GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



cotton that is to be cleaned fall into the barrel, 

 through which runs in its whole length a shaft, 

 which is turned by the hand by a crank attach- 

 ed to the shaft at one end. This shaft is inter- 

 sected by rods which reach to within an inch 

 of \he barrel. The cotton, as it falls from the 

 hopper, is whirled round by these rods until it 

 escapes at the lower end of the barrel, by 

 which time any sand or dirt, or leaves, or other 

 matter attached to the cotton, has escaped 

 through the spaces intentionally left between 

 the slats or reeds, which constitute the external 

 rim of this barrel or whipper. This whipping 

 was formerly performed as well upon the cot- 

 ton in the seed, as after it was separated from 

 the seed; but the second operation of the 

 whipper has lately been discontinued under a 

 belief that it produced a stringy appearance in 

 the cotton wool. 



" The whipping of cotton at its first gathering, 

 and while attached to the seed, is really bene- 

 ficial, and should never be omitted. When 

 these operations are completed, the harvest 

 may be considered as closed, and the prepara- 

 tion of the cotton for market really begins. 

 Many machines have been designed, and many 

 forms of the same machine adopted, for sepa- 

 rating the seed from the sea island cotton, but 

 all of them at last resolve themselves into two 

 wooden rollers turning by opposite move- 

 ments upon each other. The rollers are from 

 half an inch to an inch in diameter, and re- 

 volve from 100 times to 500 times in a minute. 

 The whole resolving itself into this simple 

 rule, that the smaller the rollers, and the slower 

 they revolve, the cleaner will be the cotton 

 separated from the seed, because, if the rollers 

 are an inch in diameter, and, above all, if they 

 revolve with a high velocity, they will take in 

 soft seeds, small seeds, and false seeds, or 

 motes as they are called, arid in crushing them 

 in their passage through the rollers, will stain 

 and injure the cotton in its appearance. 



" Much money has been spent upon costly 

 machines, propelled by horses, by water, or by 

 wind, first in the Bahama Islands, and for many 

 years in Georgia, and Carolina, but at last 

 most of the growers of sea island cotton have 

 returned to their first and most simple machine, 

 to wit, two wooden rollers, kept together by a 

 wooden frame and a square shaft, upon which 

 is fixed a wooden or iron fly wheel from 2 to 3 

 feet in dimeter. The iron cranks which turn 

 the rollers are connected by strips of wood, 

 with a treadle worked by the foot ; this treadle 

 runs under the machine, and is connected at 

 the farther end of the floor of the house by 

 sockets, within which it revolves ; the man 

 stands, therefore, in the front of the rollers, 

 with aboard between him and the rollers, upon 

 which he holds a latjge handful of seed of cot- 

 ton, which he presents from time to time to the 

 rollers that are kept in motion by the pressure j 

 of the foot upon the treadle ; this labour, from 

 habit, becomes easy, as the feet are often 

 changed in the operation. The task expected 

 from the labourer with the machine (which 

 costs, when new and complete, 10 American 

 dollars) is from 25 to 30 pounds per day. 

 Women, from their careful attention in keep- 

 ing the rollers, while they revolve upon each 



other, well supplied with seed cotton, wore un- 

 questionably the best ginners, as they are call- 

 ed from the term gin, applied to the machine ; 

 but in process of time it began to be believed 

 that the continued motion of the feet produced 

 a relaxed system in women, which was likely 

 to lead in the end to abortion or miscarriage : 

 men have, consequently, been substituted for 

 this work, one which being within doors, and 

 exercising both hands and feet without very 

 much labour, is preferred by them to any other 

 in the winter. What is a little surprising, this 

 simple machine, the foot gin, which we re- 

 ceived from the West Indies, is mentioned, if I 

 mistake not, in the remains of 'NearchusV 

 voyage down the Indus in Alexander's expe- 

 dition, as gleaned and translated by Dr. Vin- 

 cent or Major Rennell, in his map of Hindostan, 

 as there employed for separating the seed from 

 the wool, which the Greeks, for the first time, 

 saw growing upon trees and shrubs. Could 

 Asia Minor, could Greece and Egypt have been 

 acquainted with the cotton plant up to that 

 time ? The inquiry is a little curious, nor is it 

 uninteresting, but can better far be made by 

 one who lives surrounded by much of the 

 wreck of past knowledge, by many of the me- 

 morials of past time, than by him who is living 

 in solitude, under the shadow of his oaks, on. 

 the shores of the Altamaha. To prepare the 

 cotton for this ginning, or separation from the 

 seed, when taken from the house where it was 

 put from the field, it is carefully looked over 

 and separated, or sorted, as it is called, the 

 yellow cotton, the motes, any hard cotten, that 

 may have passed through the whipper, is sepa- 

 rated from the white ; this is a work of care 

 and attention, and the future appearance of the 

 cotton much depends upon the manner in 

 which the work is done. Women are employed 

 in this operation, seated upon benches with 

 tables before them ; the seed cotton is spread 

 in small parcels, taken out of one basket, ex- 

 amined and turned over to another, into which 

 the person puts the entire of her day's labour. 

 The quantity required to be thus examined and 

 cleaned in the day by each one is from 60 to 

 100 pounds, according to the care bestowed 

 upon the cotton by the grower; after this sort- 

 ing it is exposed lightly and shortly to the sun, 

 that it may take off any dampness the cotton 

 may have acquired in the house; it is then 

 passed from this drying immediately to the 

 gin, or machine that separates the seed from 

 the wool ; after going through the gin, and be- 

 ing separated from the seed, it is again turned 

 over to the women, who are generally in a 

 large room, well lighted with glass windows. 

 They sit with small tables before them, made 

 either with open slats, reeds, or wire, when any 

 crushed seeds, and cotton burnt or blackened 

 by the former machine, or motes that have 

 escaped the former searches, are removed ; 

 and to have this work well done, 30 pounds is 

 all that is required per day from each woman. 

 After this third operation it is considered ready 

 to be bagged for market. 



"The bags in which sea island cotton is 

 shipped are almost exclusively Scotch, are 

 made of hemp, 42 inches wide in the \i-eb, and 

 should weigh 1 pounds to the yard; these 



