May 23, 1859.] GROWTH OF COTTON. 315 



inhabitants of Natal and Mauritius contemplate the establishment 

 of a telegraphic cable between these settlements. 



Cotton. — In concluding the observations on Africa and the adjacent 

 countries, I may not inappositely introduce a short notice of the 

 countries from which we may expect to import cotton. The supply 

 of cotton for our own manufactures is a subject which, in the 

 course of the present year, has been frequently discussed at the 

 meetings of the Society ; and when I state that the yearly value 

 of raw cotton consumed by our manufactures in 1857 was no less 

 than 26,000,000/., while the value of the fabrics which we exported, 

 to say nothing of our own immense domestic consumption, amounted 

 fully to 46,000,000/., it is obvious that the importance of the ques- 

 tion cannot easily be over-rated. 



Besides British India, various other localities, including large 

 tracts of Africa, have been pointed out as suited to the growth of 

 cotton. In fact this plant has such a wide geographical extension, 

 reaching to 35° north and south of the Equator, that it will thrive 

 wherever it is not liable to be cut off by frost. It may be success- 

 fully cultivated for exportation wherever the soil is of adequate 

 fertility, wherever the government is strong enough for the protec- 

 tion of life and property, wherever the country is not so crowded 

 with inhabitants as to be itself the best market for its own produce 

 (such being the case in China and the valley of the Ganges) — in 

 short, wherever there exists a cheap transport to a foreign market, 

 and, in so far as the finer qualities are concerned, wherever an ade- 

 quate share of skill in culture and preparation prevails. 



The southern States of the American Union are the parts of 

 the world that have hitherto been found to possess in an eminent 

 degree all the necessary qualifications now enumerated, and hence 

 they are still the chief places from which we derive our finer 

 varieties of the material. They do, in fact, yield 70 parts in 100 

 of the value of our whole consumption of cotton. Some parts only 

 of our Indian dominions possess a few of the enumerated advan- 

 tages, and they furnish us with about one-fourth in quantity and one- 

 fifth in value of all that we consume ; for the quality in this case, 

 let it be observed, is the poorest of any that is found in our markets, 

 and this simply from the absence of European care, which has never 

 been exercised in the growth, curing, or inland transport of Indian 

 cotton. 



Many parts of Africa are, in so far as regards soil and climate, 

 also obviously well adapted to the growth of cotton, which, if not an 



