232 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



more important particulars of the trade, we have gone back as 

 far as 1825. This period of twenty-five years we have divided 

 into intervals of five years, and given the average for each, 

 noting the rate of increase or decrease for each country sepa- 

 rately. By taking average results, we get clear of the fluctua- 

 tions arising from short crops, and other disturbing causes, and 

 are able to observe the general progress, free from those tem- 

 porary variations which prevent our judging accurately the 

 real changes that are taking place. In this review, we shall 

 see a very prominent place assigned to our country. The 

 United States is now, not only the largest producer, but the 

 largest consumer, of cotton : our production has advanced with 

 such rapid strides, that we have distanced all competitors: 

 the cotton goods worn by our people exceed now the amount 

 used by Great Britain and all her dependencies in the four 

 quarters of the globe; and the demands of our manufactories 

 have increased with much greater rapidity than those of any 

 other country in the world. In the table of supplies, (Table I., 

 at the end of this article,) we may observe, that, while other 

 countries have been nearly stationary, our production has ad- 

 vanced with great rapidity. In twenty years, our average 

 crop has increased from 848,000 bales, to 2,351,000, or nearly 

 three hundred per cent. If the period of twenty-five years, 

 from 1825 to 1850, be divided into five equal intervals, the 

 increase for each will be found to be 27, 37, 38, and 15 per 

 cent. In the same time, the production of all other countries 

 has only risen from 383,000 to 440,000 bales; having abso- 

 lutely declined, in the last five, years, over 16 per cent. In 

 the first period of five years, the crop of the United States 

 constituted GS per cent, of the whole; in the second, 74; in 

 the third, "77; in the fourth, 80; and, in the fifth, 84 per cent, 

 of the whole. As our bags have increased very much in 

 weight, and are now much larger than those of other countries, 



