290 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ed to the botanical skill and laudable persever- 

 ance of Kiusey Burden, Sen. of St. John's 

 Colleton. An imi)rovement in the texture of 

 the wool engaged hi.s earnest attention as early 

 as 1804 or 180.5. In one of those years, he raised 

 from selected seed- a " pocket" of Cotton, worth 

 in the English market •' 25 cents per lb. more 

 than any other Cottons at any price." From 

 that time he labored zealously in this new 

 branch of his profession until 1826, when he sold 

 his first full crop, 60 bags, at 110 cents a pound. 

 The crop of the following year commanded 125 

 cents per lb. It is proper here to observe, that 

 between 1821 and 1829, the average price of 

 common Long Cotton was 24 cents, and of the 

 superior kinds from 35 to 60 cents. Mr. Bur- 

 den's extraordinai-y success was for many years 

 the theme of public notice and private discus- 

 sion. All means to penetrate the arcanum of 

 which intellectual efforts were capable had 

 proved abortive. In March, 1827, " a report ac- 

 companied by sundry letters on the causes 

 which contribute to the production of fine Sea- 

 Island Cotton," was read before the Agricul- 

 tural Society of St. John's Colleton, by dieir 

 Corresponding Secretary.* The publicationt 

 of these papers created some excitement in the 

 parishes. It brought the mind of the planter to 

 bear with more intensity on the absorbing ques- 

 tion which the report attempted to discuss. The 

 remarks of the writer on the selection of seed 

 induced many to think, that perhaps to this 

 cause Mr. Burden's celebrity as a seller was in- 

 debted. Sub.sequently, William Elliottof Beau- 

 fort, through the pages of the Southern Agricul- 

 turist,t expressed his belief that the secret was 

 in the seed ; hence, that the fun-ed seed should 

 no longer be ca.st aside. Experiments were 

 then instituted to try the truth of the new opin- 

 ion, thus for the first time publicly avowed bj' 

 two, and in conversation by several other per- 

 sons The clean seed was rejected, and that 

 coated wholly or partially with down, retained. 

 The result was a complete solution of the mys- 

 tery -which had so long enshrouded this subject. 

 One of the experimenters obtained for the 

 small quantity grown by him one dollar a 

 pound. The product, nevertheless, was so mea- 

 gre as scarcely to be remunerating. This oc- 

 cuiTed in the year 1829. In the year previous, 

 Hugh Wilson, Sen. of St. John's Colleton, ap- 

 peared on a small scale^ as tlie rival of his pa- 

 rish fellow-laborer. For ten bags of Cotton he 

 realized 90 cents a pound, and for his two suc- 

 ceeding crops $1 and $1 25 cents a pound. For 

 two bags of extra-fine Cotton, raised in 1828, $2 

 per pound was received, the highest price ever 

 obtained in this or any other country from which 

 Cotton wool is exported. Mr. Burden's dis- 

 covery -was held to be so valuable to the State, 

 that he -was induced to forward a memorial to 

 the Legislature offering to sell his secret for 

 $200,000 ; he resigning all his seed, except what 

 was necessary for his own crop, and communi- 

 cating the mode of perpetuating the silky pro- 

 perties of the new Cotton fibre. 5 The memo- 



* Whitemarsh B. Peabrook, 



t Southern Agricukurist, vol. i. pp. 25, 71, 119. 



J Southern Agriculturist, vol. i. p. 151. 



§ At one time, William Seabrook, a veeaJthy and 

 enterprising planter of Edisto Island, was prepared, 

 and publicly declared his design, to offer the discov- 

 erer $.50,000 for the information on this subject of 

 ■which he was possessed. About twelve months af- 

 terward, Mr. S. declined to purchase, because, in his 

 belief, conjecture had yielded to certainty — to the seed 

 (.190) 



rial, for reasons satisfactory to the applicant, was 

 never presented. 



The farther history of this sudden revolution 

 in one of our chief staples need not be given. 

 It is proper, however, to add, that while the 

 quality of the wool has been vastly improved, 

 the product of the plant has been more than 

 proportionally diminished ;* although, therefore, 

 the pecuniary circumstances of individuals have 

 been greatlj' meliorated, the planters generally 

 have sustained a los.s — in some instances to an 

 almost ruinous extent. 



Cotton may appropriately be divided into 

 three kinds: 1st. Herbaceous Cotton; 2d. Shrub 

 Cotton ; 3d. Tree Cotton.t The first is the most 

 useful, and is cultivated in nearly every coun- 

 try congenial to the gossypium. It exists native 

 at Aleppo, in Upper Egypt, Arabia, and in 

 Senegal. Of tlie seven varietiest of the Shrub 

 Cotton, one or other grows spontaneously in the 

 tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America. 

 In the latter continent, the Hirsutum or hain,', 

 (seeds greeni.sh,) and the Barbadensc^ or Bar- 

 badoes Cotton, (a black seed,) are indigenous.|| 

 To the Shrub species all the South American, 

 and most of the West India Cotton, which is 

 long-stapled, is to be referred. The Tree Cot- 

 ton, according to one authority, grows in India, 

 China, Egjpt, the interior and western coast of 

 Africa, and in some parts of America ; by an- 

 other, it is a native of India, Egypt and Arabia. 



Quatremere Disjouval, a prominent member 

 of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in speak- 

 ing of the influence of climate on the texture 

 and quality of Cotton, advances the following 

 hypothesis : That the produce of the countries 

 immediately under or nearest the Equator, is to 

 be considered the tj'pe of excellence, and is 

 distinguished by its fine silky fibre, the depth 

 and peculiarity of its color, and the bight and 

 permanency of the plant. In proportion, he re- 

 marks, as we recede from the Equator, these 

 strong marked characters disappear, the fibre 

 becomes coarse, its color perfect white, and, on 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, we behold the 

 lofty and flourishing tree of Hindostan dwin- 

 dled down into a stunted annual shrub. Of 

 these broad and unqualified assertions, there is 

 but one that rests on a tenable basis : that the 

 perennial plant of the Equator becomes an an- 

 nual in a higher latitude. The averment that 

 the finest and the deepest colored Cotton is the 

 produce of the tropical countries is reiterated on 



solely was traceable the fine Cotton which Mr. Bur- 

 den continued to grow. 



* See Note E. in the Appendix. The diminution 

 in the exports fiticel830, when tine Cottons began to 

 be generally cultivated, compared with the eleven 

 preceding years, is very large. 



t Among some of the ancient wn-iters, says Dr. lire, 

 the Cotton Tree, bombyx peittandrium, is confounded 

 with the Tree Cotton. The former does not belong to 

 the gossypium family. It was probably the Cotton 

 lYee, •' six yards high," which Marco Polo saw grow, 

 ing at Guzzerat 



t Gossypium Indicum, or the Indian ; viti folium, 

 or vine-leaved ; hirsutum, or haiiy ; religiosuro, or 

 the Cotton of Nuns — this species is very difiifult to 

 be detached from the seeds : the Nuns at Ti-anque- 

 bar were first employed in the operation ; latifoUum, 

 or broad-leaved ; Barbadense ; Peruvianum. 



§ Called bv the English in the East Indies, says Dr. 

 Ure, the Bourbon Cotton, because, about 26 years 

 ago, it was introduced there from that island. The 

 seed, he farther (erroneously) remaiks, originally 

 came fiom the West Indies.— Pp. 71. 72. 



II Ure, pp. 65—27. 



