Delta and Pine Land Records

Collection

Identifier: MSS-101

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, annual reports, minutes, financial records, maps, oral history interviews, publications and other records documenting the history of the Delta and Pine Land Company.

While headquartered in Scott, Mississippi, the company was owned by a British firm throughout most of its history, and at various times it had offices in Arizona, California, and Texas. Advertised during one period as the world's largest cotton plantation, Delta and Pine Land Company grew a variety of crops and became famous for its research and development of cotton varieties.

Among the major subjects in the collection are agriculture, cotton seed research, the tenant farming system, the National Cotton Council, the New Deal, the Mississippi River flood of 1927, the Mississippi Delta, and various agricultural organizations. Correspondence, annual reports, minutes, financial records, maps, oral history interviews, and other records documenting the history of the Delta and Pine Land Company. Includes records about African-American tenant farmers.

Dates

1886 - 1982

Historical Note

The Delta and Pine Land (D&PL) Company records, dating from 1886 to 1982, document the history of the Mississippi-based firm that was owned by a British company during much of its existence. Although headquartered in Scott, Mississippi, since 1927, the D&PL Company included holdings in Bolivar and Washington counties in Mississippi and had offices in Arizona, California, and Texas during some periods of its history. The company is famous for its research and development of cotton varieties, particularly the Deltapine variety.

The original D&PL Company was chartered in 1886 in Mississippi, under state laws which permitted virtually unlimited activities and holdings to one company. The laws later changed, restricting the amount of land one firm could own, but the charters issued earlier remained valid and were valuable because of their unrestricted status. The D&PL Company became inactive and its charter was purchased in 1919 by the Fine Cotton Spinners' and Doublers' Association Ltd. (FCSDA) of Manchester, England. In 1911 the FCSDA had bought a large tract of Mississippi Delta land, but in order to comply with current state laws, three companies had been set up: the Lake Vista Plantation Company (which owned land), the Triumph Plantation Company (which owned land), and the Mississippi Delta Planting Company (a holding company which leased land from the other two companies and operated it as one parcel). With the purchase of the D&PL Company charter, the other three companies ceased to exist and their holdings became part of the D&PL Company.

The headquarters was located in Memphis, Tennessee, until 1927, when it was moved to Scott, Mississippi, which in that year was severely damaged by the Mississippi River flood. In 1964 the D&PL Company was sold to another British textile firm, Courthaulds, Limited, which in turn sold the company in 1978 to Southwide, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Under Southwide's direction, the D&PL Company concentrated on its cotton planting seed business and discontinued many other operations, selling most of the farming acreage to Prudential Insurance Company.

Extent

104.33 Cubic Feet

53 Volumes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in nineteen series. In addition to the descriptions that follow, each series is described at the item, folder, or box level. The series are closely related and often overlap in subject content. Documents concerning land acquisition, for example, are located in Series 1, 2, 3, 6, and 9. A few scattered cross references have been made, but they reflect only a fraction of the possible references.

Series 1 (1886-1978) is composed of 100 ledgers concerning the following companies: Deeson Oil Mill (1915), Delta and Pine Land Company (1886-1978), Delta Farms Company (1911-1948), Delta Planting Company (1929-1946), Empire Plantation Company (1911-1937), Lake Vista Planting Company (1911-1919), Mississippi Delta Planting Company (1911-1919), and Triumph Plantation Company (1911-1919). Included in the ledgers are financial data, stock registers, memoranda, minutes, reports, gin records, and a census for the plantation and sawmill (1925).

The second series (1921-1970) consists of the annual statements and presidents' reports of the Delta and Pine Land Company, the Delta Farms Company, the Delta Planting Company, and the Empire Plantation Company. Included in this series are the printed reports only; worksheets and drafts of the reports are filed in Series 3.

Financial records (1886-1978), excluding the bound and printed records in the first two series, comprise Series 3. Within the series the documents are arranged by company: Delta and Pine Land Company (1886-1978), Delta Farms Company (1911-1944), Delta Planting Company (1928-1945), Empire Plantation Company (1911-1947), Lake Vista Plantation Company (1911-1925), Mississippi Delta Planting Company (1911-1925), Triumph Plantation Company (1911-1925), and joint companies (1912-1945), which consist of records that concern two or more companies. As is the case with Series 1 and 2, the records concerning the Delta and Pine Land Company constitute the largest part of the series. Among the types of documents represented are balance sheets, budgets, bylaws, charters, contracts, correspondence, deeds, inventories, minutes, salary lists, reports, stock certificates, and tax records. The series encompasses many aspects of the business, ranging from minutes of directors' meetings to livestock inventories to sales statistics.

The fourth series (1937-1979) includes the papers of Early C. Ewing, Jr., who succeeded his father as head of the company's Research Department in 1959. The series is composed of correspondence, reports, speeches, and other papers relating to the Research Depart¬ment, the Fine Spinners and Doublers, Ltd., Courthaulds, and many organizations, among which are the Delta Council, the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders, the Joint Cotton Breeding Policy Committee, and the Mississippi Seed Improvement Association.

Series 5 consists of the papers of Early C. Ewing, Sr. the agronomist who developed the Deltapine variety of cotton. Ewing, a graduate of Mississippi A & M (1906) and Cornell University (1908, 1909), inaugurated the cotton breeding program at the Mississippi Delta Planting Company in 1915 and remained with the Delta and Pine Land Company as head of its Experimental and Research departments until his retirement in 1959. The series, which dates from 1907 to 1964, includes correspondence, reports, scientific papers, and printed items. [For more information, see the series description.]

The files of Oscar Johnston, president of the Delta and Pine Land Company from 1927 to 1950, make up the sixth series. Included are correspondence, financial papers, reports, and other records reflecting Johnston's administration of the company and his many other activities, among which were the first presidency of the National Cotton Council, several positions with the Franklin Roosevelt administration, and a directorship of a federal reserve bank. The series dates from 1920 to 1945. [For more information, see the series description.]

Series 7 concerns the research and development activities of the company, with concentration on cotton seed research. The series dates from 1921 to 1967 and consists primarily of correspondence and reports. Many of the files involve Early C. Ewing Sr. and Jr. who headed the Experimental and Research departments.

The eighth series (1921-1969) consists of correspondence, reports, and printed items relating to the company's operations in foreign countries. The files concern the following areas: Africa, Brazil, British West Indies, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

The history of the Delta and Pine Land Company is the focus of Series 9. Included are correspondence, histories, charters, maps, reports, biographical data, newsletters, clippings, journal articles, and other published material. Of particular interest are the unpublished company history written by Early C. Ewing, Sr. in 1967 and the reports on the history of the charter compiled by Minor Gray in 1962. In addition to the company, the series concerns the Benoit Community, education of black children, and the geology of the Mississippi Delta. Inclusive dates are 1886 to 1982.

Series 10 consists of field notes concerning various crops and tests. Inclusive dates are 1914 to 1950.

Field books, dating from 1951 to 1968, make up the eleventh series. The books are similar in size and content to the unbound notes in Series 10.

Series 12 is composed of planting plans, which date from 1952 to 1968.

The thirteenth series consists of planting data, dating from 1966 to 1970.

Test results make up Series 14. The series dates from 1935 to 1969.

Items on miscellaneous subjects comprise the fifteenth series. Included are correspondence, clippings, financial statements, maps, reports, testimonies, printed material, and a census (1951) of people living or working at the Delta and Pine Land Company. Among the many subjects in the series are the Delta Council, the Farm Security Administration (especially the Plum Bayou Homestead in Arkansas), the Lombardy Plantation, the Federal Seed Act, and organizations such as the American Seed Trade Association, the Farm Foundation, the Joint Cotton Breeding Policy Committee, the Mississippi Association of Commercial Breeders of Foundation and Registered Seed, the Mississippi Levee Commission, the Mississippi Seed Improvement Association, the National Cottonseed Products Association, and the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders. Inclusive dates for the series are 1913 to 1970.

Series 16 consists of oral history interviews conducted with fifty-five residents and former residents of Scott, Benoit, and Long¬shot. The interviews were undertaken in 1974 as part of the community's bicentennial observance. The interviews are listed in this guide but are physically housed with the Special Collections Department's Oral History Collection.

Company seals and keys comprise Series 17. The four seals are of the Mississippi Delta Planting Company, Lake Vista Plantation Company, Triumph Plantation Company, and Delta Farms Company. The keys belong to the Empire Plantation books.

Series 18 consists of published material. It contains the historical publications from the Delta and Pine Land Company library, including periodicals, reports, articles and booklets, university agricultural experiment station and extension publications, United States Department of Agriculture publications, and some advertising materials, mostly from the first half of the twentieth century. The series is notable for the depth of the publications subscribed to by the research department, relating not only to cotton in Mississippi but also other farming topics and to the company’s operations in the western United States. Series 19 comprises correspondence on weather issues and weather observation records from Scott, Mississippi, from 1920 to1955. Inclusive dates for the series are 1920 to 1964.

In 1988 Lawrence Nelson added to the collection several files which had been loaned to him by the Delta and Pine Land Company prior to the donation of the collection. For the most part, these papers are a continuation of Series 6: Oscar Johnston.

A further addition was received in 2005, comprising financial documents including deeds, contracts, and correspondence related to company land, tenants, taxation and accounts, and a stock certificate book.