O F A G R I C U L T U R E . 65 



1789. The upland or Georgia (bowed cotton) was 

 successfully introduced about the same time. Cotton 

 was doubtless indigenous to America, having been 

 found growing wild in the West India Islands when 



O O 



discovered by Columbus, and at the period of the 

 conquest of Mexico, by Cortes, the natives made 

 " large webs as delicate and fine as those of Holland." 

 Their other cotton fabrics were varied and beautiful, 

 and constituted their chief article of dress. "When, 

 and from whence the plant was first introduced into 

 Mississippi, is not certainly known, most probably by 

 the early French colonists from St. Domingo. It 

 would seem its cultivation there and in Louisiana, on 

 a small scale, for domestic purposes, preceded that of 

 Georgia. Charlevoix, on his visit to Natchez, in 

 1722, saw the cotton plant growing in the garden of 

 Sieur Le ISToir, the company's clerk. Bienville states 

 in one of his dispatches, dated in April, 1735, that 

 the cultivation of cotton proved advantageous. It 

 is stated that by Major Stoddard to have been culti- 

 vated in the colony in 1740, and Governor Vandrcuil 

 in a dispatch to the French minister, mentions cotton 

 among the articles which came down the river 

 annually to New Orleans. This dispatch was dated 

 in 1746. 



Among the varieties of the cotton plant may be 

 enumerated the Sea Island, the Upland, the Tennessee 

 Green Seed, the Mexican, Pernambuco, Surinam, 

 Egyptian, etc. 



The Sea Island is confined to a very few planta- 

 tions on our seaboard. It is superior to all others in 

 the length and fineness of its staple. It bears a high 

 price, generally thrice as much as the best upland?, 



