VEGETABLE FIBERS. 515 



If tlie manufacture of cotton has had a rapid development in Great 

 Britain, more than doubling its consumption of material in forty years, 

 that of the United States has increased in large proportion, as the fol- 

 lowing statement shows : 



Year ended August 31- 



Taken by- 

 home manu' 

 facture. 



Exported 

 to loreign 

 countries. 



1850. 

 1860. 

 1870. 

 1879. 



Bales. 

 562, 769 

 904, 623 

 8DG, 890 



1, 58C, 960 



Bales. 

 1, 590, 155 

 3, 774, 173 

 2,178,917' 

 3, 467, 563 



It was popularly held in the South, as late as a dozen years ago, that 

 this country could never again produce a crop of 3,000,000 bales, yet it 

 has twice exceeded 5,000,000 bales, and the last three crops have sur- 

 passed in -weight the largest ever grown prior to 1860. The require- 

 ments of cotton manufacture are steadily increasing, and can be easily 

 met by the production of this country, even though 10,000,000 instead 

 of 5,000,000 bales should be needed. Probably not more than 13,000,000 

 acres are occupied in this culture, or 7 per cent, of the area of the State 

 of Texas. One-tenth of the number of counties in which this textile is 

 grown at all now produces nearly half of the crop, and only a compara- 

 tively small portion of the area of these counties is under cotton culture. 

 The average yield rarely reaches 190 pounds per acre, and could easily 

 be doubled. For every bale of cotton there is nearly a half ton of seed, 

 and nearly 2,000,000 tons of seed are now wasted, for its partial use as 

 a fertilizer is little better than waste, in view of the ftxct that 20,000,000 

 of sheep might be annually fed with the unutilized seed, and the inex- 

 pensive green-feeding that would be required to supplement it. The 

 cotton States can supply Europe with mutton and cotton fi-om the same 

 fields, and diminish rather than increase the area now required for the 

 fiber alone. 



The increasing use of labor-saving implements is cheapening the cost 

 of production ; the judicious use of fertilizers, especially in composts 

 with the waste material of the farm, tends to the same end by swelhng 

 the rate of yield. Both of these ameliorations act as an inducement to 

 enlarge the proportion of white labor, which now produces nearly haK 

 the cotton crop, and in the country west of the Mississippi decidedly 

 more than is grown by black labor. This fact illustrates the opening of 

 a mine of productive power and ultimate industrial wealth. 



Another source of Southern wealth to be garnered in the future (and 

 iu the near future if present advantages are improved) exists in cotton 

 manufacture. Already is begun the profitable manufacture of yarns on 

 the plantation or in little neighborhoods of " ten-bale men," by the 

 Clement attachment or similar process, by which cards are attached to 

 a gin, and baling, hauling, commissions, long freightage, and opening 

 and picking the fiber at the factory are all dispensed with. Already 

 factories that are producing cottons both coarse and fine are paying 

 dividends that would delight the Northern or European manufacturer. 

 Soon the yield will reach 0,000,000 bales. Let the cotton States con-= 

 sume 2,000,000, the Isorthern States an equal amount, and the European 

 competition for the remainder will insure prices that will be steadily 

 remunerative, while the proceeds will become accumulated capital in- 

 stead of funds compulsorily employed in lifting aanuaUy recurring 



