ANALYSIS OF COTTON WOOL AND SEED. 185 



of cotton, as well as that of the soil it affects. At present, I 

 can only venture on connecting together two facts, which ap- 

 pear to occupy important relations to one another. The soil 

 of St. Stephens, which is said by F. A. Porcher, Esq., to be a 

 stiff, clayey loam, produces the strongest and finest fibre of 

 the Santee varieties. The Sea Island qualities are supposed 

 to owe their superiority to the use of marsh-mud, which I have 

 ascertained to be a clayey admixture, rich in alkalies and 

 alkaline earths. Whether the similarity between these two 

 staples is influenced most (if it is affected at all), by the 

 chemical or mechanical qualities of the soils producing them, 

 it is impossible to decide. It is also conceivable, that the two 

 sets of qualities may conspire to one and the same end. 



2. Cotton Seed. 



One hundred parts, heated as above, lost 77*475, and the 

 thoroughly charred residuum, burned under the muffle, left 

 3*856 parts of a perfectly white ash. The composition was 

 found to be as follows : 



Phosphate of Lime (with traces of Magnesia), . . 61*64 



Phosphate of Potassa (with traces of Soda), . 31*51 



Sulphate of Potassa, ..... 2*55 



Silica, . . . . . . 1-74 



Carbonate of Lime, ..... '41 



Carbonate of Magnesia, .... '26 



Carbonate of Potassium, .... '25 



Carbonate of Potassa, 

 Sulphate of Lime, 

 Sulphate of Magnesia, 

 Alumina, and oxides of iron and 



manganese, in traces, 



and loss, . . 1*64 



100*00 



