382 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



bage, peas, meal, or rice. Upon this place, as well as 

 many others, the people can get as many oysters, crabs, 

 and fish as they like. They also keep a great many more 

 hogs than their masters, but generally sell the pork in- 

 stead of eating it. A half bushel of sweet potatoes, as 

 measured out for allowance, by repeated weighing, aver- 

 aged 43 lbs. 



The process of preparing Sea-Island cotton for market 

 after it is grown, is so remarkable, and so little known, 

 that I will give the particulars. 



In gathering it from the field, great care is taken to 

 keep it clean and free from trash and stained locks. Upon 

 the drying scaflfold it is sorted over before packing away 

 in the cotton house. When ginning, in fair weather, it is 

 again spread upon the scaffold, and assorted. Some run 

 it through a machine called a "trasher," that whips it 

 up and takes out sand and loose dirt. It then goes to the 

 gins, which are the same kind first invented ; none of the 

 many new inventions have been found efficient, and the 

 Whitney gin totally unfit for Sea-Island cotton. These 

 simple machines are 3l^ feet high, 2 feet long, and 1 wide, 

 with an iron fly wheel like that of a "box cornsheller," 

 upon each side, working a pair of wooden rollers, made 

 of hard oak, about ten inches long and nearly an inch in 

 diameter, held together by screws. In one instance, I 

 saw a simple spring bearer under the lower roller and an 

 iron one on top, to prevent the cotton from winding. 

 These rollers wear out, and have to be replaced by new 

 ones every day. I would recommend gutta-percha, as 

 worthy a trial, as a substitute for wood, as something 

 tough and hard is required. The rollers are moved by 

 the foot, like a small turning lathe, the operator standing 

 at one end of the gin, feeding the cotton very slowly 

 through the rollers, leaving the smooth black seeds be- 

 hind. A "task" is from 20 to 30 lbs. a-day, according to 

 quality. Twenty or thirty of these little machines stand 

 in one room ; and strange to say, none of those who have 

 attempted to propel them by other power have succeeded. 



