MAXLTACTURES. 591 



one bale is produced on the farm it must necessarily be mixed with cot- 

 ton grown elsewhere, and most likely of different quality. Second, if the 

 farm j^roduces as much as one bale, this is gathered at successive pick- 

 ings, which effect a difference of quality. And third, the necessities of 

 the small farms compel them to dispose of much of their cotton in the 

 seed, to country storekeepers, -which is, perhaps, the most frequent cause 

 of mixture. In these regards the situation approaches that which has 

 occasioned the inferiority of India cotton. Dr. Watson Forbes, in his elab- 

 orate report on cotton gins, published by order of the Secretary of State, 

 for India. 1879, states the chief sources of difficulty as follows: " The small- 

 ness of the farms in India, as compared with the American cotton plan- 

 tations, is at the root of the evil. In India there are but few ryots who 

 could produce, at a single picking, as much even as one bale of cotton ; 

 each bale being made up of cotton produced by several ryots. It is clear 

 that under such circumstances the difficulty of producing cotton of uni- 

 form cjuality must be immensely increased." The gravity of this evil will 

 be appreciated from Dr. Watson Forbes' statement that formerly " the loss 

 of cleaning the impurities from India cotton was four times as great as 

 for American uplands." Nor is the crop so well handled now as formerly 

 in picking. The laborers being paid by the hundred weight, find it to 

 their advantage not to separate the dirt and trash from the cotton ; in- 

 deed, it is not uncommon for them to add water and sand to increase the 

 weight, a practice very apt to escape detection where the baskets and 

 sheets are weighed in the twilight, at the close of the day's work. The 

 sheets on which the cotton is emptied during the day by the pickers 

 were formerly kept open and exposed to the sun's rays, so that the dews 

 on cotton gathered early in the morning might be thoroughly dried out ; 

 now the sheets are kept carefully covered, so that the laborer may escape 

 loss from evaporation. The lo.ss resulting is not only in the loss of 

 w^eight, but in the injury to the staple consequent upon the storing and 

 ginning of damp cotton. The waste of cotton incurred in preparing it 

 for spinning averages thirteen per cent., and varies from five to twenty 

 per cent. Although this loss apparently falls on the manufacturer, such 

 is by no means the case, for they discount it, adding thereto a large mar- 

 gin, in the price paid to the producer. Mr. Edward Atkinson, a practi- 

 cal manufacturer, estimates that careful preparation of cotton would ad- 

 vance its price one cent per pound. This would amount, in South Caro- 

 lina, to a clear gain of more'than two and one-half millions of dollars, 

 annually, a sum nearly sufficient to replace, with modern conveniences, 

 all the gin houses in the State. 



It therefore becomes a matter of much importance to determine how in 

 the present tran.sition state of the industrial organization of the State, so 

 considerable a saving in this one industry may be effected. 



