340 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



From the United States Gazette. 

 On the Manufacture of Straw and Grass Bonnets. 

 No. V. 

 The celebrated English statesman and orator, 

 Mr. Windham, asserted in the House of Com- 

 mons, that ' Cobbett deserved a Statue for what 

 he had done in the United States.' He refer- 

 red to his tirst visit, in 1793, when he came to 

 tr}- his fortune among us, to his great exertions, 

 to promote the cause of England, and to his 

 abuse of the French nation, and of some of the 

 greatest and best men in this country. Instead 

 of erecting a statue, to him, he was put in 

 Newgate in 1810, for two years, and lined one 

 thousand pounds to the King, merely for pub- 

 lishing ' that British soldiers had been whipped in 

 the heart of England, under a guard of German 

 bayonets.'' His zeal in the bonnet business cer- 

 tainly entitles him much more to a statue from 

 his countrymen, than his political conduct, either 

 in England or the United States ; and he cannot 

 fail of being remembered honorably, tor the 

 source of wealth which he has laid open for his 

 countrymen. He says, (June, 1823) " I know 

 they (the English bonnets) will go to America. 

 I know they will beat the Leghorns in the West 

 Indies, in South America, and in the United 

 States; but the thing of all things 1 should like, 

 is to send a box of hats and sell them at Leg- 

 horn !, In his Register of December 19, 1823, 

 he says that the people of Norfolk and Suffolk 

 have taken the lead in the valuable manufac- 

 ture, and the town of Bury St. Edmund* is send- 

 ing out teachers to instruct the rest of the coun- 

 try.' He is safe in saying that the English will 

 beat the Americans, because it is probable that 

 Congress will not follow the example of Eng- 

 land, by encouraging the manufacture of the ar- 

 ticle in these states. They will do what the 

 writers of England wish and say they ought to 

 do, that is, lay no duties, let trade " regnlate it- 

 self." 



Thus the trade will lie completely turned up- 

 on us. We first sent New England bonnets to i 

 old England; and she will hereafter deluge us 

 with them ; and together with the capital with 

 which we in effect supply the British manufac- 

 turers, to the great injury of our native import- 

 ers, by allowing long credits on importations ; 

 and by the disposal of their {\msey made-for-auc- 

 tion-goods, at public sale on their account, will 

 contribute to the drain of our cash from us, and 

 continue the chain, which the British statesmen 

 boast, they have entwined around the necks of 

 the Americans. 



Our fellow citizens of the south, are in par- 

 ticular, interested in patronizing the cheap A- 

 merican straw and grass bonnet manufactory, 

 to enable the people of the north to purchase 

 their grand staples. 



Tobacco, will not now pay for cultivation, 

 and there is no prospect of any change taking 

 place in the price for the better: for accounts 

 which may be relied on, state, that at the close 

 of the year 1823, the stock in Europe amounted 

 to 75,000 hhds.— that is 10,000 beyond the de- 

 mand for one year. Nor can more be said for 

 Cotton. The planters of South Carolina and 

 Georgia, ought to reflect upon the fact, that 

 twelve years since when their export of cotton 

 did not amount to more than half, (if so much,) 

 :is that during the last year, their receipts were 



far greater than at present. Friend Cropper of | 

 Liverpool, did indeed, by a most fallacious state- 

 ment, last year, induce the planters to believe, 

 that the supply would not be equal to the de- 

 mand, and for a few months, the effect was, his 

 receiving large consignments, the thing he want- 

 ed, but the bubhie soon burst, and now it seems, 

 that new rivals in the cultivation of cotton have 

 started up, in the independent colonies of South 

 America, and of Mexico. Several cargoes of 

 the article from Santa Martha, and of Cartha- 

 gena, have been imported into Philadelphia, 

 and sold at 17 cents : it was eagerly purchased 

 by the spinners, being soft and silky, and the 

 staple as long and fine as that of the best Sea 

 Island. The Spanish colonies, are our rivals at 

 home : a more distant, but no less formidable 

 competitor in the European market is that ex- 

 traordinary person the Pacha of Egypt, samples 

 of whose good cotton have been received in the 

 United States, and who, having the power will 

 doubtless accomplish that which he has declar- 

 ed he would do, " cover the earth with the cot- 

 ton plant from Cairo to the Cataracts of the 

 Nile." His first shipment of several thousand 

 bales was a short time since slated by a Man- 

 chester Commission house, to their correspon- 

 dent in Philadelphia, to be on the way to Eng- 

 land. The people of New England, take the 

 cotton from the south, and they would take a 

 great deal more, if Congress would increase the 

 duty upon fine cotton fabrics, and upon coarse 

 woollens ; and justice demands that the ladies 

 and men of the south should wear the fine grass 

 and straw bonnets of the north. What a glori- 

 ous sight would it be for 1000 ladies of South 

 Carolina to appear during their annual carnival 

 in Charleston, and especially on the race course, 

 covered with them ! ! ! That would be truly 

 an act of patriotism. It would be proper con- 

 duct in the daughters and grand daughters of 

 women, whose high eulogy will be pronounced 

 by future historians, and who during the Ame- 

 rican war, s>' nobly submitted to the greatest 

 privations, to bodily and mental sufferings, 'for 

 the glorious cause of their country, and often 

 supported the drooping spirits of their husbands, 

 lovers, and sons, in the trying scenes to which 

 they were exposed ; and who while prisoners 

 in Charleston, refused to dance at balls with the 

 elegantly dressed British officers, and accepted 

 as partners, their captive countrymen with 

 thread bare coats! 



Besides, is it not better policy to make this 

 reciprocal exchange of a raw material for ati 

 elegant article of dress, than to send their mo- 

 ney to Leghorn for hats ? Cotton, the Leghorr,- 

 ers do not want, for they raise what they re- 

 quire, in their own country. But the cry is, 

 that " the manufacturers will impose, and charge 

 two prices if encouraged by increased duties on 

 foreign goods. Such fears are groundless. The 

 fact of the high prices they charged during the 

 late war will not happen again ; and even for 

 those prices an apology may be offered, by re 

 ferring to the well known fact, that farmers, 

 planters and merchants always avail themselves 

 of a scarcity in the article they have to sell, by 

 taking as much as they can get. The cotton 

 planters themselves did not refuse at one time 

 50 cents a pound for Sea Island cotton, and 30 

 cents a pound for Upland : they would gladly 

 get those sums again, but the game is up : nor 

 did the Tobacco planters refuse in the year 



1818, ^110 and gl20 per hhd. for their tobac 

 CO : they would take those sums to-morrow 

 Such is human nature. High prices for cloths 

 or other domestic articles of manufacture ar< 

 not again to be expected, although protects* 

 by duty ; for the invariable result will be, as ioD§ 

 since stated by A. Hamilton, that competitioi 

 will reduce prices even below those of the inj 

 ported article ; and at the same time, the .\me 

 rican fabric will be fiir better in quality than tht 

 foreign. Coarse muslins, hals, leather, chemi 

 cal medicines, paints, and many other article 

 that might be mentioned, are in proof of botl 

 positions. The abundance of Capital, the di 

 tninished sources for investing it, and the zea 

 of our citizens, are a powerful stimulus, to actiy 

 engagements in manufactures; and if the ei 

 ample of the statesmen of the old world wa 

 adopted by those of the United States of protea 

 ing in every possible way, home industry, the 

 would soon flourish, and prosperity once mor 

 be restored to the country. 

 Jl Friend to Agriculture, Commerce and Manvfacluri 



Extracts from the London Farmers' Journal. 



ON SALT AS A MANURE. 



't Cheshire, Feb. 25, 1824. 

 " In answer to the enquiry of a Yorkshil 

 Farmer, (inserted in your valuable journal ft 

 the present week,) respecting "Salt as a To| 

 dressing for Wheat," 1 beg leave to say, that 

 should consider salt, used as a top-dressio] 

 even in a moderate quantity would be fatal I 

 the crop ; but if salt had been spread upon h 

 fallows early in autumn, and well incorporatf 

 in the soil, there is not a doubt but that consi 

 erable benefit would have been derived from 

 particularly so if the fallows were in a ioul ai 

 weedy state, and which owing to the wetness 

 the last summer was generally the case. 



" A CHESHIRE FARMER." 



SALT NOT A MANURE. 



" I am featful that the humbug that has goi 

 forth to the agricultural world, ' that salt is 

 powerful manure,' will have occasioned mut 

 dependence and consequently great disappoir 

 ment, among those whose education has not be( 

 such as to enable them to fairly investigate tl 

 merits of this subject. Animal and vegetab, 

 life is supported by that quantity of food, whk 

 is taken up by the absorbent vessels (for I Cl 

 the fibrous roots of plants by that term ;) and tb 

 food of each is considered more or less nutr 

 tious, in proportion to its solubility. 



" Salt operates on the animal system, by pre 

 moting a more copious discharge of saliva i 

 gastric juice, (the natural solvents of fol 

 and which it aids in promoting an increa 

 quantitv of chyle, thus inducing a tendency*'! 

 fatten ;*acting not as a food in itself, but <ia 

 condiment. 



" So in using salt as a manure — it is not ilii 

 self a manure, but assists, used in modeni 

 quantities, the decomposition of the decayit 

 animal and vegetable matter applied as a coOu 

 post, aiding them, more quickly to assume tb. 

 leriform, or liquid state, which is necessapi 

 previous to absorption by the plants, for ihSt 

 vigorous and healthy growth." 



REMARK. — -Our readers will perceive similar icbl 

 to the above in our paper, vol. ii. pa^es 210, 249i 



