62 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



King James the First, prompted doubtless by his antipathy to 

 ''the Virginia weed," and " having understood that the soil naturally 

 yieldeth store of excellent mulberries," gave instructions to the Earl 

 of Southampton to urge the cultivation of silk in the colony in prefer- 

 ence to tobacco, "which brings with it many disorders and incon- 

 veniences." "As early as the year 1623, the colonial assembly 

 directed the planting of mulberry trees; and in 1656 a penalty of ten 

 pounds of tobacco is imposed upon every planter who shall fail to 

 plant at least ten mulberry trees for every hundred acres of land in 

 his possession. In the same year a premium of 4,000 pounds of 

 tobacco was given to a person as an inducement to remain in the 

 country and prosecute the trade in silk; and in the next year a pre- 

 mium of 10,000 pounds of tobacco was offered to any one who should 

 export 200 pounds worth of the raw material of silk." About the 

 same time 5,000 pounds of the same article was promised "to any 

 one who should produce 1,000 pounds of wound silk in one year." In 

 1666 it was determined that all statutory provisions were thereafter 

 unnecessary, as the success of clivers persons in the growth of silk, and 

 other manufactures, "evidently demonstrated how beneficial the 

 same would prove." 



Cotton, which is the staple of the southern states settled by Vir- 

 ginians, was first grown by the early colonists in 1621, but it was not 

 an article of general home consumption or of export for many years. 

 In 1748 seven bags of cotton-wool, valued at 3 115. $d. a bag, were 

 among the exports of Charleston, South Carolina; and after the 

 Revolution the growth and exportation of the sea island cotton was 

 commenced, seed having been obtained from one of the leeward isles. 

 Originally the cotton was separated from the seed with the fingers, 

 and afterward there were several contrivances used, among them the 

 employment of a long bow fitted with a number of strings, which 

 being vibrated by the blows of a wooden mallet while in contact with 

 a bunch of cotton, shook the seed and dust from the mass. In 1742, 

 M. Dubreuil7 a wealthy planter of New Orleans, invented a cleaning- 

 machine, which was so far successful as to give quite an impulse to the 

 cotton culture in Louisiana, and several other inventions were 

 subsequently used in other sections of the South, but none of them 

 accomplished the desired work. In 1794, Eli Whitney, a native of 

 Massachusetts, then residing in Georgia, discovered the saw-gin, 

 which completely removes all extraneous matters without injury 

 to the fibre, and enables a man to clean three hundred pounds a day 



