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Colquitt County Description
in 1880
1880 Population:
2,527.—White, 2,422; colored, 105.
Area: 550 square miles—Woodland, all; pine barrens (wire-grass), 8 square miles; lime-sink (wire-grass) region;
542 square miles.
Tilled lands: 13,906 acres.—Area planted in cotton,2,958 acres; in corn, 4,375 acres; in wheat, 8 acres; in oats,
2,198 acres; in rye, 12 acres.
Cotton production: 736 bales; average cotton product per acre, 0.25 bale, 354 pounds seed-cotton, or 118 pound
cotton lint.
Colquitt county is entirely within the wire-grass region. The surface is undulating, the ridges lying usually north
and south. On the lowlands and between the ridges saw-palmetto is often more abundant than wire-grass.
Moultrie, the county-seat, is located on a low sandy ridge which forms the divide between Ocklockony and Little
rivers. This ridge extends 3 miles north of the village, and has an undergrowth of black-jack. On the west of Moultrie
ferruginous sandstone and gravel occurs on the ridges, giving to some of the lands a reddish character. The pitcherplant
grows luxuriantly on the lowlands of this section.
The irreclaimable swamps of the county comprise 1 per cent, of its area. The country is very sparsely settled,
and has an average of but 5 persons per square mile. Its tilled lands average but a little more than 25 acres per
square mile, or 4 per cent, of the county area, and of these 21.3 per cent, is in cotton, whose average is 5.4
acres per square mile, or a little more than 1 acre per inhabitant. Corn has a larger acreage, its average being
8 acres per square mile. 409
ABSTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF J. B. NORMAN, OF MOULTRIE.
The lands of the couuty have fine sandy soils, 18 inches deep, and yellow or red subsoils. The growth of the county
is pine, white oak, chincapin, sweet gum, sumac, and grape-vines. The soil contains brown pebbles, and is underlaid
by clay at from 3 to 6 feet. The crops are cotton, corn, rice, sweet potatoes, field-pease, oats, chufas, etc.
Cotton grows from 2 to 5 feet high, and is most productive at 3½ or 4 feet. It runs to weed on rich lands
in wet seasons, and is restrained by the use of fertilizers. Fresh land yields 500 pounds of seed cotton per acre,
1,425 pounds of which make 475 pounds of lint, rating from ordinary to middling fair. After five years' cultivation
th« yield is from 300 to 400 pounds. Crab-grass and cocklebur are most troublesome. Not much of the land
now lies turned out, neither does it wash much.
As fast as ginned, cotton is shipped to Thomasville at $2 per bale.
[Source: Census reports Tenth census. June 1, 1880, Volume 6 By United States.
Census Office. 10th Census, 1880. Transcribed by K. Torp]
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