Despite floods and the effect of the Civil War on labor and land, the official tally of cotton production in the United States as of the close of the year had grown to over two and a half million bales, each bale measured at 400 pounds. The corresponding fugure for 1866 stood at around 875,000 bales. Recovery was evident but the cotton industry would not reach the four million bales of 1860 for some time. The current 2016 level of cotton produced exceeds sixteen million 480 pound bales. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"Agriculture," The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1867 ... (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1870), 12.