Honest breeders improved the yield considerably; but the succession of hoaxes roused abundant skepticism.

In 1853 a certain Miller of Mississippi confided to the public the fact that he had discovered by chance a strain which would yield three hundred pounds more of seed cotton per acre than any other sort within his knowledge, and he alluringly named it Accidental Poor Land Cotton.

John Farrar of the new railroad town Atlanta was thereby moved to irony.

"This kind of cotton," he wrote in a public letter, "would run a three million bale crop up to more than four millions; and this would reduce the price probably to four or five cents.
Don't you see, Mr.Miller, that we had better let you keep and plant your seed?
You say that you had rather plant your crop with them than take a dollar a pint....

Let us alone, friend, we are doing pretty well--we might do worse."[33] [Footnote 32: _Southern Banner_( Athens, Ga.), Sept.