508 



COTTON 



off into rows varying in width from 3 to 4 feet, 

 according to the situation and quality of the soil. 

 The seed is then sown along the centre of the beds 

 in a straight furrow made with a small plough or 

 opener ; but in some plantations the seed is sown 

 in holes from 12 to 18 inches apart. The sowing 

 commences in March, and generally continues 

 through April ; but sometimes, owing to late spring 

 frosts, the planting is prolonged to May. The young 

 shoot appears above ground in about eight to ten' 

 days, and is then and subsequently weeded and 

 thinned. Blooming takes place about the be- 

 ginning of June in early seasons, towards the 

 latter end of May ; the average date is about 

 June 5. For ploughing, the planter requires 

 just sufficient rain to give the soil a moist and 

 spongy texture. During the early stages of its 

 growth, the crop flourishes best with a warm steamy 

 sort of weather, with an occasional shower until 

 blooming ; too much rain being productive of weeds 

 and wood at the expense of wool, whilst a severe 

 drought produces a stunted plant, forced into too 

 early maturity, and resulting in a small and light- 

 stapled crop. A great deal, however, depends upon 

 the position of the plantation ; lands situated in 

 hilly or upland districts obviously requiring more 

 moisture than those Iving in the plains ana river- 

 bottoms. From the date of blooming to the close 

 of the picking season, warm dry weather is essential. 

 Picking generally commences in August, occasion- 

 ally in July, and continues until the occurrence of 

 frost about the end of October or beginning of 

 November puts a stop to the further growth of 

 the plant. Occasionally, in the absence of a killing 

 frost, picking extends to December or January, and 

 even into February, but the cotton is inferior in 

 grade and quality. All the available hands of the 

 plantation, young and old, are called into full 

 employment during the harvest. The cotton is 

 gathered into baskets or bags suspended from the 

 shoulders of the pickers, and when the crop has 

 been secured, it is spread out and dried, and then 

 separated from the seeds. 



The latter process was formerly performed by 

 hand a tedious operation, by which one hand 

 could clean only a pound or so a day ; but since 

 the invention of the saw-gin by Eli Whitney in 

 1793, the process of cleaning has been both rapid 

 and effectual. This machine is composed or a 

 hopper, having one side formed of strong parallel 

 wires placed so close together as to exclude the 

 passage of the seeds from within. The wool is 

 dragged through the apertures by means of circular 

 saws attached to a large roller, and made to 

 revolve between the wires, the seeds sinking to 

 the bottom of the hopper. This process is adopted 

 only* in cleaning the short-stapled varieties of 

 American cotton, the wool of which adheres so 

 firmly to the seeds as to require a considerable 

 amount of force to separate them. The Sea Island 

 variety is cleaned by being passed through two 

 small rollers which revolve in opposite directions, 

 and easily throw off the hard smooth seeds. In 

 India, though the saw and other machine-gins have 

 been introduced in some districts (notably the 

 Macarthy-gin in Broach, and the saw-gin in 

 Dharwar), the wool is mostly cleaned by means of 

 the primitive roller. Prior to the American war 

 the roller-gin was in exclusive use in Egypt and 

 the Brazils, but the cotton famine led to the in- 

 vention of the Macarthy-gin ( which in principle is 

 an improved roller-gin), and to its introduction 

 into Egypt, and to the adoption of the saw-gin by 

 the planters of Brazil ; the effect in both cases being 

 a considerable extension of the culture. The cotton 

 cleaned by the roller-gin, being uninjured thereby in 

 staple, realises the better price ; but the deterioration 

 caused by the saw -gin is compensated for by the 



greatly increased quantity cleaned : the latter turn- 

 ing out four or five times as much AVOO! as the 

 former in an equal space of time. 



In India, throughout the greater portion of the 

 Bombay Presidency, the North-west Provinces, the 

 Central Provinces, and the Berars, sowing generally 

 takes place between the middle of June and the 

 middle of July, but in Dharwar and other southern 

 districts of Bombay, and in the Madras Presidency, 

 not until August or September in some places 

 later still. In the first-named districts picking 

 commences in November, but in some portions not 

 until January or February, and in Madras not 

 until March or April. The extension of the rail- 

 way system brings cotton which formerly went to 

 other ports to Bombay (q.v.), and 80 per cent, of 

 the total export from India is now from that 

 port, while the bulk of the shipments takes place 

 in the first six months of the year. In Egypt 

 sowing commences in March or April, and picking 

 in October continuing until January. The ousiest 

 export months are November to February. In 

 Brazil planting takes place as early as January or 

 as late as May, according to district, and picking 

 six months later. The chief shipping months are 

 October to May. 



(3) Production and Distribution. The oldest 

 cotton-producing country is India, in which empire 

 the plant has been grown and manufactured from 

 time immemorial. The first notice of it in con- 

 nection with China dates no further back than the 

 llth century, but it is exceedingly probable that 

 the plant was cultivated there long prior to that 

 period, as cotton fabrics were known in China 

 before the Christian era. Early mention is made 

 of it in the annals of Egypt, and it is believed to 

 have a high antiquity in all parts of Africa. It 

 has for many centuries been produced in Asia 

 Minor, in several of the Mediterranean islands, 

 in Greece, and Southern Italy. In the western 

 world, it was found by Columbus in the West 

 Indies, and in Mexico and South America by his 

 immediate successors, but was not so extensively 

 cultivated as in the East ; though during the past 

 half-century the culture there has outstripped, 

 both in quantity and quality, the produce of the 

 Old World. Down to the commencement of the 

 19th centuiy the cotton consumers of Europe 

 were dependent upon the East and West Indies 

 and the Levant for their raw material ; but the 

 inventive genius, superior farming, and greater 

 energy of the planters of the southern states of 

 America had, prior to the civil war, almost secured 

 the monopoly of supplying the manufactures of 

 Great Britain and the European continent with 

 this valuable fibre. The following table gives at a 

 glance the movements for a century back. The 

 figures represent the annual imports into Great 

 Britain from the chief sources of supply, in bales 

 of the uniform weight of 400 Ib. each, in quin- 

 quennial averages, except that the last column is 

 based on the average imports for two years only : 



1786-90. 1816-20. 1846-50. 

 23,800 1,910 



1876-80. 1886-87. 

 1,670 660 



Mediterranean.. ..13,000 1,030 31,310 402,190 435,590 



Brazil -5,000 55,760 57,860 85,330 126,040 



Bast Indies 500 93,710 196,140 510,800 601,710 



United States 100 166,310 1,297,230 2,589,070 3,186,790 



Sundries 10,970 2,870 51,710 32,310 



Total 63,600 351,580 1,587,320 3,640,770 4,383,100 



At the close of the 18th centuiy the British West 

 Indies supplied 70 per cent, of the cotton imported 

 into Great Britain, but owing to the competition 

 occasioned by the rapid expansion of the culture in 

 the southern states of the American Union, the im- 

 ports gradually decreased ; the planters finding it 

 more profitable to employ their labour and capital 



