288 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



As slovcnl}^ as was originally the tillage of 

 the Cotton plant, the preparation of" its produce 

 for market was much more so. It was indeed 

 60 hadly cleaned, as to be deemed suitable only 

 to the coarser fabrics.* Up to about the year 

 1820, the gatherers took no especial pains to ab- 

 stract the decaj'ed leaves. The wool was sunned 

 all day, and ginned frequently with the stained 

 particles incorporated with it. Tliese were re- 

 moved in the process of moting, which vi-as ef- 

 fected by women sitting on the floor where it 

 was beaten with twigs. During the operation 

 of ginning, no bags or boxes received the Cotton, 

 and oftentimes large quantities were thrown to- 

 gether until the moters were prepared to ex- 

 amine them. In packing, an old iron axle-tree, 

 or -wooden pestle, the present instrument, was 

 used. There were no reinspectors of the cotton 

 before it was deposited in the bag, in which the 

 spinner would frequently find, in addition to a 

 large supplj- of leaves and crushed seed.s, potato 

 skins, parts of old garments, and occasionally a 

 jack-knife. With many, the Cotton was ginned, 

 moted, and packed in the same room. Veiy 

 different indeed are the present processes, or 

 rather the modes in which thej' are severallj' 

 perfonned. Separate rooms for the seed and 

 ginned Cottons, as well as for the wool, which, 

 after it is gathered, is never exposed to the sun, 

 have long been considered necessary in the sea- 

 board parishes to ensure the proper after-hand- 

 ling of the crop. There are required a room for 

 tlie whipper, if one be employed, which ex- 

 tracts the dirt and imperfect filaments ; another 

 for the assorters, who, provided with boxes for 

 their clean Cotton, perform their work before a 

 long table, covered with wire, or ^voodeu slats, 

 the I of an inch apart ; a tliird for the moter.s, who 

 also stand before a latticed table, and as often as 

 a handful of Cotton is prepared, it is thrown into 

 a wooden box, about three feet from the floor, 

 and secured to the sides of the building imme- 

 diately behind the moters respectively ; a small 

 room for the moted Cotton, and one for the 

 packer, usually adjoining it; and a house or 

 room, proportioned to the force employed, for 

 the ginners, in which are boxes for the seed Cot- 

 ton in tlie rear of the operators, and boxes under 

 the machines for the ginned Cetton. The houses 

 are lined on the inside with planed boards, and 

 the windows of the as.sorting and moting rooms, 

 and the gin-house, are glazed. All these accom- 

 modations are now to be found on nearly every 

 plantation on the Sea-Islands and the adjacent 

 country, and, it is said, in many of the upper 

 Parishes. 



The amount of labor expended in a day in 

 preparing one bag of superfine Cotton of 300 

 lbs. weight, the produce of 1,500 lbs. in the seed, 

 is as follows, viz : 



Drier 1 



Turner and feeder of the whipper 2 



Assorters, 50 lbs. each 30 



Ginners. 25 lbs 12 



Moters, 43 lbs 7 



Packer and reinspector 2 



54 

 It will thus appear that, if the foot-gin be used 

 in an ordinarj- v>ay, which, viith a few excep- 

 tions, is the invariable practice, 54 laborers, at 

 an expense to the owner of $27, estimating their 

 services at 50 cents per day respectively, are ne- 

 cessary to the getting of one bag of Cotton pro- 

 perly cleaned. When the gins are propelled 



* Ure, p. 145. 

 (5B8) 



by steam, six persons only, male or female, to 

 feed them, are required. If the wool be sepa- 

 rated from the seed by Eaves's improved gin, 

 to which steam power is applied, the aid of 

 three men will be needed. In all other respects 

 the labor is the same. 



The cultivation and preparation of Cotton, as 

 described in these pages, is peculiarly applica- 

 ble to the southern half only of the long staple 

 region. In the nortliern portion, but especially 

 in the Santee country, there are differences in 

 each, which it is important should be briefly no- 

 ticed. Five acres to the hand, of which gene- 

 rally only one-third is manured, are planted. 

 The ridges are four feet from each other, and 

 the plants stand from 15 to 20 inches apart. In 

 the culture of the crop, a machine of a triangu- 

 lar shape, called " the sweep." is used by a few 

 as an assistant to the hoe. The morning after 

 the Cotton is gathered, according to the wonted 

 usage, it is assorted by the pickers; but, con- 

 trary to the plan of the sea board, not after- 

 wards ; unless one or two hands, who attend to 

 the scaffold, may be said to perform that ser- 

 vice. The task in moting is from 20 to 25 

 pounds. The material points of difference, then, 

 in the handling of the crop, between tlie lower 

 and upper Parishes, or the former and Santee 

 growers, consist in the processes of assorting 

 and moting. The labor of the first is chiefly 

 expended in cleaning the Cotton in the seed ; 

 that of the other, after it is ginned. This proba- 

 blj' arises from the characteristic features of the 

 two staples. Unless gi'eat caution be exercised 

 in the moting of fine Cottons, the fibres will en- 

 tangle, and the wool become lumpy and stringy. 

 These results do not take place when the coarser 

 qualities are cleaned in the ginned state. 



Cotton in primeval times was di.sengaged 

 from the seed with the fingers. Another mode 

 of eflfecting that object, still common in certain 

 parts of India, is, however, mentioned by Dr. 

 F. Buchanan in his account of Bahar and Pat- 

 na. " A great deal of the Cotton," says he, " is 

 freed from the seed by the process of beating. 

 At Arwal, the Dhunizas, who make a profes- 

 sion of heating Cotton, are allowed 1 5 sers of 

 grain for beating one ser of Cotton ; and in one 

 day a man beats four sers, equal to 45 lbs. and 

 of "course receives 6| lbs. of grain." To the hu- 

 man hand the agency of the roller succeeded. 

 The use of rollers, at first roughly constructed, 

 is of very ancient date. Nearchus speaks of 

 them as employed by the Hindoos for tlie pur- 

 pose to which they are now particularly de- 

 voted. W^hile a rude hand-mill was employed 

 in the Plantation States, the treadle-gin, or some 

 equally efiective machine, was certainly in op- 

 eration at the North. This appears from the 

 declaration of Richard Leake of Georgia, who, 

 in his letter to Thomas Proctor of Philadelphia, 

 on the subject of Sea-Island Cotton, remarks, 

 " The principal difficulty that arises to us is the 

 cleaning of the seed, which I am told they do 

 with great dexterity m jour city with gins or 

 machines made for the purpose."* 



Soon after the commencement of our Revo- 

 lutionary struggle, Kinsey Burden, deceased, 

 late of St. Paul's Parish, constructed a roller -gm, 

 believed to have been among the first ever 

 made or used in South Caralina, which enabled 

 him to clothe his negroes in garments fabricated 

 at home. It was composed of " pieces of iroa 

 gun-barrels burnished and fixed on woodeo 

 rollers, with wooden screws to secure them, 



* Niles's Register, vol. vL p. 334. 



