Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1895 — Change in Cotton Culture. [ARTICLE]

Change in Cotton Culture.

“I was greatly disappointed in * lain trip I made through the South in re good to the cotton farms,” said Mr. T. €L Selby, of California. “I had beard and rend much of the big plantations devoted to the crop, and so I expected to see woe vast tracts of land devoted to its cultivalion. H ere was where I felt disappointed; us » rule there are no big cotton plantations in the South, and small fields of faa nnd twenty acres are about the avenge. “Planting cotton x>n a big scale is a thing ot the past; it disappeared with slave labor. To-day the vast amsaal of it produced is the aggregate yield of thousuns of little patches farmed by tenants, who' give up one-third of whatever is made to the owners of the laud, retaining two-thirds for their labor in making the crop. Of course, the majority of theae tenants are colored men. This year the planters are in great spirits, for while thqy made tbc crop on a basis of getting S cents a pound, they are receiving tram 8 to !) cents, and the difference puts a snug profit in tbeir pockets."