GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



country.'" The agitation of the subject was | 

 commenced in the public prints of Philadel- 

 phia, and the promising capacities of soil and 

 climate were discussed in essays and discourses ': 

 read in and about the year 1787, before the 

 societies which were led to the consideration 

 of this and other matters calculated to advance 

 the interests of the country. The most early 

 and decided proof of the practicability of rais- 

 ing cotton crops to advantage in the United 

 States, was first received in a letter from Mr. 

 Leake of Georgia, addressed to General Tho- 

 mas Proctor of Philadelphia. When it is esti- 

 mated that the cotton brought to Philadelphia 

 about the year 1787, and some time after, sold 

 for home consumption at two shillings sterling, ' 

 or four-ninths of a dollar, the inducements to 

 raise it may be readily imagined. Congress 

 being at length convinced that the States could 

 produce sufficient cotton for domestic use, in 

 the first reformed tariff bill laid a duty of three 

 cents per pound on that brought from other 

 countries. American cotton began to be an 

 important article of export in 1798 and 1799. 

 It was, however, soon discovered that more 

 could be raised than could be picked or cleared 

 from seed by hand, the only mode of accom- 

 plishing this object then known, and the one 

 which had been practised by the Egyptians 

 and Eastern people for thousands of years. 

 Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts who 

 emigrated to the south, invented a mill to 

 gin, pick, or separate cotton from the seed, 

 and this with such facility as to perform in 

 one day the labour of three thousand pair of 

 hands. To work or attend this mill, impelled 

 bv water-power, requires only three persons. 

 Thus, by the aid of machinery, the capacity to 

 prepare cotton for market was made equal and 

 even superior to the immense productive capa- 

 cities of the climate and soil of the Southern 

 States. These two facts, (says a writer in the 

 American Farmer, vol. ii.). First, the capability 

 of the southern country to produce cotton, and, 

 Secondly, the invention of the wtiter sair-gin, 

 have effected the greatest and most enriching 

 change in the agriculture of the United States, 

 ever experienced by any people, ancient or 

 modern. And to this view must be added the 

 results of inventions, principally in England, 

 but many in America, of those labour-saving 

 machines and processes to pick, rove, spin, 

 double, twist, wind, weave, dye, print, bleach, 

 dress, &c., all within a comparatively few 

 years. 



Such are the considerations which are 

 calculated to inspire correct views of the im- 

 portance and extension of the cotton crop of 

 the United States, the immense exportable pro- 

 duce of which has so much favoured every 

 branch of domestic industry in other parts of 

 the country; for those States situated too far 

 northward to admit of the advantageous culture 

 of cotton, by which the attention of the south- 

 ern planter is almost exclusively engrossed, ! 

 supply him with bread-stuffs, meat, horses, j 

 mules, and most other important appliances 

 of life. The necessities of the Revolution, and ! 

 subsequent financial embarrassments of the [ 

 country, led to the developement of the cotton ' 

 culture in the United States ; whilst the last war, l 



by cutting off the customary supplies of British 

 and other foreign fabrics, taught the Americans 

 to manufacture for themselves, and thus opened 

 to the producing States a home market for their 

 exuberant cotton crops. 



The progressive developement of the cotton 

 culture in the United States is shown in the 

 following statement of the crops for different 

 periods ; viz. 



In 1SOO, about 

 1810, 

 18-20, 



1-3' I, 

 1810, 



35,000,000 Ibs. 



85,000,000 

 160.000,000 

 350,000,000 

 790,479,257 



It is estimated that good lands yield, on an, 

 average, from 250 to 300 Ibs. of clean cotton, 

 per acre, and inferior lands from 125 to 150 Ibs.; 

 and that the capital invested in the cotton cul- 

 ture in the Union is about $800,000,000. The 

 annual value of the crop is about $80,000,000, 

 and of the exports $63,000,000. 



The cotton exports of the year 1840 were 

 as follows : 



To Great Britain ... 1,246,791 bales. 

 To France ----- 447,465 

 North of Europe ... 103,231 

 To other ports - ... 78,515 



Total . 



- 1,876,003 



Tbe total exports of 1841, were 1,313,277 bales. 

 1840, l,"7i,603 



562,726 



The amounts exported to various countries 

 in 1841, were as follows : 



To Great Britain - 858,742 bales. 



To France 348.776 



To ports in north of Europe - - 56,279 

 To all other ports .... 49,480 



Total 



1,313,277 



We subjoin, also, the ports from which the 

 article has been sent, with the portion from 

 each. 



In 1841, from New Orleans and 

 Mississippi .... 656,81 6 bales. 



From Alabama .... 216,239 

 FloritlH - 32/297 



Georgia .... 35,596 

 North and South Carolina - 162,275 

 Virginia .... 4,723 

 Baltimore - 217 



Philadelphia - - - 1,934 

 New York - ... 149,569 

 Boston .... 3,602 



Total 



1,313,277 



We annex an account of the home consump- 

 tion. 



Quantity consumed by, and stock 

 remaining in the hands of United 

 States manufacturers, Sept. 30, 



1841 297,288 bales. 



Do. Sept. 30, 1840 - - - 295,193 

 Do. do. 1839 ... 276,018 



The cotton produced and gathered in the 

 United States is stated, in the returns accompa- 

 nying the census taken in 1840, at 790,479,257 

 Ibs., which product exceeds two-thirds of the 

 annual cotton crop of the whole world, this 

 being estimated at 1.000,000,000 Ibs. Of the 

 whole amount raised in the United States, South 

 Carolina furnishes about l-13th. Every year, 

 however, opens new lands in the West to the 



547 



