Cotton Planter's Manual

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This book is a compilation. It makes no pretensions whatever to originality. All compilations must, from the very nature of things, be imperfect; therefore this book is imperfect. One of two plans I bad to adopt, either to write an entirely original work, or compile one from the writings of others. Had I adopted the former plan, I might, it is true, have produced a more compact work, a more systematic treatise, in a more uniform style; but it is a question whether I would have made so valuable a volume as the one I present you. What might have been gained in the graces of composition, or the system of a well-digested treatise, might have been lost in my want of experience in all the departments I have presented you, to make a proper volume. It is quite easy to fill a given number of pages, but to make those pages useful and practical, is quite another thing. I thought it best, therefore, because it would be more useful to cotton planters, to compile the best authorities on the subject of which I treat.