132 COTTOX CULTURE. 



a wooden or iron pestle, and rams down each successive 

 layer or parcel of lint as it comes from the gin-room. The 

 bale of Sea Island cotton is fifty or a hundred pounds less 

 than the Upland bale. 



This staple is never manufactured into the coarser mus- 

 lins, but is used for the most delicate fabrics, such as cot- 

 ton cambric and jaconet. It is extensively used in the 

 manufacture of the finest qualities of cotton thread, and 

 it is also consumed in large quantities by silk manufac- 

 turers, the fine, soft, and glossy fibre rendering it an 

 adulteration of the thread of the silk-worm difficult to be 

 detected. 



The seed of the Sea Island cotton, which came origi- 

 nally from the Bahama Islands, and was known as the 

 Anguilla cotton, was first cultivated by Josiah Tatnall, 

 and Nicholas Turnbull, on Skidaway Island, near Savan- 

 nah, and subsequently on St. Simon's Island, at the mouth 

 of the Altamana, and on Jekyl Island. 



The largest crop ever raised in this country was in 

 1827, when the amount produced was nearly fifty thous- 

 and bales. Of late years, that is, since 1850, the annual 

 production has been about thirty thousand bales annually. 

 The Sea Islands proper, Eclisto, Saint Simon's, Jekyl, Skid- 

 away, and others, that line the coast of South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Eastern Florida, procluce the finest quality. 

 When the average price of " long staple " is fifty cents 

 per pound, the cotton from many plantations on these 

 islands will command sixty and seventy cents a pound. 

 That raised on the lower bottoms of the Santee is next in 

 value, while the Florida cottons are generally a little in- 

 ferior. 



From 1830 to 1850, the average price of Sea Island was 

 a little less than twenty-five cents a pound. Since 1850 its 

 price has nearly doubled, the average for a number of 

 years being forty-five, forty-eight, and fifty cents. 



