Pftfian Cctton'Trei.-~-Meofure and Expenee of fnji Movers. 459: 



manure it with cow or (heep dung ; although we are told that when the plants are once raifed 

 above the ground any fpecies of foil will anfwer. The ground is worked in the fpring, arid 

 the feeds are planted at the diftance of eight or ten inches from one another, whillt care is 

 taken to weed it, to give air to the young plants. Dry fummers give the bed crop, as rain 

 is more particularly hurtful when it falls in great quantities during the flowering and 

 ripening of the cotton. It is gathered, as fiid above, in September, care being always taken 

 to colle£l a fulllcient quantity of feed for the next year. LalHy, watering the young planii- 

 with a mixture of vvood-aflies and water in certain fituations is fometimes nccelTary to 

 guard them from deftruflive worms. 



The RufiTi-ins have cultivated the fame fpecies of Perfian cotton in the government of 

 Caucafus, and rear enough of it to ferve their own national manufa£lures, which are not 

 as yet either numerous or confiderable j but on the Terek, at the foot of the Caucafus,. 

 where it is reared,, they do not fow till the middle of May, left a late fpring froft, which is 

 fometimes felt in thofe parts, fliould deftroy the hopes of the planter. With that one ex- 

 ception, the RuflTians ftriftly obferve the Perfian mode of cultivation. 



There is a fpecies of filky cotton much cultivated at prefent in Germany, which poffibly 

 may merit the attention of Portugal for their plantations in America. It is the AJclepias 

 fyriaca of Linnaeus, and affords fo fine a fpecies of cotton (if I may fo name it) that fabrics 

 have been erected in Saxony, where ftuffs are made of it which rival in luftre, &c. the 

 true animal, fdk. But this new vegetable filk has circumilances attending it that feem to 

 recommend its cultivation in fome of the American colonies and iflands : Firft, becaufe 

 Jit is originally the native of a hot climate, as Linnseus's fpecific name indicates ; and of 

 courfe it is likely to be in its greateft beauty and excellence in climates which approach 

 neareft to that of its native country. Secondly, becaufe its (talks afford a coarfe fort of 

 cloth well calculated to clothe negroes, whilft from the pith of them paper is made. 



VIII. 



FaBs and Observations concerning the Meafure and Expenee of JlrJ} Movers, namely. Wind,, 

 Watery Steam, and Animal Strength, and on other OhjeEls of general Utility. {JV. N.), 



X HE confideration of the value and Importance of natural firft movers is of confe- 

 quencc not only to pra£lical engineers, but to every individual in cultivated fociety.. 

 There are numberlefs fituations, even- in the fpirited manufa£l:uring kingdom we inhabit, 

 where large revenues are expended to perform mechanical and hydraulic operations by the 

 force of human labour, or by horfes, which might be for the moft part faved by fubftituting 

 a fteam-engine or windmill, or making ufe of a ftream of water now running to wafte. It 

 is well known, that, fince the extenfion of the cotton and other works, eftates of fmall rent 

 in the neighbourhood of Manchefter and elfewhere have been, and continue to be, let at- 

 more than twenty times their original rent, merely from the fortunate circumftance of' 

 their poffe fling a fmall ftream of water falling with a fufficient declivity to give motion to a 

 mill. If the proprietors of lands and manufadlurers in general were better acquainted with 

 the fimple methods of eftjmating the forces of thofe currents of water which run neglefted; 



through ; 



