1839J 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



661 



of cotton, which already have been casually intro- 

 duced ; and because 1 am persuaded thai still more 

 'valuable species or varieties may be immediately 

 domesticated in Tropical Florida, and thence <rra- 

 dually acclinmled throughout all our southern 

 stales. We are told, by Thomas S(ialdin<r, that 

 our celebrated sea island cotton was first procured 

 from the small island oC Anguilla, and domesti- 

 cated in ihe Bahama islands; and that Irom the 

 arid rocky soils of the Bahamas it was introduced 

 directly into Georijia in 1786. We are I'urilier 

 told liiat his Hither planted his Anguilla- Bahama 

 ■cotton seed in the spring of 1787 upon the banks 

 of a small rice field in St. Simon's island ; that the 

 land was rich and loarm ; that the plants grew 

 large and blossomed, but did not mature their Iruit. 

 That nevertheless the plants grew from their roots 

 the Ibllowing year, and irMtured their bolls ; that 

 the difficulty was then over ; that the cotton adapt- 

 ed itself to the climate; and that every successive 

 year from 1787 saw the long staple cotton extend- 

 ing itself along the shores of Georgia, and into 

 South Carolina. By the letter of the same gen- 

 tleman it appears, that subsequently " every va- 

 riety of cotton that could be gleaned from the four 

 quarters of the globe has been tried; but none of 

 them, but one, has resulted in any thing useful ;" 

 that the Bourbon cotton grew and blossomed, hut 

 did not ripen its fruit, and perished in the winter ; 

 that the (Si'a7?j. cotton grew laroe, was o\ a rich pur- 

 ple color both in foliage and blossoyn, but perished 

 also without ripening its fruit. "The kidney seed 

 cotton (that is, a cotton which produces the seed 

 all clustered together with a long sirong staple ex- 

 tending liom one side of the seeds, and which I 

 believe to be the Brazilian or Pernambuco cotton.) 

 was tried, and was the only new species upon 

 which there could have been any hesitancy ; but 

 this, too, was given up, because not as valuable j 

 and not as productive.''^ As the last phrase is 

 comparative, we should infer that Mr. Spalding 

 meant that the kidney seed cotton was not then as 

 valuable or as productive as the sea island cotton 

 when raised on the same warm rich soils. But 

 by the ' Southern Agriculturist," of December, 

 1838, we see, that now the southern planters say, 

 that at even liom 70 to 80 cents per pound for sea 

 island cotton, its culture is less profitable than the 

 raising of the hardy and productive kinds of com- 

 mon cotton; that its average price in Liverpool 

 h'om 1830 to 1835 was only 17^ pence ; and even 

 during 1836-7 rose only to 25 pence, and that the 

 average crop of 1837 was only 76 pounds per acre, 

 and in 1838 would not probably exceed 64 pounds 

 per acre. Has not therelbre the period arrived 

 when it is desirable to give the kidney seed cotton 

 another trial, not on the inoist rich soils adapted to 

 the sea island cotton, but on the driest poorest soils 

 of the old southern states ? (In asklns this ques- 

 tion I wish to be distinctly understood that I have 

 no seeds of any kind for sale, and very iew for ex- 

 change. No person who understands my past 

 history, and my present circumstances, will suspect 

 me of either the capacity or the desire to engage 

 in any pecuniary speculation ; but the writers on 

 the manilia mulberry have caused their readers to 

 be distrustful of every agricultural novelty.) On 

 my first arrival at Cam peachy in 1827. I was 

 ■shown, in the yard of Colonel Toro, a shrub of 

 the kidney seed cotton, which was still bearing 

 cotton on my last departure in 1837, Br. Corroy, 

 Vol. VIl-86 



of Tobasco, a small state adjoining Yucatan, in- 

 formed me that the same perennial shrub continued 

 to yield cotton abundantly during eiiiht months of 

 every year. Under date of the 12A\ of January, 

 1S34, at Campeachy, I noted "the pods are so 

 numerous and so lieavy that they bend the branch- 

 es towards the ground like an over-loaded peach 

 tree." Under date of 5ih of December, 1835, " 1 

 have collected some ripe pods. It is a custom 

 here to cut down the stems in May in order to 

 have new shoots during the rainy season." I con- 

 tinued to send seeds every year to many ports of 

 the United States, but never received any accounts 

 of any trials riiade with them. Finally in the 

 spring of 1833 several seeds from Campeachy, via 

 Havanna and Key West, were so lucky as to 

 reach Cape Florida ; and in that vicinity, I am in- 

 Ibrmed, that their progeny are still propagating 

 themselves. Indeed on the 16th September last, 

 while on a brief visit to Big Pine Key, south-west 

 of Cape Sable, a Mr. Williams showed me a shrub 

 of the kidney seed cotton growing there, which 

 sprang from seeds given to him by Mr. Dubose, 

 the tbrmer keeper of the light house at Cape Flo- 

 rida, to whom my seeds and plants from Yucatan 

 were intrusted. To guard against all contingen- 

 cies however, I brought li-esh seeds with me to In- 

 dian Key in July, 1837, of which some were sown 

 in August, in a single box not co.itaining more 

 than a cubic foot of earth. On my return to this 

 islet, the 25th December last, I found six strong 

 stems growing in that single box, the branches of 

 which were covered with ripening pods; and on 

 the 7ih of February, 1839, the first boll of mature 

 cotton was picked by me; and on the 11th it was 

 sent (by the schooner Hope for Charleston, S. C.) 

 to the Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, commissioner of the 

 Patent Office at Washington. Suffice these de- 

 tails to prove that the perennial kidney seed cotton 

 of Yucatan is now permanently domesticated in 

 Tropical Florida ! 1 have previously notified you 

 of the fact that while at Northampton, Mass.. du- 

 ring September, 1838, 1 obtained a i'ew seeds of an 

 apparently si'/fci'er variety of the kidney seed cot- 

 ton, brought by a Mr. Peck tmni the Sandwich 

 islands ; that one of the Sandwich seeds, sown in 

 a tub of earth on the 19th July last, had grown 

 by the 11th September to the height of nearly two 

 feet, and was then discovered to have five flower 

 buds ; and, I now add, that the first blossoms 

 opened th-e 23rd September, the 2nd the 25ih, 3rd 

 the 27th, the 4ih the 30ih, the fifth blossom on 

 the 2nd October, the sixth on the 5th. A record 

 of these details will be appreciated only by those 

 who can imagine the great results to our southern 

 slates, which may ensue if this single plant shall 

 mature its wool and seeds in the short period of 

 time which will enable it to be cultivated as far 

 north as the common annual cotton. One object 

 of my ambition is to have a few plants of every 

 species and variety of cotton growing in the same 

 nursery. This desire is not Ibunded on the mis- 

 taken opinion that any kind of capsular fibres can 

 ever be produced as profitably as foliaceous fibres, 

 in Tropical Florida. It is very evident that no 

 annual plants can ever be profitably cultivated on 

 a larsre scale, on any of these arid rocky keys. 

 lat. Because the)' will not adnfit the labor saving 

 agency of th.e plough. 2nd. Because they are 

 composed of the single element of carbonate o 

 liracj and as ilv- scanty substance, here called sot?? 



