IN regard to Island 74, which is situated not far from the former Napoleon,a freak of the river here has sorely perplexed the laws of men and madethem a vanity and a jest. When the State of Arkansas was chartered,she controlled 'to the center of the river'--a most unstable line. The Stateof Mississippi claimed 'to the channel'--another shifty and unstable line.

No. 74 belonged to Arkansas. By and by a cut-off threw this big island outof Arkansas, and yet not within Mississippi. 'Middle of the river' on oneside of it, 'channel' on the other. That is as I understand the problem.

Whether I have got the details right or wrong, this FACT remains:

that here is this big and exceedingly valuable island of four thousand acres,thrust out in the cold, and belonging to neither the one State nor the other;paying taxes to neither, owing allegiance to neither. One man ownsthe whole island, and of right is 'the man without a country.'

Island 92 belongs to Arkansas. The river moved it overand joined it to Mississippi. A chap established a whiskeyshop there, without a Mississippi license, and enrichedhimself upon Mississippi custom under Arkansas protection(where no license was in those days required).

We glided steadily down the river in the usual privacy--steamboat or other moving thing seldom seen. Scenery as always:

stretch upon stretch of almost unbroken forest, on both sidesof the river; soundless solitude. Here and there a cabin or two,standing in small openings on the gray and grassless banks--cabins which had formerly stood a quarter or half-mile fartherto the front, and gradually been pulled farther and farther backas the shores caved in. As at Pilcher's Point, for instance,where the cabins had been moved back three hundred yardsin three months, so we were told; but the caving banks hadalready caught up with them, and they were being conveyedrearward once more.

Napoleon had but small opinion of Greenville, Mississippi, in the old times;but behold, Napoleon is gone to the cat-fishes, and here is Greenville fullof life and activity, and making a considerable flourish in the Valley;having three thousand inhabitants, it is said, and doing a gross trade of$2,500,000 annually. A growing town.

There was much talk on the boat about the Calhoun Land Company,an enterprise which is expected to work wholesome results.

Colonel Calhoun, a grandson of the statesman, went to Bostonand formed a syndicate which purchased a large tract of land onthe river, in Chicot County, Arkansas--some ten thousand acres--for cotton-growing. The purpose is to work on a cash basis:

buy at first hands, and handle their own product; supply their negrolaborers with provisions and necessaries at a trifling profit,say 8 or 10 per cent.; furnish them comfortable quarters,etc., and encourage them to save money and remain on the place.

If this proves a financial success, as seems quite certain,they propose to establish a banking-house in Greenville,and lend money at an unburdensome rate of interest--6 per cent.

is spoken of.

The trouble heretofore has been--I am quoting remarks of plantersand steamboatmen--that the planters, although owning the land,were without cash capital; had to hypothecate both land and cropto carry on the business. Consequently, the commission dealerwho furnishes the money takes some risk and demands big interest--usually 10 per cent., and 2 per cent. for negotiating the loan.

The planter has also to buy his supplies through the same dealer,paying commissions and profits. Then when he ships his crop,the dealer adds his commissions, insurance, etc. So, taking itby and large, and first and last, the dealer's share of that cropis about 25 per cent.'

where the people are under subjection to rates of interest rangingfrom 18 to 30 per cent., and are also under the necessity ofpurchasing their crops in advance even of planting, at these rates,for the privilege of purchasing all their supplies at 100 per cent.

profit?'--EDWARD ATKINSON.]>

A cotton-planter's estimate of the average margin of profiton planting, in his section: One man and mule will raise tenacres of cotton, giving ten bales cotton, worth, say, $500; costof producing, say $350; net profit, $150, or $15 per acre.

There is also a profit now from the cotton-seed, which formerlyhad little value--none where much transportation was necessary.

In sixteen hundred pounds crude cotton four hundred are lint,............