Hello from Mississippi, Brian! I am a big fan and totally appreciate your ability to frankly articulate your opinion on whatever show you may be appearing on. I left you a voicemail via the FOX phone number, but I have no confidence that you will receive that message.

I saw your show last night and was most impressed by the segment on The Little Schoolhouse in New York. I love the concept! And I loved your follow-up comment about how important history is to all of us. I am pasting the summary of a book I have written, for which I am now seeking a publisher. Please let me know if you are interested. And thanks in advance! It tells too much raw truth for any University Press I have thus far submitted to.

BOOK SUMMARY - "Cast Nets & Cotton: Mississippi's Contribution to a Global Economy"

Through stunning photography and a compelling 38,000-word narrative, "Cast Nets & Cotton" documents Mississippi's rich heritage of dual economies, combining agriculture and maritime industries. This comprehensive work traces the interconnected story of cotton production and coastal fishing from 1699 to the present day, revealing how these industries shaped Mississippi's economy and global markets, and thus, the U.S. economy.

The book uniquely connects cotton's influence on fishing equipment, particularly the evolution from cotton to synthetic nets, while exploring the parallel struggles of farming families and fishing communities. Through original photography and extensive research, it documents the transformation of both industries from manual labor to mechanization and from family operations to corporate enterprises.

Key historical revelations include the early cotton gin at La Pointe Krebs House (predating Whitney's patent by 25 years), the complex role of New York financing in Southern agriculture, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the often-overlooked contributions of poor whites alongside enslaved workers. The historical chronicle spans the sharecropping era to modern precision agriculture, while also tracing the evolution of Gulf Coast fishing practices.

This coffee-table book features over 250 original photographs documenting contemporary practices and historical sites, complemented by extensive research and personal narratives from farmers. The book also includes 45 images shot in Mississippi by the iconic photographer Marion Post Wolcott between 1937 and 1939, as documented by the Library of Congress. It presents a unique perspective on how these seemingly distinct industries share common threads in Mississippi's economic tapestry, offering fresh insights into the state's contributions to global commerce and culture.

Part of the incredible 8-year journey to accomplish the goal of this project has been encountering the many people who freely gave of their time and expertise, people who have worked within the cotton or fishing industries for many years. A large portion of the work required to market and sell the book will be to reconnect with those people and many others who are interested in the book's historical significance, as well as the current farming practices implemented worldwide.

This industry could soon become obsolete due to our trade policies and Brazil's potential to overtake us in commodity crops. Therefore, it is of great historical significance.

©sarah_beaugez_bookSummary_CastNets&Cotton_Mississippi’sContributionToAglobalEconomy_2025

Sample Chapter: Introduction

Cast Nets & Cotton:

Mississippi’s Contribution to a Global Economy

By

Sarah Beaugez

Copyright by Sarah Beaugez 2025

Cast Nets & Cotton: Mississippi’s Contribution to a Global Economy (1699-2025)

Acknowledgements

Forward

Prologue

Introduction

1. Historical Perspective (1698-1787)

2. Transatlantic Slave Trade (1492-Late 19th Century) Page

3. Human Ownership (1787)

4. Cotton Production (1793-1860)

5. War Between the States: A Turning Point (1861-1865)

6. White People Picking Cotton: Yeoman Farmers, Sharecroppers, and Tenant Farmers (18th – 19th Centuries)

7. Cotton Production (1860-1960)

8. Cotton Production Today (1960-2025)

9. Stories of growers, friends, and acquaintances (2010 – 2025)

10. Images of cotton production (2010-2022)

Bibliography

Credits

Cast Nets & Cotton: Mississippi’s Contribution to a Global Economy

Prologue

“The look, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives,” was the catchline to a song written for a commercial by Cotton, Incorporated, that initially aired in 1992.

The marketing plan was brilliant because, like millions of other people, I’ve never forgotten that commercial. What made the ad campaign especially clever is that the statement is true. If we stop to consider how many cotton products we use daily, it would be tough, if not impossible, to imagine our lives without them.

Cotton is a perennial and part of the tree family. If left to itself, it wouldn’t stop growing until it filled up as much as a fifty-five-gallon drum and towered overhead or was killed in a hard freeze. For efficiency’s sake, growers manage a cotton crop like an animal, feeding it what it needs when it needs it. Throughout the growing season, an agronomy consultant will test the soil several times to determine what the crop needs to achieve optimal production. At this point, they will recommend a fertilizer to supplement the soil's deficiencies.

Additionally, the agronomist will inspect the cotton for pests that could negatively impact the plant’s productivity and/or destroy it altogether, such as the boll weevil. That’s when a prescribed pesticide is used. The boll weevil ruined cotton crops across the South until they were eradicated in 1994. And when the cotton is ready to be harvested, a defoliant is used to force the leaves to fall off. It’s much easier to use a cotton picker when there are no leaves to get hung in the teeth of the picker. If the cotton is not harvested quickly after the application of a defoliant, the leaves will regrow. The longer mature cotton sits in the field, the more it degrades in quality.

A single cotton seed will produce seventeen bolls of four to five lock bolls with six to eight seeds in each lock, resulting in 544-680 seeds per plant. It takes 4,500-5,500 seeds to produce a pound, which is roughly 5 ½ plants. Of course, the smaller the seed, the greater the count. And there are 500 pounds of fiber in one bale of cotton. When the cotton market is up, it will be sold for $1.00/pound, which makes it an extremely profitable crop. However, one must consider the investment on the front end before any profit can be realized.

In the modern cotton industry, a significant amount of technology is utilized, and numerous entities are involved in the production of the crop. There are seed/chemical reps whose job is broad-spectrum. They are typically PhD-level and can collect soil samples for laboratory analysis. The results will be given to the representative, who can then recommend the best product(s) to the grower. These recommendations will include the variety of GMO seed planted, the fertilizer(s) used, growth regulator, pesticides, and defoliants required to create optimum conditions that result in the highest possible yield. It is a highly scientific approach to farming.

It would be wonderful if we could grow everything in our own backyard. We’d use decomposed, inorganic fertilizer via composting in conjunction with cow or chicken dung to supplement and replenish the soil before, during, and after a single crop’s growing season. To become self-sustaining with food, we would have to grow fruits and vegetables year-round. In that case, we would all have to leave our day jobs and become full-time yeoman farmers with enough land necessary to support our families. Yeoman farmers grow their own food, fiber, and dairy products, among others. They harvest, gin, spin, weave, and create their own textiles or cotton products. They are self-sustaining. Unless we all want to live off the grid, forgo manufactured goods, luxury services, etc., commercial farming is the way in which we must feed the world.

The first recorded GMO cottonseed goes back to 1803, when an army officer named Walter Burling was commissioned by U.S. Army General James Wilkinson to go to Mexico on a secret mission. History does not report with certainty what Burling’s mission was supposed to have been. Regardless, while in Mexico, it is recorded that Burling asked if he could buy cottonseed to take back to the U.S. He was told the Spanish had declared it illegal to cross the border with cottonseed, but then offered Burling the opportunity to buy dolls, which ended up being stuffed with cottonseed, or so the story goes. In 1805, the cottonseed ended up in the capable hands of Dr. Rush Nutt, who built Laurel Plantation in Rodney, Mississippi, located in Jefferson County. Dr. Nutt was a native of Virginia and was known for his scientific and agricultural achievements. By the 1830s, Dr. Nutt had genetically modified the Mexican cottonseed, known as Petit Gulf cotton, resulting in an easier-to-pick, more rot-resistant plant with superior fibers that were used by most, if not all, of the South’s cotton growers.

There are many in today’s world who believe that anything genetically modified is a bad thing. The non-GMO label has become a significant marketing tool for many products, including water, which I will use as an example. Hydrogen and oxygen are elements, which are individual molecules that remain constant and cannot be modified individually. The chemical composition of water is the combination of two hydrogen molecules with one oxygen molecule. If that molecular structure changes, it is no longer water. It becomes something else. Using the term 'non-GMO' on a water label is nothing more than a marketing ploy designed to capture the consumer's attention or appeal to those who are not thinking rationally. This is a simple yet practical example and is used in many similar products. The simple definition of a GMO (genetically modified organism) is that a gene is introduced into a plant, making it resistant to the herbicide used to kill weeds. In other words, it will kill the weeds without killing the plant.

Fertilization practices have undergone dramatic changes from the hand application of manure in the 1800s to highly advanced chemical combinations for specific fields, utilizing soil sample analysis typically performed by the Mississippi State Extension Service. Once the study results are returned to the grower, a farmer can visit their chosen seed/chemical company, or a representative of that company, and have them create the specific combination of nutrients recommended. Remember: these nutrients are listed on the periodic table of elements, so they are as pure as fertilizer can be, dispelling the myth that chemical fertilizers are harmful to the environment.

Chemical companies can use a mixture of elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and/or potassium, through chemical reactions to produce fertilizers tailored to the specific needs of any given soil sample. In combination with other elements added, such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, the grower is now equipped for the task of producing a stellar crop. Therefore, when a sampling of soil is obtained and analyzed, a tailor-made blend of what the soil is lacking can be explicitly created for that soil. This results in more efficient resource utilization and increased production.

Other facets that directly affect the cotton industry would be state/local governments, consultants who are trained entomologists, agronomists, and land conservationists, (most of whom have a PhD), along with cotton brokers, ag pilots, ag chemical agronomists, ginners, crop insurance agents, also to include export companies, the U. S. Cotton Counsel, Cotton Inc., World Trade Organization, and equipment specialization. As they say, “It takes a village.” In this case, it takes a global economy.

As stated earlier, cotton is a challenging crop to grow and requires multiple passes over the same piece of ground in a single growing season, whether referring to today’s farming practices or those of two hundred years ago. The difference in farming practices used in the 1820s and 2022, while vastly different, still requires many passes over the same piece of ground in any given growing season. It is an incredible crop, but it requires a lot more attention than most other crops.

Differences in today’s cotton production and what was accepted as the norm in the 1820s include mechanization, herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides. In total, depending upon the amount of pesticide, herbicide, or fertilizer needed, the ground may require as many as fifteen to twenty passes. The eradication of the boll weevil was a game-changer in the early 1990s and a breakthrough in the cotton farming industry.

In the 1830’s a single plough head was used to open the ground and form a row. If the farmer had no mule to which he could hitch his plough, a person was the manpower holding on to a wooden plough frame with a V-shaped piece of metal to cut into the ground, forming a small trench. Someone else followed closely behind, dropping seed by hand, and yet another came on his heels, pushing the dirt over the seed. Once the plant emerged, it was time to begin thinning, or chopping, with a hoe, ensuring there was sufficient space between the plants. Weeds growing around the plants or in the middles (between the rows) could easily choke the plant and/or take water and nutrients from the soil necessary for a good crop. Using a hoe, the weeds had to go. This would seemingly never end because the weeds continued to grow even as they moved down the row.

However, there would come a time when the cotton would be “laid by” or left alone until late August to mid-September. That’s when the cotton would be “coming on” or ready to pick. (This was done by hand until the advent of cotton pickers in the 20th Century). And pick they did from sun-up to sundown, hot or on into the cool of the fall, until all the cotton had been removed from each plant in the field. It was backbreaking work. For a while, baskets were used to hold the picked cotton, but eventually, large cotton sacks with a strap that went over one shoulder were utilized for the picked cotton. The worker stuffed the picked cotton into the sack and dragged it behind until it was full. Some sacks were as long as nine feet, or as small as a flour sack, and were used by the children. The work was grueling, the Mississippi sun unforgiving, and the sharp edges surrounding each lock of cotton razor sharp...

©sarah_beaugez_castNets&Cotton_mississippi'sContributionToAglobalEconomy_2025