t~\ 



COTTON CULTURE. -\ f *157 j 



anything of his project. His mat$riafe/aiid tools'* ^e^-e 

 both limited; even the wire which nV^cpira^pjild no/'j^ 

 be found at Savannah, and he was forceci^feo draw^tf/qr 



* i * 



himself. Near the close of the winter the machine was- ab/ . 

 nearly completed as to leave no doubt of its success. ^ 

 Mrs. Greene was naturally eager to communicate to her 

 friends the fact of an invention which promised at once a 

 great staple, precisely adapted to their soil, occupation for 

 their hands, and immense wealth, as the result of an ex- 

 tended culture of an article which had been thought of 

 little worth. She invited to her house gentlemen of 

 distinction from different parts of the State, and conducted 

 her assembled guests to the room in which they saw with 

 astonishment a machine which promised such splendid re- 

 sults for all their interest. 



The petition for a patent was presented to Mr. Jeffer- 

 son, the Secretary of State, June 20, 1793. Mr. Jefferson 

 at once took a strong interest in the invention and its 

 originator, and assured Mr. Whitney that his request 

 should be granted as soon as the model was lodged at the 

 Patent Office. In consequence of unavoidable delays, 

 however, the patent was not secured in form until several 

 moiiths afterwards. 



Like many other inventors, Mr. Whitney was destined 

 to wade through a series of tedious and vexatious litiga- 

 tions before he realized anything like an adequate personal 

 return for his ingenuity and skill. But the effect of his 

 invention was immediately seen in the extraordinary in- 

 crease in the cultivation of Green Seed or Upland cotton. 

 Within fourteen years of the time when he first made the 

 discovery, the importance of the invention and its effect' 

 upon Southern agriculture and prosperity are set forth in 

 terms as follows, by Judge Johnson, of Savannah, in a 

 suit to sustain the validity of Whitney's patent : 



" The Green Seed is a species much more productive 

 than the Black, and by nature adapted to a much greater 



