OPINION: When cotton was king in Madison Co.

The first production of our area was corn, eggs, salt pork, butter and a variety of other products that could be produced by farm families. Our land was not suited to large farming operations because of the average slope of our hillsides and the lack of depth of our soil.

But the time came when cotton was king in the South and, like the rest of the region, our farmers cleared the land and planted cotton. That was a long-term mistake. Cotton cultivation leaves the soil exposed to the wind and rain, and erosion quickly took its toll on the land.

Eventually, a system of terraces were constructed on the hillsides to try to control the erosion. When you are driving around the county, look at the pasture lands and you can still see them. All those terraced areas were once cotton fields.

Every available acre was planted in cotton when I was a child. Madison County was devoted to the crop. At the height of cotton production here, Madison County had 11 gins in operation. The last one to operate was in Colbert. It closed in the early ‘60’s.

I helped out in the cotton fields as a child. My first job was as a clod hopper. I would follow behind my father or grandfather as they did their spring plowing stomping on clods of soil to break them up. Then after the cotton sprouted, we would “chop” the cotton. That included digging out the excess plants in the rows so that the cotton was spaced for the best production, and to remove grass between the plants.

Then, of course, in the fall we hand-picked the cotton. That was a difficult job. The advent of automated cotton pickers relieved us of this chore. For a while, both methods were used. It was easy to see which field was hand-picked and which was done by a machine. The hand picked fields were clean. The machine left a litter of cotton fiber stuck on the plants and lying on the ground.

In addition, cotton makes high demands on the essential nutrients of the soil. As these combined to destroy our soil, our ability to produce the crop quickly declined. Eventually, the gins all closed and the cotton fields became pasture land for cattle. Vast areas of the county were planted in pine trees in an effort to restore the soil and gain some practical use of it.

Many Madison County people try to cling to our rural past, but thanks to cotton, that has become a difficult task.

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at http://www.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.