COTTON STATISTICS 379 



Brazil. At that time the southern part of the United 

 States was producing only a few bales for export and not 

 enough to supply its own people with cotton clothing. 



In 1764 the American colonies shipped eight " bags " 

 of cotton to Liverpool, and this probably represented the 

 entire export of that year from the American colonies. 



350. The invention of the cotton gin. In 1793, Eli 

 Whitney, then living in South Carolina, applied for a pat- 

 ent on a saw gin. Prior to that time, hand-picking was the 

 rule, and only a rude form of roller gin was known. The 

 immediate effect of the invention of Whitney's saw gin was 

 greatly to increase the production of American cotton. In 

 the period of 116 years, from the invention of Whitney's 

 gin to 1908, the cotton crop produced in the United States 

 increased so that it was nearly six hundred times as large 

 at the end as at the beginning of this period. 



Before the general introduction, in the last quarter of 

 the nineteenth century, of public ginneries operated by 

 steam, practically all of the crop was ginned on small plan- 

 tation gins, propelled by six or eight mules driven in a 

 circle (Fig. 164). 



351. Value and extent of the American cotton crop. 

 The American cotton crop is usually between 11,000,000 

 and 13,000,000 bales. The area of cotton picked in 1909 

 was estimated at 30,938,000 acres. The lint and seed of 

 a single crop are usually worth about $750,000,000. Less 

 than two thirds of the lint is exported. Cotton shipped 

 abroad, together with cotton-seed oil and meal, annually 

 brings into the United States about $500,000,000, or more 

 money than foreign nations send into this country for any 

 other single crop. Moreover, the remainder of the crop 



