THE COTTON PLANT .... ITS HISTORY AND USES. 



It would have been better that the plate of 

 the Cotton-Plant, which embellished the Sep- 

 tember number of the Farmers' Library, should 

 have been accompanied with the following very 

 interesting and learned essay on the origin, cul- 

 tivation and uses of Cotton, by the distinguished 

 President of the South Carolina Agricultural So- 

 ciety ; but that whole number was in type be- 

 fore we found ourselves obliged to substitute 

 that plate for another which had been prepared. 



This cssaj' serves, in its way, to illustrate one 

 leading feature in the design of the Farmers' 

 Library, which is, not only to instruct the young 

 Farmer in all the practical details of his pursuit, 

 but to improve and liberalize his mind, and to 

 qualify him, as a man of varied information, to 

 hold his proper rank in society. To do this, it 

 is indispensable that he should make himself fa- 

 miliar with the natural history aajT uses, not 

 only of the plants that he cultivates and the ani- 

 mals that he rears, but with all the objects that 

 belong to the country, and that naturally become 

 subjects of inquiry and of conversation among 

 country gentlemen of any pretensions to intelli- 

 gence and scholarship. All this knowledge 

 may be gained, and all this intellectual respect- 

 ability and enjoyment be secured, during hours 

 of leisure which are now, by many of them, spent 

 in a manner worse than unprofitable, at country 

 taveiTis, or in scenes of low and vulgar excite- 

 ment and dissipation ; or they may be secured in 

 hours of confinement at home, which, for want 

 of books, or the love of books, (to be begotten 

 in early life,) are whiled away in listless ennui. 



What Mr. Seabrook has done to enlighten us 

 as to the historj- and uses of a plant which forms 

 one of the great staples of the country, shall, in 

 time, be done for every tree of the orchard and 

 the forest — every grain of the field and every 

 vegetable of the garden. Everj- vine shall tell 

 its own history, and every bird shall eing its 

 own song, until, in place of the sneer of igno- 

 rance at the suggestion of rural literatvre ! he 

 who re.-Kls, and properly appreciates his posi- 

 tion, shall be forced to ask himself— Where do 

 tlie literary studies and researches that properly 

 belong to rural life end ? What do they not em- 

 brace of all that is worthy of being known ? — 

 until, in a word, speaking in the fulbess of his 

 heart, he shall say : 



" And this our life, exompt from public haunt. 

 Finds tongues in trees, books in the runnini; brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good iu every thing." 



We could, for the present, ask ao better ex- 

 (377) 



cmplification of our views than is presented in 

 the following : 



A MEMOIR ON THF, ORIGIN, CULTIVATION 

 AND USES OF COTTON, from the earliest iigea 

 to the present time, with especial reference to the 

 Sea-Island Cotton-Plant, including the improve- 

 ments in ita cultivation, and the preparation of the 

 Wool, &c. in Georgia and South Carolina: Read 

 before the Agricultural Society of St. John's Colle- 

 ton, November 13th, 184.3, and the State Aericultu- 

 ra! Society of South Carolina, December 6th, 1843. 

 By Whitemabsh B. Seabrook, President of the 

 State Agricultural Society of South-Carolina. 

 Cotton,* from the Arabic word Koton, is the 

 spontaneous production of all the intertropical 

 regions. Of the four great materials de.nigned 

 by Providence for human clothing, it is believed 

 that none was assigned to Europe- To Asia 

 wa.s given all — Cotton, flax,t tlie sheep, J: and silk 

 worm ;$ and to Africa and America, Cotton and 

 flax. It is remarkable, too, that of these, the one 

 which was obviously designed to be the mo.st 

 extensively useful, was tlie last to be generally 

 diffused. For many centuries the growth and 

 manufacture of Cotton were confined exclusively 

 to India. The total silence of the Hebrew wri- 

 ters, and the very slight notices to be found in 

 Greek and RomanH literature concerning the 

 wool-bearing shrub,** are to be ascribed to the 

 utter unacquaintance of the nations bordering 

 on the Mediterranean with the populous coun- 



* German KattwmtvUe, BaumitKille ; XinXch, Ketoen, 

 Boomwol; Danish, Bomald ; Swedish, Bomull; Italian, 

 Cotone, Bomhagia; Spanish, Algodon; Portuguese, 

 Algodiio, Algodeiro; Ku3simi,C/Uobts-ckaUiza bumaga; 

 Polish, Bawdna ; Georgian. Bomhy. Bamba ; Latin, 

 Gossypium ; Greek. Bomhyz Yylon ; Moiigul, Kobiing ; 

 Hindoo, Buhi; Malay, Kapas; Indian, Kopa ; Chi- 

 nese, Cay-Hauvg, Hoa-Micn. — .Skiuner, the ot}^no- 

 logist, says that Cotton is so called from its siinilitudo 

 to the down wliich adheres to the quince, malis i-y- 

 doniis, which the Italians call c-otogni, and cotogni 

 manifestly a oydonis. 



Gossypium, or Cotton, a genius of the polyandria 

 order, belonging to the monodclphiacl.iss of pUmta; 

 and in the natural method of ranking under the 37lh 

 order Columnifera. 



[Encycloptzdia Britayinia, vol. 8. p. 21. 



t Flax is indigenous in Egj-pt, and also in America. 

 [Clavigcro's Mexico, pp. 25, 26. 



t The sheep, (Ovis,) the Argali of Siljcria. Tliis 

 animal inhabits the mountains of all At-ia, and bo- 

 comes as large as a fallow deer. It ia from the Jilou- 

 flou, or the Argali, that we are supposed to derive the 

 numerous races of our woolly animals, which next 

 to the dog, seem tnost subject to vary. 



[Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, vol. 4tk. pp. 2C, 27. 



§ Silk was first made in China. SiUc worms, with 

 the art of manufacturing their prothice, were brought 

 from China to ConstJintinople by two Persian monks, 

 in the reign of Justinian, A. D 552. 



II Virgil, in the second Georgic, clearly allude.s to 

 the Cotton Plant in the following lines :— " Shall I 

 sing of the groves of Ethiopia, hoary with soft wool ; 

 and how the Soros," ( a people of India,) "comb out 

 the delicate fleece from among the leaves?" 



** From its resemblance to the fleece of tlie shoep, 

 the first material probably made into cloth, it wais 

 called the ■• wool of trees " In the markets of the 

 world, it ia designated " cotton wooL" 



