adverse to the interest of those who are connected, directly and indirectly, by sympathy, friendship, and otherwise, with the steam cotton presses at the import cities. It ought to be remarked, however, that bales may be so banded with hoops, and no doubt frequently are, as to be unfit for shipment. I once saw a lot of cotton in Yazoo City, banded up in iron bands in so awkward and clumsy a manner, that the cotton ought to have been pronounced "unmerchantable," whether it was or not. When I speak of cotton in hoops, I mean that the bales are to be of the size they come from the steam presses-say 22 to 24 square, and 4 feet 6 inches long-the hoops of proper size and well riveted. The process of putting them on is very simple, and much faster than tying ropes. I would willingly communicate directly with your correspondent on this, or any other subject connected with craft," and interchange any useful information. R. ABBEY. "our COTTON-COST OF PRODUCING, &c. We have seen within a short time various statements published in regard to the cost of producing cotton and what should be its natural price. A writer in the Carolinian declares 5 cents will not pay in that state any profit. He takes an estate well managed, inferior to none in productiveness, and affording more than an average yield in the state. The winter but not summer clothing was manufactured at the place. The number of acres was 550, much of which, four years ago, cost $25 per acre, number of slaves forty, one-half field hands. Estimating the negroes at $300 each, and the land at $12, with stock, etc., the investment will be $20,000. Income 1848. Bales of cotton 120; 42,500 lbs. at 5 cts. Increase in negroes... 350 lbs. Your correspondent is certainly correct in supposing we can make our bales in good shipping size on the plantation, and thus entirely avoid the expense of re-pressing. And we can, at the same time, secure other advantages. One of which is the facility in loading vessels, and consequent lessening of freight. I had a conversation with several shipmasters on this subject, the last time I was Deduct expenses, etc....... in Mobile, who were then taking in cargoes of cotton at that port. They expressed the uniform sentiment I have invariably heard from that quarter, viz. an unqualified wish that iron hoops would take the place of ropes upon cotton bales; and a readiness to take cotton in hoops at reduced rates of freight, on account of the greater ease with which they can stow and unload their ships, and the greater security from loss by fire. = Value planter's superintendence. Medicine and medical attendance $2,100 00 200 00 2,300 00 1,383 00 917 00 417 00 500 00 $300 00 35 00 30 00 Bagging, rope and twine for 120 bales cotton ..... Blankets, thirty in number, at $1 12 each...... Shoes, twenty-five pairs, at $1 25 per pair..... Cotton Osnaburgs, 300 yards, at 8 cents per yard... Taxes, (state, poor, and bridge,) say... Salt, six sacks, at $2 each,... Nails, 100 lbs. at 5 cents per lb. Hoes, 1 dozen.... Sugar and coffee for sick, 75 lbs., at 10 cents per lb... Annual wear and tear of land, say 5 per cent. upon estimated value (6,600)..... Contingencies, such as re-stocking the place with mules, wear and tear of wagons, etc... Cost of transporting 120 bales cotton to market, at 75 cents per bale.... Loss by death of old negro, say Whole expenses and loss.............. $1,383 00 Mr. Solon Robinson, a very observant agriculturist, who has been traveling extensively in the South, furnishes some statistics to the same effect. He presents the case of Col. Williams's plantation, at Society Hill, S. C. STATISTICS OF A CAROLINA COTTON ESTATE. Capital Invested. 4,200 acres of land (2,700 in cul tivation) at $15.. 254 slaves, at $350 each, average old and young 60 mules and mares, and one jack, and one stud, average $60.... 200 head of cattle, at $10.. 500 head of hogs, at $2.. 23 carts and 6 wagons. 60 bull-tongue plows, 60 shaving do., 25 turning do., 15 drill do., 15 harrows, at an average of $1 50 each.. 20 small woolen blankets for infants.. Calico dress and handkerchief for each woman and girl, (extra of other clothing) $63,000 00 Christmas presents, given in lieu of "negro crop". 89,900 00 50 sacks of salt.... 82.00 175 00 80 00 3,720 00 2,000 00 1,000 00 520 00 Annual average, outlay for iron and wood work for carts and wagons.. Lime and plaster bought last year Annual average outlay for gin, belts, etc... 100 00 194 00 80 00 $161,402 00 Deduct other products than cot All other plantation tools estimated, worth.... 1,000 00 Стор. 331,000 lbs. cotton, at.. 13,500 lbs. of bacon, taken for home place and factory.. Beef and butter for ditto and sales.... 675 00 500 00 ton.. Cost of cotton...... $15,464 00 Showing the average cost of producing cotton per lb. a little less than 4 cents and 7 mills. Had this cotton sold at 6 cents, the profits would have been $1,973 68, at 7 cents, $5,385 04, which was about what it brought, being little more than 3 per cent. STATISTICS ALABAMA COTTON ESTATE. The following is given by Mr. Robinson COTTON-COST OF PRODUCING. 20 00 350 00 $6,676 00 Cash expenses, taxes, average, Blankets, hats and shoes, (other clothing all homemade)... Medical bill, average not exceeding 500 lbs. iron, $30; hoes and spades, $30... Average outlay for mules over what are raised.. 100 00 Average expense yearly for ma ehinery repairs.... Bagging and rope.. 500 00 $82.240 00 $27,500 00 1,400 00 hibits in calculating the profits of a business investment, is in adding the item of interest upon capital as expense. A person investing money in any enterprise is justly considered to be doing a fair business if he makes a small percentage over interest and expenses; and the statement which Mr. Robinson furnishes of Col. Williams's plantation, only proves that our fellowcitizen makes about 12 per cent. on his capital, and that too with the price of cotton placed as low as six cents in Charlestonfor freight and commission are included in the table of "expenses." In the first place, the actual capital invested is clearly misstated, as we have shown above. In the second place we deny the principle of adding interest on the capital, as part of the expenses, when the object is to find out the profits upon that capital. In the third place, Mr. Robinson calculates interest upon the cost of the stock of the plantation, which is obviously fallacious and deceptive, where its natural increase must amount to more than the interest. In the fourth place, he omits to add to the income of the plantation the natural increase of the labor employed thereon-an item which is always prominent in the planter's calculation, and which would unquestionably amount to 5 or 6 per cent. per annum upon their original cost. And, in the fifth place, he has entirely neglected the increased value arising from the yearly improvement of a well cultivated plantation. We think the cas fairly stated. The result then, accordin our views, will be as follows: CAPITAL INVESTED, $150,152 00. INCOME OF THE FARM. This crop, 128,000, lbs. at 6 per cent. net, will leave a balance of $1,004 20, which is just about enough to pay the owner common wages of an overseer, which business he 331,136 lbs. cotton, at 6 cents. attends to himself. The Columbia South Carolinian, however, makes considerable havoc among the figures of Mr. Robinson, to which they present a very open flank. Referring to Mr. Williams's place, the editor says: of True Profits of Cotton Planters.-Mr. Robinson has included 1,500 acres land not in cultivation. All the land (4,200 acres) in his estimate of capital was valued at $15 per acre, so that here is $22,500 called " capital" in a business where it is no such thing. It may be said that land for fuel, timber, cattle pasture and range for stock, are necessary to carrying on the business of cotton planting, and so it is; but we think one-half of the residue of the land, say 750 acres, would be a large allowance for these purposes. At the least, then, we make a reduction of the "capital" to the amount of 11,250-leaving the real capital $150,152. But the most glaring inconsistency which our agricultural tourist ex Bacon and other provisions. The annual expenses of the farm, as item- $19,868 16 2,430 00 4,495 00 $26,793 16 6,791 48 $20,001 68 These profits amount to over thirteen per cent. per annum over all expenses-the Charleston price of cotton being only put down at 6 cents. Suppose the crop averaged eight cents in Charleston, as it would do at the present time, the profits would be $26,614 40, or nearly 18 per cent. The calculations of the Alabama plantation would, perhaps, show a still greater errror but we cannot arrive at correct results, as the whole number of acres, and not the quantity under cultivation, is given; and the statement made, that the plantation having on it 120 slaves, only made about $1,000 over in terest and expenses, as Mr. Robinson says,, first of all, necessary to observe that, though just the common wages of an overseer! We know not what this tourist's object was in giving publication to a statement so much calculated to deceive. We have no doubt, however, that he unwittingly made the mistakes referred to. We have shown that cotton planting, at a moderate price for cotton, pays 13 per cent. profit. COTTON.-ANALYSIS OF.-One hundred parts of cotton wool, on being heated in a platina crucible, lost 85.89 parts. The residuum, on being ignited under a muffle till the whole of the carbon was consumed, lost 12.735, and left a white ash which weighed nearly 1 per cent., or 1.9347. Of this ash, nearly 44 per cent. was soluble in water. Its consituents were as follows: Carbonate of potash (with a trace of soda)... Phosphate of lime (with a trace of mag nesia)..... .44.29 .25.34 6.75 2.90 1.40 100.00 no one will dispute the paramount importance of the chemical constituents of the soil, yet these may be considered in some respects to be only of comparative value, as it is equally necessary to attend to the physical state of the soil, and to both, in connection with the climate of particular localities. The mechanical state of the soil, its greater or less degree of porosity or of tenacity, enabling the roots to spread with more or less facility, so as to fix the plant steadily in the earth, at the same time that they supply it with a large portion of its nutriment, is necessarily of great importance. But as a considerable portion of the food of plants is supplied by the air, its different states and due supply require also to be attended to, in addition to climate: no chemical composition or mechanical states will compensate for unsuitableness of climate. We all know that our oaks are as little likely to flourish within the tropics, as South American palms in our meadows; and no one now expects that our rich variety of orchids would flourish, if, 4.12 supplying them with every requisite of site, of soil, of culture, and even of temperature, we denied them a moist atmosphere. And yet a few years only have elapsed since it was considered a rarity to flower these air and loss.... 6.23 plants, and also, since mountain rice was attempted to be cultivated here in the open air, because it came from a cool climate, and was said to be cultivated without irrigation. But it was forgotten that, during the season of cultivation in its native mountains, rain falls almost every day, and the air is in a state of continual moisture. So also in the culture of cotton, a certain state of the soil, both with respect to its chemical composition and its mechanical state, may be well suited to one situation, and yet not be desirable in another, 31.73 chiefly from a difference in the condition of 2.65 the atmosphere. For instance, a certain de1.68 gree of porosity of the soil may retain and .47 being just enough of water within the reach .27 of the roots, and yet if the atmosphere be.25 came more damp, the soil may require to be made dryer by drainage. Again, if in another situation the air is more dry, and evaporation necessarily greater, both from the surface of the earth and from that of the leaves, a soil more retentive of moisture will be more suitable than one which is more open, and which thus allows moisture to escape, not only by evaporation, but by drainage. These varie ties may be observed, not only in the soil and climate of different localities, but even in the same locality at different seasons of the year, especially in a country like India, which, in the language of meteorologists, is in many parts one of extremes. As plauts obtain from the ground their water, holding in solution saline and earthy particles, and are dependent upon the air for the elements of organic matter, it is evidently essential to pay equal attention to both cases, for it is difficult, nay, impossible, in both cases, to say whether the Analysis of Cotton Seed.-One hundred parts, treated as before, lost 77.387, and the residuum, after being burnt under a muffle, left 3.986 parts of a perfectly white ash, the composition of which was as follows: Phosphate of lime (with traces of magnesia).. .61.34 Phosphate of potassa (with traces of soda).. Sulphate of potassa.. Silica Carbonate of lime.. Carbonate of magnesia. Carbonate of potassa, Chloride of potassium.. Sulphate of lime. and loss, 1.68 100.00 With respect to these analyses, we may for the present observe, that the seeds yielded nearly four times as much of the ash as the cotton itself did, and at the same time contained a much larger proportion of the phosphoric acid and of lime. In this respect, the quantity of both these substances is greater, as shown by the American analysis, than in that of Dr. Ure. Whether this may be owing to different kinds of wool having been employed, or to differences in the modes of analysis, can only be known when the analysis shall have been repeated by chemists with different kinds of cotton. In resuming our observations on soils, it is soil or the climate has the most influence ral soils, we must consider in connection with upon successful cultivation, and it is nearly as climate. useless, to use the words of Mr. Neill, as "attempting to decide which half of a pair COTTON PLANT-ANALYSIS OF THE.— of scissors has most to do in the act of cutting, At the Farmers' Club of New-York, the or which of the factors, 5 or 6, contributes Hon. Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama, remost to the production of 30." marked that the seed of the cotton made With respect to the practical inferences rather more than three-fourths of the plant, deducible from the chemical analysis, we and every 1200 lbs. gives 350 clean cotton. may first quote the opinion of Mr. Pidding-"The Club, in accordance with his sugton, that carbonate of lime was essential to gestion, resolved upon having prepared a good cotton soil. Subsequently, he observed that the American, the Mauritius, and the best Singapore soil, contain a considerable percentage of vegetable matter, and some part of it easily soluble in cold water, while the Indian soils contain very little vegetable matter, and this wholly soluble in water; but that the best contain a far larger proportion of carbonate of lime, and some of them their iron in a different state from the others. The lime, though not indispensable, he supposes may be highly useful; but he ascribes greater value to the presence of vegetable matter. For a soil in Bengal, which contained exceedingly minute proportions of lime and carbona complete and perfect analysis of the stalk, boll, fibre and seed of the cotton plant." The analysis hitherto made by Dr. Shepard, extended only to the wool and seed. The results as we have them are:-One hundred parts cotton wool lost 86.09 parts in a platina crucible, leaving a charred residuum, "which on being ignited under a muffle until every part of the carbon was consumed, lost 12.985 and left an almost purely white ash whose weight was 0.9247. Of this ash about 44 per cent. was found soluble in water, It contained 12.88 of sand, an adventitious product of harvesting. Deducting the sand, the constitution of the ash is obtained; and abstractceous matter, and in which he cultivated cotton, worth from 9d to 11d per pound, as an ing the carbonic acid as the result of incineexperiment, for seven or eight years, during ration, Dr. S. shows that to constitute every which he had always good, and often abun-100 parts of the ash, the cotton plant will dant crops, he ascribes this effect to the plants take from the soil the following important having been constantly manured with the mineral ingredients : black, pesty earth, so abundant in the jheels (pieces of water) of India, and of which an average good specimen contains 26.00 per cent. of vegetable matter, and 15.00 per cent. of carbonate of lime, yielded chiefly by the small shells contained in the above deposits. Mr. E. Solly, as the result of his analyses, remarks: "that the goodness of the soils from Georgia depended, probably, far more on the mechanical structure than on the chemical composition, and that the presence of lime or any other substance would appear of far less importance than that the soil should be, not too rich, but of a light and porous character, so that delicate fibres of the roots might penetrate easily in all directions." This opinion is probably not far from the truth, wherever the climate is most suitable to the cultivation of cotton. Dr. Wight, after practical experience of some years, states that where it is in his power to choose, he prefers "a deep, darkcolored, light, almost sandy loam, and if it has been long out of cultivation, so much the better." The black cotton soil, in which so much of the cotton of India is grown, and which is generally considered the best for the purpose, is remarkable for its power of retaining moisture; while of the red soil, he says: "again, I am informed that in some parts of the country, for example, in the Vizagapatam district, the finest cotton crops, both as to quantity and quality, are raised on red soils, and the redder, the better for the purpose." But the suitableness of these seve Potassa (with possible traces of .31.09 pounds. 17.05 46 3.26 .12.30 66 1.22 66 64.92 Or, for 10,000 lbs. cotton wool, there will be taken 64.92 lbs. of these elements. is derived from experiments upon Cotton A table corresponding with the one above Seed: Phosphoric acid.. 45.35 .29.79 19.40 1.16 95.70 In comparing the above table with that afforded by the cotton wool, a marked dissimilarity presents itself. The ash of the cotton seed is fourfold that of the fibre; while the former has also treble the phosphoric acid possessed by the latter, as will the more clearly appear when we present the analysis, under another form, corresponding with the second table under cotton wool. From the foregoing analysis, it would appear difficult to imagine a vegetable compound better adapted for fertilizing land than the cotton seed; nor can we any longer be surprised at the well-known fact, that soils |