514 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



To return to our own country. One hundred years ago, before the 

 invention of the cotton-gin, when the crop was scarcely more than an 

 experimental product, more curious than useful, the rare adaptation of 

 soil and climate of the Carolinas and Georgia to the growth of this val- 

 uable textile was clearly demonstrated. The more western States of the 

 cotton belt were little known, yet generally believed to be also suitable 

 to its production. So difficult and slow were, the rude processes em- 

 ployed for separating the seed fi'om the lint that it was only grown for 

 supply of clothing of domestic manufacture for the poorer classes, though 

 its cultivation had been commenced a century and a half before, for " cot- 

 ton wool " of native growth was quoted in 1621 at Sd. per pound. Car- 

 roll mentions the growth of cotton in South Carolina in 1606. In 1734 

 cotton seed sent from England was planted in Georgia, as a great in- 

 terest was felt in the mother country in the cotton experiment. In 

 1742 a French planter in Louisiana, M. Dubreuil, invented a machine, 

 a rude contrivance similar to the ancient India mill, which worked by 

 hand, consisted of two fluted rollers, revolving nearly in contact, 

 through which the lint was drawn, while the seeds, too large to pass 

 through the opening, were left behind. Another invention is credited to 

 M. Crebs, of Florida. ]S'either of these prepared the fiber for use, and 

 another contrivance was emi>loyed, a bow, with a combination of strings, 

 which were struck by a wooden mallet as the implement was placed in 

 contact with a heap of cotton, opening the knots of fiber by its vibra- 

 tions, shaking out dirt and dust, and raising it to a downy tieece. And 

 this " Georgia bowed cotton" began to be quoted in trade lists of Liv- 

 erpool, as the small surplus gradually sought a foreign market. 



The invention of Eli Whitney, in 1793, was sufiiciently early, as the 

 first steani-engine for a cotton-mill was not made till 1785, and up to 

 1800 the number in use was only 32, of 430 horse-power. Exportation 

 from this country had commenced, 189,316 pounds being shipped in 

 1791, less in the following year, but in 1793 the shipments were 437,600 

 pounds, and in 1794 they reached 1,601,700 pounds from the impetus 

 given by Whitney's gin. The figures jumped to six millions the follow- 

 ing year, and to nine in the closing vear of the eighteenth century. 

 Then the advance was rapid, from 17,000,000 pounds in 1800 to 03.000,000 

 in 1810, and 127,000,000 in 1820. Tiic ofiBcial records of British imports 

 show that the largest importation from the United States was in 1860, 

 when it reached 1,115,000,000 pounds, and the largest i)roportion of 

 total imports was in 1845, or 86.8 per cent. The proportion fell to 1 per 

 cent, in 1863, when the little that was grown was under the embargo of 

 civil war, but has risen since with astonishing rapidity until more than 

 three-fourths of the British consumption is furnished by this country. 

 Without gi\ing in detail this wonderful industrial history, the progress 

 of exportation may be seen at a glance in the following figures : 



Tears. 



Totalinaports. SS^^^Se^, 



PhC33 



Poundi. Founds. 



502,488,010 4S7, 850,504 



82.3 



8a 8 



1810 



1845 1 721,979,953 I 620,650,412 



1850 1 603,570.801 493,153,112 ' 74.3 



1855 Sfll. 7.'.7. SfiJ • essi. (i29, 424 70.4 



1860 1,390,938 752 1 1, 115, 890, 608 , m.'2. 



1865 ■ 978,503,000 ' 135,832,480 , 1.3.9 



1870 : 1,339,367,120 



1875 : 1,492,3.51,168 



1878 1,340,380,048 



710, 248, 848 .53. 



84I,;;33,472 I .56.3 



1, 026, 190, 928 76. 5 



