114 EEPOET OF THE COilMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



COTTON IliTVESTIGATION. 



The cotton crop deservedly claims the attention of tho iadustrial 

 world, not because it represents more money- value than any other agri- 

 cultural product, for corn and hay each exceed it, and wheat equals it; but 

 because it is the largest export i^roduct, the largest crop of the South, 

 and one that must ever exercise an important influence upon the indus- 

 try of that section. Meat-production also largely surj^asses it in value, 

 and the surplus of meat-production exported comes next to tho figures 

 of cotton exports; and when rotation and rational culture shall rule in 

 the agriculture of the future, and home manufacture shall restrict expor- 

 tation of raw material, the meat exports of the cotton States alone 

 may equal the foreign shipments of the coveted fiber. Meat and bread- 

 stuffs together surpass cotton in value of exports. 



There is no portion of the world occupied by civilized nations, and 

 probably no equal extent of the earth's surface, so peculiarly suited to 

 cotton-culture as the States of the Gulf coast. There are large areas 

 with the requisite soil and the high temperature required, but with these 

 essentials the necessary degree of humidity is rarely combined in so 

 complete equilibrium. It constitutes an advantage which virtually gives 

 the monopoly of cotton-production to the United States. The policy of 

 Great Britain has ever been to obtain a controlling proportion of raw 

 material for her manufacturers from her own colonies, and to this end 

 her Cotton Supply Association has searched the world over for cotton- 

 fields that would make her independent of this country. This is a nat- 

 ural and laudable ambition, a means of self -protection, and the highest 

 measure of " protection " she could institute; for while she commends 

 free trade to other nations, she finds in it the highest form of protection, 

 precisely as she built up her manufacturing system by restrictive duties 

 up to a period when the opposite policy tended to secure a continuance 

 of the superiority thus wisely gained. When debarred froui our cotton- 

 fields by civil war, the receipts from India were increasing under the 

 stimulus of this self-protecting effort ; yet with a cotton famine in Man- 

 chester, aud starvation threatening the spinners, the increase from 369,- 

 000,000 pounds in 18G1 to 500,000,000 in 18G4 was less than the advance 

 from 1857 to 1801. In the very first year of peace in this country these 

 imports declined one-eighth, though they ralUed in 186G to 015,000,000, 

 the highest figures ever attained, and rapidly declined afterward to less 

 than half that quantity. 



In 1858 and 1800 the receipts from America constituted four-fifths of 

 the British imports. In 18G3 they amounted to a fraction of 1 per cent. ; 

 in 18G1, li per cent., and in 18G2 but 2^ per cent. Starting at 37 per cent, 

 in 186G, in 187G the proportion reached 62 per cent., and the proiiortion 

 of India cotton had fallen to 18^ per cent. 



The ])rice, as an index of quality, tells the story of India's inability to 

 compete with the United States. The average value per pound, in pence, 

 of British imports, is thus given : 



1872. 1873. 1874. 1675. 1876. 



Cotton of tbo Uuited States. 

 Cotton of India 



9.9 



7. 



9.1 

 6.4 



8 ; 7.7 



6 I 5.7 



6.4 

 5.1 



American seed and American planters have in vain been introduced 

 into India; the fiber inevitably deteriorates, becomes short, dry, harsh, 

 aud brittle, with a low rate of yield. 



