Historic Louisiana

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The Eads jetties at the mouth of the
Mississippi River narrow the water’s flow to
assist in scouring the channel. For many
years the jetties were sufficient, but the
greatly increased draft of contemporary
ships requires the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to dredge constantly to maintain
a channel depth in excess of ninety-five feet.
COURTESY OF THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS
COLLECTION, 1958.59.5
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
48
ability to hold cotton off the market and the
“corner” collapsed.
Cotton growing hardly changed for a
century and a half. The worker began his
preparations for planting in February. Land was
laid off into rows from three to four feet apart,
then ridged up by throwing two furrows of a
turning-plow together. A small shovel-plow
made a trench in the ridge to receive the seed.
A man and a mule followed with a “board”
which lightly covered the seed with earth.
When the cotton was up and growing well,
cultivation began by throwing earth to it with a
“cotton sweep,” and the space between the rows
was plowed up and thoroughly pulverized and
the “sweeping” repeated. As soon as the plants
strengthened sufficiently, they were cut out “to
a stand” by a small hoe, spaced from eight to
eighteen inches. The hoe performed a double
duty, for it cut out also the fine grass that sprang
up about the young plants. Plowing and hoeing
now continued as rapidly as possible—taking
into consideration that ten days, at least, must
elapse between each operation—until the
cotton shaded the land sufficiently to protect
itself against the growth of grass, and until the
plow injured the plant by breaking branches.
The cotton was now said to be “laid by.”
After about two months, flower buds called
“squares” appeared on the cotton plants. In
another three weeks, the blossoms opened.
Their petals changed from creamy white, to
yellow, to pink and finally dark red. After
three days, they withered and fell, leaving
green pods called cotton bolls. Inside the boll,
which is shaped like a mini football, moist
fibers formed and pushed the newly formed
seeds outward. As the boll ripened, it stayed
green. The fibers continued to expand under
the warm sun. Finally, they split the boll
apart, and the fluffy cotton came forth. It
looked like cotton candy, only white. Cotton
pickers then went down the rows transferring
the cotton to their bags. After weighing, the
cotton was spread out to be dried and sunned,
then “ginned,” that is, the soft white lint was
separated from the seeds. The “cleaned,” or
“ginned,” cotton was now pressed into bales
ready for the market. The planter marked the
bales with his initials and separated it into
eight grades—”stained,” “tinged,” “ordinary,”
“good ordinary,” “low middling,” “middling,”
“good middling,” and “fancy.” “Stained” and
“tinged” indicated cotton injured by frost. The
remaining grades ranged from those soiled by
dust, leaves, and trash to the “fancy,” which
is the finest of all and perfectly clean. The
seed went to the cotton-seed-oil factories
to be pressed for oil, or converted into
cake for feeding stock or into a material for
making paper.
It was 150 years after the cotton gin before
there was another comparable improvement
in efficiency in the cotton business. In the
1940s mechanized planting and harvesting
began to reduce the number of man hours
required to produce one hundred pounds
of cotton. In 1945, forty-two labor hours
were required. By 1965 that number had
been reduced to five, a reduction of eightyeight
percent. Since then hours required to
produce one hundred pounds of cotton have
declined further.
Louisiana is sixth among the states in
average cotton production. Texas is first with
4.56 million bales, followed by California,
Mississippi, Arkansas, and Georgia. Worldwide
production has recently averaged eighty-seven
million bales per year.