246 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



sweet, and has no hard pulp." He states it to 

 be a native of New York of recent origin, that 

 it came up in the garden of a Mr. Hyde, and that 

 Mr. Hyde eaid he called it "the Eliza, because 

 it was reared and nurtured by a- beloved daugh- 

 ter." 



Lenoir. — The vine is represented of vigorous 

 growth ; the Iruit small and black, of a superior 

 quality to ripen early and never to rot. It is not 

 a great bearer ; but nolvviihstanding it should be 

 given a lair trial. It is higiily recommended. It 

 is supposed to have originated from the seed of a 

 foreign variety in South Carolina, upon the (arm 

 of a person whose name it bears, and is classed 

 with loreign grapes. 



I have been as parlicular as I could, in giving 

 a description of the fruiis recommended, so as to 

 enable the cuhivator to know them. In conclu- 

 sion, 10 save trouble, I will state, i keep no stock 

 for sale of any kind ; and as to (ruit trees and 

 vines I have none (or sale, nor have I ever sold 

 one. Yours, respectfully, 



Edbiund F. Noel. 

 Edmund Ruffin, esq., 



Cor. Sec. Board of ^Agriculture of Virginia. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNIVERSARY ORATION 

 OF THE AGRICULTURAL, SCCIETY OF SOUTH 

 CAROLINA. BY GEN. JAMES H. HAMMOND. 



The extraordinary progress of the growth of 

 cotton has. ii is well known, occasioned a series 

 of calculations, at various periods, liom th^ime 

 of the invention of the saw-gin, to prove that it 

 must soon shoot lar ahead of the consumption, 

 and that competition would in a short lime confine 

 its culture to a few favored spots. Contrary, how- 

 ever, to all reasonable expectation, corisumplion 

 has advanced with the same wonderl'ul pace as 

 production ; and relying on the frequent failure of 

 past predictions, many are even yet sanguine that 

 it will continue to do so (or a long period to come. 

 I very much fear that they are at last mistaken — 

 that what has been prophecy for such a time, is 

 shortly to be (act ; and that the present depression 

 of the cotton market is neither accidental nor 

 temporary, but the result of natural causes, and 

 likely to be permanent. 



The rapid increase of consumption has been 

 owing to causes which can be explained, and to 

 which limits may be assigned. A spirit of im- 

 provement in machinery for manufacturing it had 

 sprung up in England, some twenty years before 

 cotton began to be cultivated in this country. 

 The hand-frame, cylinder cards, woof and warp 

 machine, spinning jenney, and power loom, (61- 

 lowed each other in quick succession, and Watt 

 soon taught the whole to move by steam. The 

 quality of goods was in consequence very much 

 improved, and prices also reduced, so as to re- 

 commend them at once to all classes of con- 

 sumers. The raw material then furnished, as 

 might be supposed, fell far short of the augmented 

 demand, and production was in turn vastly stimu- 

 lated. The supply increased from America with 

 great rapidity after Whitney's gin came into ge- 

 neral use, but new inventions in machinery con- 

 tinued, and as even the home market had not yet 



been overflowed, and the demand still kept ahead 

 of it-, until the general pacification of Europe and 

 the world opened fresh markets to this new styfe 

 of goods, which could never apparently be stock- 

 ed. Peace, also, made money abundant. New 

 and immense investments were made in manu- 

 factories, and cotton mills arose all over England. 

 It was of no small consequence to the result that 

 England was the seat of this great manufacturing 

 revolution. Her incalculable wealth, her great na- 

 val, supeiioriiy, and her vast territorial possessions, 

 scattered over every quarter of the globe, gave 

 her the command of a commerce unknown belbre 

 in the annals of tlie world. And during a period 

 of prolound peace, longer than mankind have 

 enjoyed since the death of the elder Antonine — 

 and happily not yet terminated— this great nation 

 has devoted herself lo almost the sole purpose of 

 opening new markets and filling them with cotton 

 goods. To all these circumstances is owing the 

 rapid stride of consumption, which has thus (ar 

 out-stri|)pcd all calculation. But these causes 

 have run their cycle; their utmost effects have 

 been fully felt ; ait the markets now accessible to 

 cotton manufactures are kept not only stocked 

 but glutted ; and although peace should continue 

 and improvements in machinery go on, and the 

 power of England still remain unbroken, none of 

 which, to say the least, are certain, it is impossi- 

 ble for consumption to increase in any thing like 

 the ratio it has hitherto done. 



That it will increase to some extent, in every 

 given series of years, is perhaps certain. I be- 

 lieve that cotton goods must undoubtedly drive 

 linen from the almost entire monopoly which it 

 yet enjoys in the domestic uses of the continent ; 

 that they have, sooner or later, to clothe the naked 

 barbarians of Africa, as well as the silk-robed 

 myriads of the Chinese empire: to ascend the 

 EujDhrates; to break more eflectually through the 

 barriers of the Bosphorus, and penetrate to all the 

 nations of the Black Sea, the Volga and the Obe ; 

 while every birth in a large portion of the old 

 world, and in the remotest civilized corner of the 

 new, creates a fresh demand. But all this must 

 be the work of time. Popular prejudices must be 

 broken down ; the policy and the agriculture of 

 natioiis now devoted to growing rival commodities 

 must be revolutionized, and manufactures must 

 spring up and gain the ascendency where poverty 

 and ignorance and despotism now flourish. Years, 

 perhaps centuries, must elapse before all this can 

 be accomplished ; and peace and commerce must, 

 for all the time, hold the world subject to their 

 benignant ijifluence. 



It might be thought that the great increase in 

 the sales of raw cotton during the last year 

 (1840) argues an equal increase of consumption. 

 But it must be remembered that the sales of 1838 

 were nearly equal to those of the last : that this 

 year they have again fallen oft' to a fearflil de- 

 gree, receding to a point below those of 1839, 

 and not much in advance of those of 1837, and 

 that in spite of the greatest falling off in the crop 

 ever known in one year, there has been an actual 

 increase of the surplus on hand in Liverpool and 

 Havre. The large sales of the last year were in 

 fact owing to the great fall of prices, and the re- 

 duced sales of this year, to the trifling increase 

 of them in the early part of the season, thus 

 showing, that in the present state of the markets, 



