300 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



In the final illness and death of this great benefactor of Agriculture, he dis- 

 played the unshaken forlilude and strength of mind which seem never to have 

 forsaken him. He has, we believe, left but one son who inherits his name and 

 his virtues, but of his mechanical genius, of that, as of a genius for poetry, it 

 may perhaps he said, nascitur non fit. 



Through long and severe bodily affliction and partial repose, he leached the 

 32th of November, 1824, at which period we are told his sufferings hecame al- 

 most unintermitted until the 8th January, 1845, when he expired — retaining his 

 consciousness to the last, closing his own eyes, and making an effort to close 

 his mouth. It was his particular request that there should be no examination 

 of the body to ascertain the nature of his disease, and he desired his funeral to 

 be conducted with as little parade as possible, 



A single inquiry for reflecting agriculturists, and those who nominally repre- 

 sent them: If any man should invent an engine of war, Avhich in fields of battle 

 should accomplish results as far beyond anything achieved by other nations and 

 other times as Whitney's invention excelled all that had been done for a great 

 field of national industry and wealth, what would be his reward ? Does not the 

 answer which every one must make to this inquiry, prove that there must be 

 " something rotten in the state of Denmark" — something unsound in the public 

 morals, which in all countries are greatly influenced by the spirit of the laws? 



APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR OF WHITNEY. 

 The Effect of his Cotton-Gin on the Cotton Husbandry of the United Slates. 



In 1793, the year of the invention, the 

 whole cotton crop of the United States was 

 .5,000,000 lbs., and the total exportation 487,- 

 600 lbs. In 1793, when the cotton-gin was 

 first extensively introduced into Georgia and 

 South Carolina (then the principal region of 

 that production), the whole crop increased to 

 8.000,000 lbs., and the exportation to 1,()01,- 

 7()0 lbs. In 1800, when the machine had 

 been tin-own open to the people, v^'ithout lim- 

 itation, from regard to the legal rights of the 

 patentee, the total production of cotton in the 

 United States during the yeai' amounted to 

 3.5,000,000 lbs., of wliich 17>89,803 lbs. were 

 exported. In 1805, the whole production 

 was 70,000,000 ll)s., and the amount oi'n pi fnid 

 cottf)n exported Sa.fiOi.-l'iS lbs.— (value, $9,- 

 445,000.) In 1810, the crop was increased 

 to 85.000,000 lbs., and the exportation o^ up- 

 land cotton to 84,6.57,384 lbs. In 1815, tlie 

 whole of the United States crop was 100,000,- 

 000 lbs., and the exportatiou of upland votion 

 74,548,796 lbs. In 1820, the whole United 

 States crop was 160,000.000 lbs. ; the export- 

 ation of upland 116,291,137 lbs., valued at 

 $22,308,667. In 1825, croj) 255,000,000 lbs., 

 exportation of upland, 166,784,629 lbs. In 

 1830, crop 350,000,000, exportation 290,31 1,- 

 937. Li 1835, crop 475,000,000, exportation 

 379,000,000. In 1840, crop 880,000.000, ex- 

 porUition vahied at $63,870,307. In 1845, tlio 

 United Slates cotton crop was 1,029,850,000 

 Ib.'^., and tlie ex[)ort;iti()n of coltou 8(i2,580.00U 

 lbs. ; the domestic consumption being 167,- 

 270,000 lbs. 

 (63li) 



The recent aimexation of the immense cot 

 ton-lands of Texas, the abolition of the import 

 duty on American cotton in Great Britidn, and 

 the vast and rapid increase of the manufacture 

 of cotton fabrics in all parts of the United 

 States, are evidences of the certaiutj" of a far- 

 ther increase in the production of cotton iu 

 this country. Euonnous as has been the pro- 

 gress of this staple, from 1791 to 1845, u is 

 destined to a yet gi'eater extension in amoimt 

 and value. 



The exclusion of East India cotton fiom its 

 jircvious monopoly of the markets of the civ- 

 ilized world, froiu the beginning of tlu? pres- 

 ent century, was m;unly due to the introduc- 

 tion of the cotton-gin in the Southern States 

 of the American Union, whit:li substituted the 

 rapid operations of machinery for the tedious 

 and costly labor of human hands in thp prep- 

 aration of the crop for the use of the manufac- 

 turer. The recent atteinpts of the British 

 Government and the East India Company to 

 restore the successfid production of cotton in 

 Hindostan have consisted largely in the intro- 

 duction of Americjui improvements, especially 

 of •' TfiK Amkiuc.\n CoTTo.N-Gi.v," into those 

 provinces wliich are adai>ted to the culture. 

 The greater chea])nes8 of labor, and even tho 

 su])erior <]uality of the product (in the prov- 

 ince of Dliarvvar), were found to avail no- 

 thing, without the adv;uitages of American 

 machinery. 



The pecuniary advantiige of tliis invention 

 to the ruitt'd Suites is by no means fully pre- 

 Beuted by an exhibition of the value of the 



