HISTORY 21 



finest qualities being spoken of as coming from Surinam and Cayenne. 

 'The century closed with the exports from the United States to 

 England standing at 9,532,263 Ibs., and from India at 729,643 Ibs. 



The Nineteenth Century may be said to be mainly characterised Cotton 

 by the advances made in the sciences. The century, moreover, United 

 opened with the cotton crop of the States being returned as States. 

 48,000,000 Ibs., contributed as follows : South Carolina 20,000,000, 

 Georgia 10,000,000, Virginia 5,000,000, North Carolina 4,000,000, 

 and Tennessee 7,000,000 Ibs. The exports from that crop to Great 

 Britain were 20,000,000 Ibs. Total consumption of raw cotton in 

 Great Britain came to 54,000,000 Ibs., the supply from India being 

 6,500,000 Ibs., or just one-third of the quantity drawn from the new 

 area the United States of America. The first Indian cotton mill First In- 

 was built near Calcutta in 1818, and the first of the Bombay series to^mm" 

 in 1851. Improvements in bleaching, dyeing, and cylinder printing 

 soon placed British calicos in a position to hold their own against 

 similar goods from any part of the world. Resist printing was Calico- 

 introduced by Sir Robert Peel. The duty on cotton imported by the securely 



East India Company from India and Turkey and by others from the estal) - 



, lished. 



United States and the British Colonies was fixed at 10s. per 100 Ibs., 



and on the cotton from all other countries at 25s. per 100 Ibs., but 

 shortly after (1809) this law was amended to 16s. from all countries Diseases 

 alike. The cotton-worm and other diseases of the plant began to ot t on 

 give cause for anxiety. plant. 



We now hear definitely of Sea Island cotton, and that raised at 

 Hilton Head, South Carolina, is stated to have fetched the highest 

 prices for cotton then known. Mexican cotton-seed was introduced States 

 into Mississippi by Walter Burling, and the existing plant was proved by" 

 supposed thereby to have been improved very greatly, but whether Mexican 

 by substitution of stock or by hybridisation has not been stated. 

 Mention, so far as I can discover, has never been made of any one 

 of the indigenous cottons of the States (if such existed) having 

 been utilised by the colonists. They grew first Levant cotton, Levant 

 then Miller's green-seed cotton, then black-seed cotton, and, finally, 



what has been presumed to be Sea Island cotton. Which of these was cotton. 

 improved by the Mexican has never been stated ; presumably it was 

 the green-seed, since it must have then been the prevalent form, but 

 if so the Mexican plant was most probably G. mexicanum. Subse- 

 quent experience would, however, seem to point to a substitution 

 of stock having more probably taken place, and in that case the 



