COTTON AND THE LOOM. 485 



one mode of proceeding, and that is to persuade (by taking measures to make it 

 the interest of its owners) the machinery to come to the cotton, and thus obviate 

 the necessity for sending the cotton to the machinery. At present we seem to be 

 pursuing the same course that would be pursued by the man who should expend 

 hundreds of thousands of days of labor in clearing and cultivating land for the pro- 

 duction of wheat, and then wasting two-thirds of it on the road to and from the 

 distant mill, for want of the application of three or four thousand days of labor 

 to put up a mill on his own land. A grist-mill costing 5,000 days of labor v/ill 

 grind all the grain produced upon land that has cost 200,000, and perhaps 

 500,000 days of labor to place it in its existing condition ; and yet the man above 

 referred to, with such a force and plantation, wastes more days annually thaa 

 would build such an one. So is it with our planters and farmers. We see ia 

 every little community that mills speedily rise for the conversion of grain into 

 flour, and are satisfied with one-eighth toll ; and so we see in every neighborhood, 

 where there are timber and a little water-power, saw-mills are got up for con- 

 verting lumber into boards ; and with each such operation, flour and boards are 

 obtained at less cost of labor, and the farmer has to give less of wheat, and of tim- 

 ber, to have them converted into flour and boards. What would the wheat-grower 

 say who should have to give five bushels for getting one back in flour* — and 

 what should the cotton-grower say to getting back one bale of cotton in the form 

 of cloth? Let him reflect on this, and then answer the following one : Why 

 should not every community of somewhat larger size have in like manner its 

 own place for converting cotton into cloth ? Could that be done, the planter 

 would obtain half the cloth yielded by his cotton. 



The latter will at first view probably deny this. He will say : If I sell my 

 cotton to go to Manchester, it will produce me five cents. If I sell it to the 

 manufacturer on the ground, he will give me no more. If I buy English cloth, * 

 it will cost me ten. If I had a manufacturer on the ground, I should pay the 

 same. So he might for a time ; but the manufacturer would make large profits, 

 and competition would speedily arise, and then he would have his cloth on the 

 ground as cheaply as he could buy it in Lowell, and here would be one saving. 

 This, however, is not all. Let the planter look around and see how much of the 

 labor of his neighborhood is wasted for want of the demand that would be pro- 

 duced by the vicinity of the factory. Then let him reflect upon the advanta^^e 

 to be derived from having, in that factory, a place of employment throughout 

 the year, of the persons who might, in case of need, aid him in his picking, and 

 thus save for him the labor that is now lost on cotton wasted in the field, or over- 

 taken there by frost. Let him consider these things, and he will probably find 

 that the loss in them alone is equal to the value of the labor required for the 

 conversion of all the cotton of the neighborhood into yarn. If they could be 

 saved, and he could thus, with the same labor, send yarn to market instead of 

 cotton, he and his neighbors would be great gainers by the operation. 



Having done this, let him look to the price at which he sells his corn and see 

 what would be the diff"erence to him if he had a market on the ground in conse- 

 quence of the conversion of some of his neighbors into mechanics, mill opera- 

 tives, &c. Instead of remaining poor on the produce of little pieces of land, 



* In gome places in Virginia— in Rappahannock, for instance— the farmer does pay as mucli as one bar- 

 rel to get four transported to I'redcricksburgh, apparently not Blopping to calculate at what price and 

 what yield per acre that becomes a losing game, and apparently not reflecting that while they pay 

 25 cenu for trnnsporting one dollar's worth of wheat they could transport the same weight, or fifteen dol- 

 lare' worth of wool— or $7 50 of cheese, or $18 worth of live beef— at the same cost I 

 (925) 



