360 



FARMERS' REGISTER— COTTON GIN. 



millions in A?ia, probably from Smvrna; and the 

 cotton seed stole alonjr with the Virfrinian colo- 

 nization of the Southern States; for in truth, the 

 Southern States of the American Confederacy are 

 colonies of V^irginia more or less directly derived, 

 while the northwestern States of the American 

 Contederacy are colonists more or less direct, from 

 the New England States, with all of their industry' 

 and much ofthat pconomy Avhich qualifies them the 

 better for being farmers where litde is risked and 

 patient industry is sure of moderate reward, than 

 in being planters or growers upon a large scale of 

 products, which sometimes well reward enterprise, 

 but too often disapjioint the sanguine expectant, 

 and send him homeless and houseless, in his age, 

 to seek still farther south or farther west for cheap- 

 er and lor ti-esher soils to labor upon. But where- 

 ev'er he roams, however unfortunate his condition, 

 the cotton seed, like the maze seeds, is carried 

 along with him. Tlie one supplies him with bread, 

 and the other supplies the material for his clothing, 

 or affords him the means of buying it. It is this 

 roving disposition of the southern American peo- 

 ple, who carry their cotton seed to seek for newer 

 and for fresher fields, as the Tartar of the steppes 

 drives his flocks to browse on newer and on greener 

 pastures — it is this almost mysterious love of 

 change of situation that has in so ihw years, pro- 

 duced that wonderful revolution in the cotton trade 

 of the world. Without this roving propensity, 

 centuries could not have produced the efiect that 

 twenty years have accomplished. Other countries 

 are as well adapted to cotton as the United States. 

 There are the States along the Mediterranean 

 Sea, there are many of the countries of Asia, 

 there are the many islands of the Eastern Sea, 

 but above all, there is wide-spread Brazil: these 

 were all laboring upon cotton before the American 

 people thought of it. Bat what then? The spirit 

 that moved along the wilderness was wanting; the 

 Pacha of Egypt may plan, other jealous govern- 

 ments may offer bounties and rewards, but that is 

 wanting; that is wanting to the seekers after per- 

 petual motion, life, and self-motion, in the mass 

 that is to be acted upon. God has yet reserved to 

 himself this vitality, and has neither yielded it up 

 to the ruler or the ruled. 



But to return from this disgression, which it is 

 hoped is not unnecessary, as the cause must ever 

 precede the effect, and it was considered well to 

 give the cause before we passed to the effects. As 

 soon as the attention of the Southern States was call- 

 ed to the profitable cullivalion ofcotton, by a few per- 

 sons along the shores of Georgia and Carolina, 

 the cultivation began to be extended into the in- 

 terior. The small quantity of cotton that had 

 been orown for domestic uses, was exchanged for 

 larger quantities to be prepared for sale. But the 

 great difficulty to be overcome in the progress to ex- 

 tension, was to find out any instrument by which 

 the cotton wool could be separated from the seed. 



By this time various machines had been intro- 

 duced for ginning the sea island cotton, 1 ut all of 

 them ended at last in two rollers revolving upon 

 each other, either longer or shorter, and moving 

 with, some more, some less, velocity. These roll- 

 ers were but badly adapted to the hairy cotton or 

 second variety, which soon began to obtain the pre- 

 ference in the interior of Georgia and South Caroli- 

 na, over the first or smooth leaved variety, and 

 merited to obtain that prefei^ence, as giving when 



separated from its downy seed, a finer and stronger 

 although shorter fibre, and as perfecting its ti^uit 

 sooner, but which it was almost impossibfe to sep- 

 arate with the rollers, because the down or fur 

 upon the seed retained the seed hanging upon the 

 roller, and denied admission to the rollers of the 

 li-esh cotton in the seed that was oflered- Many 

 plans were suggested, many subetitutcs for the 

 rollers designed. All succeeded in part, but still 

 I hey went on slow. Something was desired to do 

 much in a short time: something that was strong 

 enough to travel about without being broken to 

 pieces, and light enough to move with its moving 

 master. At last such a thing was found, in Mil- 

 ler and Whitney's gin, probably not the best ma- 

 chine that could have been designed, but so oper- 

 ative to its end, so efficient to its purpose, that it 

 took possession of the whole ground; from thence- 

 forward no other machine was sought for, and 

 Miller and Whitney's gin is employed to separate 

 the cotton seed from Virginia to Louisiana, save 

 where the roller gin is used, and its use is now al- 

 together confined to the sea island cotton, whose 

 superior value is supposed to warrant the great 

 increase of labor necessarjnn that mode of ginning. 

 Miller and Whitney's gin was designed by Mr. 

 Whitney and executed at the plantation of Mr. 

 Miller, sixteen miles above Savannah, about the 

 year 1795, and it seems to be derived fi-om two 

 machines already used upon cotton, a kind of cy- 

 lindrical whipper, and the circular cards, before 

 that time introduced in manufacturing cotton; a 

 wooden shaft or roller enclosed within a wooden 

 box. This roller or shaft has at every inch of ita 

 length a steel blade or saw, about a foot in diame- 

 ter; above these saws is a box containing the cot- 

 ton in the seed. The box has the bottom of mettle 

 slits, through which the saws pass aliout an inch, 

 and pulling of the cotton, but sometimes cutting 

 the fibre as it passes. This revolving of the saws 

 carries the cotton in the box gradually round un- 

 til the seeds contained in the box are (r-eed of the 

 wool attached to them, when it is emptied of the 

 seed and refilled with fresh cotton; it too often 

 leaves some of the fibre behind it, which dimin- 

 ishes the quantity as well as injures the quality, 

 so much so that the estimated difference of the 

 products in these two modes of ginning are, with 

 rollers 300 lbs. to the one 1000, and 2-50 lbs. to the 

 1000 with Miller and Whitney's gin. This gin 

 havinw at last given a cheap and expeditious mode 

 of taking the wool from the hairy American cot- 

 ton, (for a gin that cost ten pounds sterling will 

 clean a bale a day with a single horse acting upon 

 the gin, with a band wheel which any man can 

 make for liimselfj) the cultivation of this descrip- 

 tion of cotton diverged in all directions around 

 Georgia as the common centre: it went north into 

 the two Carolinas; it went west into the hill coun- 

 try of all the Southern States; it was found capa- 

 ble of adjusting itself to the soil and climate of the 

 interior country, which the Anguilla cotton had 

 not been adapted to; still the fibre of the hairy or 

 short staple cotton is better near the sea than in 

 the interior. Above all, it is found to be most pro- 

 ductive in alluvial soils that are a litde touched with 

 salt, as are some of the districts of Louisiana, 

 where the rivers rising in the Rocky Mountains 

 draw some of their waters through the salt and 

 arid plants which separate the waters of the Ar- 

 kansas firom the waters of Red River, where these 



