COTTON. 



has lately been discontinued under a 

 belief that it produced a stringy ap- 

 pearance in the cotton wool. 



" The whipping of cotton at its first 

 gathering, and while attached to the 

 seed, is really beneficial, and should 

 never be omitted. When these op- 

 erations are completed, the harvest 

 may be considered as closed, and the 

 preparation of the cotton for market 

 really begins. Many machines have 

 been designed, and many forms of 

 the same machine adopted, for sep- 

 arating the seed from the Sea-Island 

 cotton, but all of them at last resolve 

 themselves into two wooden rollers 

 turning by opposite movements upon 

 each other. The rollers are from 

 half an inch to an inch in diameter, 

 and revolve from 100 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, be- 

 cause, if the rollers are an inch in di- 

 ameter, 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, 

 and in crushing them in their passage 

 through the rollers will stain and in- 

 jure the cotton in its appearance. 



*' Much money has been spent upon 

 costly machines propelled by horses, 

 by water, or by wind, first in the Ba- 

 hama 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 two to three feet in 

 diameter. The iron cranks which 

 turn the rollers are connected by 

 strips of wood, with a treadle work- 

 ed by the foot ; this treadle runs un- 

 der the machine, and is connected at 

 the farther end of the floor of the 

 house by sockets, within which it re- 

 volves ; the man stands, therefore, 

 in the front of the rollers, with a 

 board between him and the rollers, 

 upon which he holds a large handful 

 S 



of seed of cotton, which he presents 

 from time to time to the rollers that 

 are kept in motion by the pressure of 

 the foot upon the treadle ; this la- 

 bour, from habit, becomes easy, as 

 the feet are often changed in the op- 

 eration. The task expected from 

 the labourer with the machine (which 

 costs, when new and complete, ten 

 American dollars) is from twenty-five 

 to thirty pounds per day. Women, 

 from their careful attention in keep- 

 ing the rollers, while ihey revolve 

 upon each other, well supplied with 

 seed cotton, were unquestionably the 

 best ginners, as they are called 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 hkely to lead, 

 in the end, to abortion or miscar- 

 riage : 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. To prepare 

 the cotton for this ginning, or separa- 

 tion 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 cotton that may have passed 

 through the whipper, are separated 

 from the white ; this is a work of 

 care and attention, and the future 

 appearance of the cotton much de- 

 pends upon the manner in which the 

 work is done. Women are employ- 

 ed in this operation seated upon 

 benches, with tables before them ; the 

 seed cotton is spread in small par- 

 cels, taken out of one basket, exam- 

 ined, and turned over to another, into 

 which the person puts the entire of 

 her day's labour. The quantity re- 

 quired to be thus examined and 

 cleaned in the day by each one is 

 from sixty to one hundred pounds, 

 according to the care bestowed upon 

 the cotton by the grower ; after this 

 sorting it is exposed lightly and short- 

 ly to the sun, that it may take otT 

 any dampness the cotton may have 



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