COTTON CULTIVATION AND SUPPLY. 



COTTON CULTIVATION AND SUPPLY. i 



cad storms, it *t ready for picking in Agut. The plant 

 continue* to produo* and rip*n it* boll* at ooUon until Uw front 

 NOW; and it is therefore a matter of mice calculation with the 

 planter to dt-lay his piokuf, o a* to get u much a* possible, Mid yet 

 not to run tbc baurJ of froL During the picking ttuoo, every 

 UUH! u brought into requuition. Kach picker fwteus a bag round the 

 waut, into which be (or ahe) throw* the cotton boll* as they are 

 picked ; and when the bag U full, it u emptied out on a aheet ; when 

 the ahael ~x>'^4PT a* much a* it will hold, it u carried to the 

 weighing-houM A good hand will iu a fair field pick 800 Ib*. a day ; 

 but the average is leu than thi*. Successive picking* are made aa the 

 boll* grow and lipeu, until the quantity no longer payi for the labour. 

 It u exceedingly difficult to state the average produce per acre : much 

 of the land in Carolina and Georgia will only yield 100 Ib*. ; an excellent 

 return in t hew tUtea U 200 Ib*. ; the average in the teeming valley 

 of the Mississippi i 400 Ib*. ; while careful culture on apecial apoU ut 

 rewarded with a much higher return. Some of the plants, under 

 favourable circunisUnces, will yield 400 boll* in one season, weighing 

 44 Ib*., which will afford 11 Ib. of ginned or cleaned fibre. The picking 

 require* aome dexterity ; it u nsivntial to get every particle of cotton 

 from the bull at one pull, without any leave* or other foreign matter 

 adhering to it. It U laborious work, on account of the stooping 

 required ; the picker*' hand* become aore, and there i* a liability to 

 cold* and rheumatisms, owing to the wetness of the buabe* in the oold 

 autumn morning*, occasioned by heavy dew* at night. Some planters 

 provide their alave* with waterproof aprons and skirts for this ne**on ; 

 but other* are not so considerate. When lufficient cotton ha* been 

 collected, a machine called a .9111, which eosta the planter from 161. to 

 24/.. is employed to aeparato the fibre from the seed. A acrew-pn**, 

 costing from 30/. to SO/., i* next employed to prea* the fibre into bales 

 of about 400 Ib*. each. Directly it is packed, the planter Bends his 

 cotton to market ; and from the month of August to November the 

 road* exhibit trains of waggons, carrying the cotton from the plantations 

 to the shipping p >rts or the river station*. Mr. Leonard Wray, who 

 ha* visited cotton plantation* in various part* of the world, says, in 

 relation to the upland cotton of America : " It is usual in the States to 

 calculate the crop at so many acre* to the working ' hand ' (a* the slave 

 i* denominated). Thus, a cotton-planter with 50 good working bands, 

 great and small, and 25 mule*, would consider hi* strength equal to 

 600 acre* of cotton and 400 acres of corn, or to 1000 acre* of cotton 

 alone, provided extra hand* are allowed for picking the crop. Thin is 

 the general mode and rate of calculation where the soils yields about 

 200 Ib*. of ginned cotton to the acre ; making, therefore, to the ' hand ' 

 2000 Ib*. of cotton, which, at 5rf. per Ib. on the spot, is worth about 

 4W. sterling, besides the value of the Indian corn raised." Most cotton- 

 planters grow corn enough for the supply of their slaves, aud aome 

 Lave a large surplus for sale. 



The loKg-ilaitle or tea-itland cotton, eagerly bought at a high price 

 by the spinners of fine yam* for muslins and lace, is cultivated in the 

 ame general way as the short-staple, but with peculiarities which need 

 only be glanced at here. According to the nature of the ground, a* to 

 level, moisture, and stiffness, the planter regulates the height of hi* 

 ridge*, the kind and amount of manure used, and the closenea* of 

 owing. The produo* i* *o much more valuable than upland cotton, 

 that 200 acre* of the one will have a money value equal to 1000 acres 

 of the other ; and thus it pays the sea-island cotton-planter to bestow 

 much care on all his operations. The sea-island seed would admit of 

 being sown by the drill ; but there is very little machinery employed in 

 the clave states, and most of the sowing i* still effected by the dibble. 

 The picking, as for the short-staple, usually commences in August, but 

 requires much more care and attention. When picked, the bolls are 

 lightly dried and examined to reject any which have become dis- 

 coloured or injured in fibre. They are next kept for some time covered 

 over in large heaps, to preserve the oiliness, strength, and gloss of the 

 fibre, which would be injured by much exposure to the air; but this ope- 

 ration require* much caution, to prevent fermentation by heat, and the 

 oiling of the fibre by the oozing out of oil from the seed. When the 

 time for sending to market arrive*, the cotton i* taken from the heap 

 and subjected to the ginning process, a* a mean* of separating the fibre 

 from the wed. The quantity of Ma-island cotton grown being much 

 mailer than that of upland, the processes ore conducted on a less 

 extensive Male ; and the separation is usually effected, not by the gin, 

 but by a more primitive instrument called the ehurta, similar to that 

 which is employed by the Hindoo*. This churka consists of two 

 wooden roller*, eight or nine inches long by one inch in diameter, placed 

 horizontally and in contact, one above the other ; when these revolve, 

 the fibre* of cotton are drawn between them, and the seed left behind. 

 The cotton U fed in by hand, while the rollers are made to rotate by 

 mean* of a treddle. The machine will only clean from 121b. to 20 Ib. 

 in a day. Mont of the planters adhere to this primitive method, under 

 an impression that a more rapid or rough treatment would injure the 

 delicate fil.re of this highly-priced cotton. The correctness of this 

 opinion is however denied by the more enterprising among the num- 

 ber, who use larger machines worked by (team-power, without any 

 deterioration of the material. The cotton, cleared from iu Mad*, 

 mote*, and discoloured particle*, is then pressed down into long cylin- 

 drical bag*, quite diflvrcnt in appearance from those employed for 

 upland cotton, and with leu intense pi-enure, lest the fibre should be 



injured. The mall quantity and high price of thi* variety i 

 market more uncertain than that at the ooaraer kind*. Mr Wray say* 

 on thi* subject : " After hi* produce u all fairly bagged, the dtmouttie* 

 of the planter are not ended ; he ha* mXilim considerable trouble 

 and ha* to wait a long time before h* can find a buyer for it. Not 

 unfrequently he ha* to ship it to Europe, and encounter manifold riafca 

 and chanctv. Thi*, indeed, oonatitute* the greatest disadvantage mder 

 which he labour*. The upland cotton planter make* hi* bale of cotton 

 to-day, and to-morrow he has oa*h in hand for it ; or perhaps h i* ran 

 paid for H before it ha* left the tree*. Not ao, however, with the Ma- 

 laud cotton planter ; h* U obliged to exerci** all his patience before 

 he can sell his crop ; and in the meantime, although lord over MO 

 to 400 (lave* and a fine estate, he i* very probably compelled to use his 

 broker'! name in obtaining cash from the hank* wherewith to pay the 

 current expenie* of hi* eitatc." The sea-island cotton yields more wed 

 than the upland, and thi* seed is more smooth, clean, and oleaginous, 

 thereby being better fitted for yielding cotton-seed oil. The produce 

 is much lea* DM- acre of sea-uland than of upland; 200 Ib*. of clean 

 fibre i* about Uie maximum, while some field* barely yield 60 Ib*.; the 

 hand* pick mailer quantities per day, and conduct the picking more 

 carefully. The muslins, famous for their fineoe**, *puu and woven by 

 the Houldsworth* and other firm* who attend more particularly to 

 this kind of work, are mostly made of sea-island cotton. Small \ 

 of special excellence will sell for '8. or 4t. a pound, while Kn 

 maker* will sometimes give a* much a* 61. One pound of such i 

 can be spun into a tkoutand mile* of yarn, which may be wrought up 

 into lace worth 250/. 



The present may be the most convenient place in which to advert to 

 certain auxiliary commercial advantage* resulting from the cultivation 

 of cotton, advantages not yet much attended to, but wliicli may in 

 future yean possibly become very important. The nurse, 



the chief product for which the cotton-plant U cultivated, but it is not 

 the only one. The plant yields a pure, bland oil, equal to that of the 

 olive ; an oil-cake, most excellent for feeding cattle ; and a fibre from 

 the bark, which would posaeu commercial value if collected and 

 shipped. Even in the greatest of all cotton-growing countries, the 

 United State*, the oil contained in the seed ha* scarcely yet been 

 rendered available ; but Dr. James Coxe, of New Orleans, has (in 1 -."7 ' 

 drawn the attention of his countrymen to the subject. His estimate 

 may be somewhat overdrawn, as such estimate* frequently ore ; but the 

 figures presented arc certainly worthy of notice. The average cotton 

 crop of the United States may be roughly given at 8,000,000 bale* of 

 400 Ibs. each, or 1,200 ,000,000 Ibs. of ginned cotton. To each pound of 

 fibre there are 8 Ibs. of seed, making 3,600,000,000 Ibs. of seed in all. Of 

 this enormous quantity, 1,800,000,000 Ibs. are retained for re-sowing, 

 including waste. The remaining 1,800,000,000 Ibs. are available for 

 yielding oil and oil-cake. It is found that 100 Ibs. of seed will 

 2 gallons of this oil, worth 4>. per gallon at New Orleans and 6. at 

 New York. After the pressure there will result 48 Ibs. of oil-cake, 

 equal in quality to that of linseed. There will furthermore remain 

 about 61 Ib*. of oleaginous refuse available as soap-stuff, capable, when 

 combined with very cheap alkali, of making 20 Ibs. of useful soap. 

 Summing up these items, they present the following money values : 

 86,000,000 gallons of cotton-seed oil at (say) 75 ccnte(8.2<i.),6,400,OOW.; 

 864,000,000 Ibs. of cotton-seed cake, at 1 cent ((rf.), 1,728,0002. ; and 

 106,000,000 Iba. of soap-stuff, at 3 cento (!</.), 686.000/. ; making a 

 total of 7,764,000<. The bark-fibre is another prospective source of 

 profit, the value of which remains to be determined. It has not yet 

 been shown whether the oil ia most likely to be useful as a salad oil, a 

 fuel for lamps, a material for soap, an oil for leather-dressing, or a 

 lubricator for machinery; but all then matters would speeii 

 settled if the oil became a regular marketable commodity. The oil-cake 

 maintains a good place as a cattle-food, seeing that it contains from 9 to 

 16 per cent, of oil and 25 to 80 per cent, of albuminous compound. 



We are now in a position to glance at the several cotton -growing 

 countries, and to ascertain how much cotton they grow annually, what 

 proportion of it is sold for manufacture in Great Britain, and what are 

 the chances for an increased supply. 



>tton. It is a remarkable fact that, while the pro- 

 duction of this article ha* increased at a great rate in America, it ha* 

 diminished in many other countries. This result bos been attributed 

 to various causes ; among which may be mentioned, the good quality 

 of American cotton, the low price of land there, and the great iu/ 

 mento that have been made in cleaning the cotton from it* seed by 

 means of Whitney's saw-gin, introduced in 1793. It is evident, how- 

 ever, that the greater part of these advantage* might have been shared 

 by many other countries in which the soil and rlinnte are equally 

 favourable for this branch of husbandry ; and it will probably be mm -e iu 

 agreement with the fact if we attribute the success of the American 

 planter* to their greater intelligence and industry, seconded > 

 commercial enterprise by which their country is characterised. Land 

 fresh brought under cultivation in the United States will yield double 

 the produce obtainable in the older states. One able bodied labourer 

 is sufficient for each eight acres of land, If assisted in the lighter part 

 of the work by the aged and infirm, and the young people who i 

 to their families ; the whole will, at the same time, be able to cultivate 

 from five to eight acre* ' -.Around. The proportion of able- 



bodied labourers in each 100 of the entire working population 



