were twice as large as those used in the picking process, and they were
never taken from the gin house. These lint baskets were used in removing
the lint from the lint room to the place where the cotton was baled. A
bale contained 250 pounds, and the man who did the treading of the
cotton into the bales would not vary ten pounds in the bale, so
accustomed was he to the packing. Generally from fourteen to fifteen
bales of cotton were in the lint room at a time.

* * * * *

OTHER FARM PRODUCTS.

Cotton was the chief product of the Mississippi farms and nothing else
was raised to sell. Wheat, oats and rye were raised in limited
quantities, but only for the slaves and the stock. All the fine flour
for the master's family was bought in St. Louis. Corn was raised in
abundance, as it was a staple article of food for the slaves. It was
planted about the 1st of March, or about a month earlier than the
cotton. It was, therefore, up and partially worked before the cotton was
planted and fully tilled before the cotton was ready for cultivation.
Peas were planted between the rows of corn, and hundreds of bushels were
raised. These peas after being harvested, dried and beaten out of the
shell, were of a reddish brown tint, not like those raised for the
master's family, but they were considered a wholesome and nutritious
food for the slaves. Cabbage and yams, a large sweet potato, coarser
than the kind generally used by the whites and not so delicate in
flavor, were also raised for the servants in liberal quantities. No hay
was raised, but the leaves of the corn, stripped from the stalks while
yet green, cured and bound in bundles, were used as a substitute for it
in feeding horses.