COTTON CULTUKE. 163 



dred bales a week; that in the United States alone, the 

 growth is increasing, but limited there to about the same 

 ratio as the increase of the colored laborers, that is, five 

 per cent, per annum, an increase barely sufficient to sup- 

 ply the growing demand for its own consumption and for 

 the continent of Europe; and that, consequently, if this 

 branch of industry is to increase at all, on its present foot- 

 ing in Great Britain, it must be by applying a greater 

 stimulus to the growth of cotton in other countries adapt- 

 ed to its culture. The incapacity of other regions to sup- 

 ply the demand being shown, the writer looks to the Brit- 

 ish West India Islands, and the African and Australasian 

 colonies as most likely to make up the deficiency. 



From the year 1860 to 1865 the question of the cotton 

 supply was one of intense interest, on account of the al- 

 most entire withdrawal of contributions to the cotton 

 market from the American States, coupled with very grave 

 doubts whether for many years, at least, the state of things 

 in those unhappy regions would admit of settled and suc- 

 cessful industry. But we have seen that under the enor- 

 mous stimulus of, at times, a dollar a pound, and, most of 

 the time, fifty cents and over per pound, for the last four 

 years, that the supply from other countries than the Unit- 

 ed States has not been greatly augmented; and now, as 

 cottons are slowly declining, the figures are falling back 

 to about what they were before the war. The effect is 

 not that the world gets along without American cottons, 

 but rather that in view of the diminished supply from 

 America, the consumption of cotton has decreased, and 

 that of linen, silk, and woolen, especially the latter, has 

 increased. But this diminished consumption is an enforc- 

 ed and unnatural state of things. The demand for manu- 

 factured goods throughout the world is largely increasing, 

 and the proper conclusion to be drawn from all these facts 

 and figures is, that no part of the world, during the pres- 

 ent century, has offered or is likely to offer so large a field 



