I returned from the Hurricane on Saturday evening, where I found things rather at sixes & sevens. But I hope we shall be able to get every thing straight for another crop. Gibson went off, & left the crop of corn in the field ungathered, or there would not be any difficulty, but what could be over come very easily.

They are gathering, & housing the corn as fast as possible. But every hour that is spent at that business belongs of right to getting in & fencing, two hundred acres of fresh cotton land. If I can possibly have that land got in, in time, I shall calculate very surely on making 250 bags of cotton at that place this year. But I am not sure of being able to do so, with the backsets Gibson has – intentionally I believe – thrown in the way. If it is possible, it will be done, I think, as I am very much pleased with our new man Harvey. I like his ideas and mode of doing business well.

I hope the corn will last us until the next crop is ready for use. As it is not yet housed, I cannot tell exactly. But I rather think it may be made to hold out.

I had the hogs killed while I was there & had the meat all salted away before I left. The weight was 7500 lbs. It will require several thousand more, say 3000.

The cotton crop is ginning as fast as possible. There are 10 bags packed at the plantation. Seven ginned and ready for packing, and about 26 or 7 in the shed. Harvey says that Gibsons account was, that with the cotton sent off to Sav & that at the plantation there would be about 110 bags.

I shall have four mules to buy, & you must furnish the money, out of the crop of last year. There are now 16 on the place but I wish to run 20 ploughs this year.

With that number of ploughs & the energy, & “new-broom” zeal of Harvey, I think the old Hurricane, will astonish the natives , in Baldwin & Jones, who have looked upon it as an old worn out place. To view it from the road, it is an unsightly place, truly. But take it upon the whole I had rather have it, than any other place of the same number of acres, I know of any where; Sumpter, Lee & c not excepted.

If I am only able to get in the 200 acres above spoken of, I only ask a tolerable season to make 250 bags. I am not dealing in hyperbole at all, but rather under estimate, than otherwise as with such a season as ’42, I should calculate to overgo that number considerable.

I shall leave for Jefferson on Wednesday- day after tomorrow- morning, in the C[entral] R[ail] Road cars, & return home in Andrews buggy, which is at Rootesville waiting for me.

I shall see what the prospect is, for raising Lynams ideas, when I go down. He is very much Impressed, with a sense of his superiority in agriculture & I think when he hears of Harvey’s calculations, he will try what he can do. I do not know how many horses & mules he can muster, if less than 20 some will have to [be] bought there too. Ploughs are the sine qua non, where a man wishes to raise large crops. Your opinion of the Jefferson land, I must confess is, more elevated than mine. The cotton is very small on it, very very small. But we will try what it can do this year. With a little [letter damaged] up, I think Lynam will do, well.

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Source: Howell Cobb Family Papers (MS 1376), Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.