COTTON 19 



imported 800 pounds of American cotton, in 1787, 

 16,350 pounds, in 1788, 58,500 pounds, and in 

 1792, 138,328 pounds. 



By this time it was America rather than England 

 which was wrestling with a problem and our prob- 

 lem was how to separate the seed from the lint in 

 quantities sufficient to supply the British demand. 

 Eli Whitney solved it just how and when we shall 

 consider at greater length in a subsequent chapter. 



It is enough here to say that the year Whitney 

 invented the cotton gin the South grew the equiva- 

 lent of 10,000 400-pound bales; a hundred years 

 later we grew 10,000,000 400-pound bales. 



