As surely as summer turns to fall, October fields yield their snowy crop. For more than two centuries, it has been so on farms and plantations along the Mississippi River between Memphis and Natchez &8212; some of the finest cotton in the world rising out of the rich alluvial soil.

Early on, in the late 18th century, farming settlers turned to indigo and, for a while, tobacco. But once Eli Whitney&8217;s simple design for a cotton gin swept across the South just after 1793, attention turned to the plant with the fleecy top.

Agronomists produced new varieties of cotton especially suitable for the river soil and climate. Other imaginative men devised more efficient methods of baling. And just when many plantation owners were giving thought to the end of slave labor, the new cash crop prompted a new, even more striking need for workers in this labor-intensive endeavor.

In 1811, the first steamboat traveled down the Mississippi River, stopping to take on the first bale of cotton transported by steamboat from Natchez to New Orleans early in 1812. That first bale was followed by nearly 50 years of flush times for cotton plantations in the Natchez area.

The Civil War changed the cotton economy just as it prompted other sweeping social and political changes. A new group of merchants in the 1870s and 1880s gave rise to a steady revival in cotton culture in Natchez. The crop once again became profitable, and large steamboats enjoyed a booming business transporting cotton to market from Natchez Under-the-Hill.

In the post-Civil War years, mules pulled plantation wagons, creaking and groaning under the weight of cotton, into Cotton Square, the intersection of Franklin and Commerce streets, where pedestrians competed with the crop for sidewalk space.

&8220;People in this part of Mississippi are clean crazy on cotton,&8221; a visitor in 1883 wrote about Natchez. &8220;Given a man and a mule, they will take to cotton as naturally as a gander and a goose to a pond.&8221;

Early in the 20th century, the boll weevil made its devilish way across Louisiana and Mississippi, destroying cotton crops as it went. Again, inventive minds went to work to find a way to wound if not destroy the heinous enemy of cotton culture.

By the late 20th century, little remained of the old-fashioned cotton plantation. Machines replaced field workers. Chemicals became a staple of the trade. And steamboats, which once carried bales stacked to the top decks, were gone from the river.

In days gone by, the season&8217;s first bale of cotton signaled a time for celebration. In 1884, for instance, the first wagonload rolled into town with an American flag flying from among the cotton.

It is true the onset of today&8217;s cotton harvesting is noted with less charm than in the past. Nevertheless, cotton-picking time remains an exciting time. All around the Natchez area, the giant mechanical pickers and balers are busy now with the task of bringing in the crop.

The world of cotton culture in early 2003 is as new and different as the technology found now in the flat, wide-stretching fields. But one thing remains much the same. The warm October sun still shines as in days of old on the snowy fields where many Natchez-area families stake their future.

Joan Gandy

is community editor of The Democrat. She can be reached at (601) 445-3549 or by e-mail at

joan.gandy@natchezdemocrat.com

.