may have the interior entirely dried up and destroyed, while others will open with only one or two segments rotted, the rest being perfectly healthy, and filled with good white cotton.

As to the theory of a defect in the soil, it has been stated by some planters that barnyard manure will often produce it; but, if this is the case, it is somewhat singular that it has often been observed that one plant may be very badly affected by the rot, while others on each side are perfectly healthy and uninjured, as has often been observed. This fact appears to show that a great deal depends upon the constitution of the plant itself, which may be inherited from its parent, and perhaps a choice of good sound seed, from strong and healthy plants only, might in time have a great effect in remedying this disease; and, as we know that much depends upon the vigor, health, and prolific qualities of the parent plant, it might perhaps be well to make experiments by planting seed of diseased, and sound, healthy plants, in the same situation and soil.

The fungoid growth, found on the old rotted bolls, when they begin to open, may perhaps be regarded more as the result than the cause of the disease. Several insects, it is true, have been found in these rotten bolls, where most probably they had crept for food and shelter, after the boll had become rotten, while others have been caught in the very act of piercing the bolls; but this subject will be found treated at greater length under the head of "The Boll," and insects found in or upon it, on a preceding page.

While on the subject of the rot, it may be well to mention that there are three glands on the inside of the outer calyx, at the bottom of the boll, and three on the outside between the "ruffle" and stalk, which secrete and give out a sweet substance, which ants, bees, wasps, and

plant bugs avail themselves of as food. I have seen young bolls, apparently healthy, suddenly drop from the plant, and, on being carefully cut open, showed a wound which had been pierced by the trunk of some insect, in one of these glands, and that a watery rot had commenced where the boll had been stung. It was evident that this rot had been caused by the piercer of some insect unknown, as the puncture could be traced throughout its length to the heart of the lower part of the injured boll.

CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUDING REMARKS-THE COMPLICATED NETWORK OF COTTON-INDUCEMENTS TO IMMIGRANTS-ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES-FUTURE OF THE SOUTH.

WE wish to make a short, summary statement, and draw our labors to a close.

1. Prior to the abolition of slavery, the production of cotton employed capital to the amount of two billion dollars: landed property and implements being estimated at about two hundred million dollars, and the balance estimated as the value of the slaves.

2. Since the abolition of slavery, the capital invested in the production of cotton in the United States does not exceed two hundred million dollars.

3. It furnishes labor in the field for one million of souls.

4. It feeds the spindles of one thousand manufactories in the United States, and of five thousand manufactories in Europe.

5. It has paid nearly two-thirds of the national debt of the United States for the last fifty years.

6. It is a wonderful source of wealth, enriching the planter, the manufacturer, the cotton broker, the shipmaster, and the merchant.

7. It has, within the present century, cheered the

hearts of billions of operatives in both hemispheres, fed their hungry mouths, and the mouths of their dependants.

8. It goes to the hovels of wretchedness, and administers comfort. It enters the palace of the millionnaire, and defiantly says, "Do without me if you can!"

9. In all the complications of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce it bears an important part; yea, exercises a controlling influence. If "commerce is king," cotton is prime minister.

10. The cotton locks of the South are the best on the face of the globe, and must have an increasing demand.

11. The labor of the present year will probably produce 1,500,000 bales; certainly not more, and perhaps less.

12. The amount on hand now in England, together with all she will likely receive from all other countries than this, cannot supply the demand. England wants 4,000,000 bales. She will probably receive 2,500,000 bales from all other countries besides North America. Deduct this from the 4,000,000, and we have exactly 1,500,000 bales.

13. But what will France do, and Belgium, and Switzerland, and the German Zollverein states? They all want some of our cotton, and will have it.

14. The demand for cotton in England and on the Continent, for the year 1867, will be unprecedented. It ought to command a good price.

15. The cry will be for years to come, ay, for ages, "Give us more cotton-good cotton, American cotton— fine fibre."

16. Cotton being in such great demand, laborers will be well compensated who prove themselves faithful to their employers.

17. Cotton lands will be in good request, and must bear a good price.

18. If protected by the government by the simple and most beautiful process of letting us alone, and placing no obstacles in our way, there is laid up for us, in our soil, an incalculable amount of wealth.

To industrious immigrants we say, Come on, and try the country. We have some disadvantages in many parts of the South, physical and moral, but these are found elsewhere. Much of our country has been laid waste by the ruthless hands of the destroyer and the robber, but it is fast recovering. We have the miasmatic fevers of the Mississippi Valley, but they are not more fatal than the same forms of disease away out in the West.

We have mosquitoes, buffalo-gnats, and gad-flies, but they do not continue all the year. We have the boll-worm, the cotton louse, and the cotton caterpillar, which sometimes sadden the heart of the planter, but we always make something, and not unfrequently we make "a mighty big crop." We close our volume by an extract from the "Prison Life of Jefferson Davis: "

"In ten years, or perhaps less, the South will have recovered the pecuniary losses of the war. It has had little capital in manufactures. Its capital was in land and negroes. The land remains productive as ever. The negroes remain, but their labor has to be paid for. Before the war there were 4,000,000 negroes, and the estimate that 1,000,000 have died off during the war is too large.

"As to a mingling of the races, Nature has erected ample barriers against the crime. There is no danger of its prevalence.

"The blacks are a docile, affectionate, and religious people; like cats in their fondness for home. The name of freedom had charms for them; but until educated to be self-supporting, it would be a curse.