174 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



tries bflvond the Indue. Even ailer a consider- 

 able traitio had grown up between Rome and 

 the East, Cotton, as a textile material, excited 

 no particular interest nor more than a pa&sing 

 remark by die sciouiific inquirer. In the omis- 

 sion also of the writers of the middle ages to 

 mention cotton stuff't*, while enumerating the 

 vestments in common use, it is to be interred that 

 ■woolen, linen, and silk, of which they continu- 

 ally speak, then constituted the customary wear 

 of tlie people. ^Ve leani from Nearchu.s, Alex- 

 ander" 8 Admiral, who (327 B. C.) descended the 

 Indus, that " the Indians wore garments, the 

 substance whereof they were made growing 

 upon trees ; and this," he says, " is indeed flax, 

 or ratlier itomeihin^ much whiter and finer than 

 Jiax." Herodotus^ (445 B. C.) the father of his- 

 toiy, evidently supposed that the Cotton Plant 

 was limited solely to India. " The inhabitants 

 of tliat countrj'," he stales, "made their clothes 

 of tho product of a certain plant, which, instead 

 of fniit, produces wool, of a finer and better 

 quality than that of sheep." 



On the authority of Strabo, who was cotem- 

 porary with our Saviour, Cotton gi-ew in the 

 Persian province of Susiana. "VVe are informed 

 by Pliny, who lived about A. D. 15, that in the 

 eai-lie.st ages, when Cotton fabrics were worn 

 only by the Indians, the dress of the Babylonians 

 was ot" linen and wool, and of the Egyptians, 

 linen.* It was not until the Chri.stiau era that 

 the introduction of the Cotton Plant into the 

 countiy of die latter took placet '• In Upper 

 Egypt towards Arabia," he says, " there grows 

 a shrub called gossypium, by others xylon, from 

 which the stuffs are made that we call xjlina. 

 It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the fil- 

 bert, within which is a downy wool, w Inch is 

 spun into thread. There is nothing to he pre- 

 ferred to these stuffs for whiteness or softness ; 

 beautiful garments are made from them for the 

 Priests oi' Egj-pt." The same writer enu- 

 merates, among the productions of the Island 

 of T} los, in tiie Per.-^ian Gulf, " wool-bearing 

 trees that hear a fruit like a gourd, and of the 

 size of a quince, which, bursting when it is ripe, 

 displays a ball of downy nsooI, from which are 

 made costly g;irments of a fabric resembling 

 linen." It is probable, remarks a late writer, as 

 the soil of Arabia is unadaptcd to the raising 

 of fiax, and the climate too hot for the fine fleece 

 of sheep, that Cotton was applied to clothing 

 purposes in the infancy of the human race. It 

 is certain, however, that at the time of the He- 

 gira, A. D. 622, cott(ni cloth was a common ma- 

 terial of dress. The next authentic account of 

 the Cotton Plant is derived from Marco Polo, 

 who visited many countries of Asia as the con- 

 fidential agent of the Tartar conqueror of China. 

 He saw Cotton growing abundantly in Mosul, 

 opposite the ancient Nineveh, in Persia, and at 

 Guzzcrat, in which latter place it was produced 

 from a tree '• six yards high, which bore twenty 



* The microscopic examinations of Lewcnhoeck 

 conclusively show that the mummy cloth of Egypt 

 was (lomposcJ entirely of liuen. 



t 'I"ho cultivution of Cotton had long been discon- 

 tinued in Ksyjit, when Mehcmet All, about the year 

 1823. renewed the ent('rpri.ac with a .■'pirit indicwive 

 of a vigorous and sagacious mind. The first year, 

 60 bugs were produced; in 183(), a.s hi>,'h as 18(),:J91 

 basT'i were exported to Europe. Of late years the 

 quantity grown has been inconsiderable, and a.^ the 

 culture of the crop depends on the capricious deter- 

 minaiion of the Pucha, no judgment can be formed 

 ol tlie future supplies from tliat country. (See Tables 

 3 and 4 in (he Appendix.) 

 (378) 



years." After the time of die Venetian traveler, 

 but before the 14th century, the evidence is 

 satisfactory, that the wool of the go.^aypium was 

 the staple manufacture of Arabia, Persia, and all 

 the Provinces on the Indus. Notwithstanding 

 the proximity of China to India, and the com- 

 mercial intercourse between them, it was not 

 until die 11th century that the herbaceous 

 Cotton, which four hundred years before had 

 been raised in gardens for die beauty of its 

 flowers, was grown for domestic use. So slow^ 

 was its progress among the industrious and 

 skillful people of that Empire, then distinguished 

 for their knowledge of the arts.* that two cen- 

 turies elapsed before it constituted one of the 

 .staple crops of the country. China is now an 

 importer of the wool. About 70 years ago, the 

 lands cultivated in Cotton, in consequence of the 

 alarming scarcity of provisions, ^vere aj)propri- 

 ated to the raising of com by command of die 

 supreme authority. 



Aldiough Cotton is indigenous in Africa, and 

 grows luxuriantly and plentifully, especially in 

 its central and western parts, yet there are 

 strong reasons for concluding that the know- 

 ledge of its husbandry was spread among the 

 people of that Continent, north of the Equator, 

 by the early followers of Mohammed. No au- 

 thentic notices of die progress of its ullage exist 

 until the 15th centurj-, when it was not only ex- 

 tensively grown, but the fleece was manufac- 

 tured, by the Caflres, by the Moors at Cefala, by 

 the inhabitants of the coast of Guinea, and along 

 nearly the whole northern shores of the Medi- 

 ten-anean. 



Spain was the first nation in Europe that cul- 

 tivated the Cotton Plant, and manufactured 

 clothing from its produce. Both occun-ed in the 

 10th century. The Moors who were mingled 

 widi the Arabs at the Spanish conquest, says De 

 Maries, brought with them the hu.sbandiy of rice 

 and Cotton, of the mulben-y tree and the sugar 

 cane. In the year 10.50, the Priests of San Ad- 

 veno were authorized to let their church lands 

 for its cultivation. Soon afterwards it appeared 

 in Italy, particularly along the shores of the Gulf 

 of Tarauto. It was then graduallj- extended to 

 Greece and the adjacent countries. In the lilth 

 century it was produced in the vicinity of Hyeres, 

 and elsewhere in the southern parts of France. 

 Columbus, Magellan, Drake, Cavendish, Dam- 

 pier, Van Noort, and indeed aU the earlier 

 voyagers, with one exception, concur in repre- 

 senting that, in the decoration of their persons, 

 or where, from the cohhK^.ssof the climate, some 

 covering to the body was necessarj-, the abori- 

 gines of the Western Continent, among other 

 materials, used Cotton. Several of them, more- 

 over, .saw ■' Cotton growing wild and in great 

 abundance " in the West India Islands and on 

 the Continent. The Patagonians tied up their 

 hair with " Cotton Lace," and so plentiful was 

 the vegetable wool in Brazil, that the inhabitants 

 made their beds of it. In St. Salvador, where 

 Columbus first landed, the Spaniards, who de- 

 scribe the women as dressed in sht)rt " Cotton 

 coats," exchanged caps, beads, and other toys 

 for " Cotton yam." On this Island Cotton was 

 seen " growing of it.self " In the fabrication of 

 Cotton and other cloths, the Mexicans displayed 

 so much ingenuity and neatness, as to create a 



'' The Chinese were the original manufacturers of 

 silk, paper, and sutrar. They, too, first practised the 

 art of printinj, and were the tirst acquainted with the 

 properties of the magnet, and the composition of 

 gunpowder. 



