346 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



magnitude of which can be imperfectly summarized by the 

 statement that in the year 1900 there were exported 64,722, 

 valued at $7,612,616. 



There are many other great agricultural interests of our 

 country to which your attention might with profit be called, 

 but it is not the purpose of an address of this nature, either 

 in outline or in allusion, to attempt to exhaust them. Those 

 called to your attention are simply suggestive of consid- 

 eration and study by him who, having time, opportunity and 

 the desire to know more of them, may seek further informa- 

 tion in the direction to which they may lead. 



There is one subject, however, to which I shall call your 

 attention, which ought not to be omitted here, it being, in 

 magnitude, value and importance, not only an agricultural 

 product rivalling many another, but is so linked with our 

 daily life as to be almost indispensable, and that is, cotton. 



Cotton. 



One of the greatest and most valuable crops of our 

 country was first mentioned by the historian Herodotus 

 about 450 B. C, who relates that trees in India bear, as 

 fruit, fleeces more delicate and beautiful than those of sheep, 

 which the people of that distant land manufacture into 

 cloth. Aristobulus and Nearchus, generals of Alexander, 

 brought to Greece accounts of the cotton tree and its prod- 

 uct, and Theophrastus also described its culture and use. 

 From India cotton was brought to Rome, and before the 

 Christian era Verres in Sicily used it for tent coverings. 

 Caesar covered the forum with awnings made of cotton, and 

 also the sacred way from his house to the Capitoline hill, 

 which was a great wonder to the populace. 



In America the product and manufacture of cotton was 

 well understood by Peruvians and Mexicans long before 

 Europeans had discovered and set foot upon the continent. 



Columbus found the cotton plant in Ilispaniola ; others 

 found it as far north as the Mississippi and its tributaries. 

 Cortes, on setting out from Trinidad de Cuba for the con- 

 quest of Mexico, quilted the jackets of his soldiers with it, 

 as a protection against Indian arrows, after the manner of 



