COTTOX CULTURE. 141 



of all those of her citizens who are guided by a wise and 

 enlightened self-interest. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OF THE VALUE OF COTTON AS A PLANT, AND THE 

 USES TO WHICH IT MAT BE APPLIED. 



The peculiarity of cotton is that it alone, of all products 

 of the vegetable kingdom, meets a grand and universal 

 demand of the race. Flax is the only other plant culti- 

 vated to any extent for the purpose of making fabrics 

 from its tissue. But in any but a torrid zone, linen is un- 

 suitable as an article for general wearing apparel. 



The products of the sheep and of the silk-worm are, in 

 some respects, superior, but they are also more costly. 

 Nothing begins to compete with cotton as a material of 

 dress in the union of the three important qualities of com- 

 fort, durability, and cheapness. 



When, as in 1848, the average price of Upland cotton 

 was six cents, or in 1852, when it was eight cents per 

 pound, it is hardly possible to conceive of a cheaper dress 

 than could then be made of cotton. Seventy-five cents, 

 expended in plain Lowell, would clothe a laboring person 

 in neat, whole garments, from April to October. There 

 is no probability that it will ever fall to those figures 

 again. It must, from the nature of things, and in any 

 way in which the expenses can be calculated, cost from 

 ten to twelve cents a pound to grow cotton by any other 

 than compulsory, that is to say, unpaid labor. If, from 

 the extensive growth of cotton in India, Egypt, and Brazil, 

 the price of Upland Americans should fall below ten cents, 

 general failure must overtake our cotton interests. While 

 it ranges from ten to fifteen, prudent and economical 



