278 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



Of tlie precise period of the first introduction of the cotton 

 plant into the North American colonies, history is silent. In 

 a pamphlet entitled, " Nova Brittania, offering most excellent 

 fruits by planting in Virginia," published in London in 1609, 

 it is stated that cotton would grow as well in that province as 

 in Italy. It is also stated, on the authority of Beverley, in 

 his " History of Virginia," that Sir Edmund Andros, while 

 governor of the colony, in 1692, " gave particular marks of his 

 favor towards the propagating of cotton ; which, since his time, 

 has been much neglected." It further appears that it was 

 cultivated for a long time in the eastern parts of Maryland, 

 Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia, in the garden, though not at 

 all as a planter's crop, for domestic consumption. 



In another pamphlet, entitled " A state of the province of 

 Georgia, attested upon oath in the court of Savannah," in 1740, 

 it was averred that " large quantities have been raised, and it 

 is much planted ; but the cotton, which in some parts is peren- 

 nial, dies here in the winter ; which, nevertheless, the annual 

 is not inferior to in goodness, but requires more trouble in 

 .cleansing from the seed." About the year 1742, M. Dubreuil 

 invented a cotton gin, which created an epoch in the cultiva- 

 tion of this product in Louisiana. During the Revolution, the 

 inhabitants of St. Mary's and Talbot counties, in Maryland, as 

 well as those of Cape May county, New Jersey, raised a suf- 

 ficient quantity of cotton to meet their wants for the time. It 

 was formerly produced in small quantities, for family use, in 

 the county of Sussex, in Delaware, near the head waters of 

 the Choptank. 



The seed of the Sea Island cotton was originally obtained 

 from the Bahama Islands, in about the year 1785 ; being the 

 kind then known in the West Indies as the " Anguilla cotton." 

 It was first cultivated by Josiah Tatnall and Nicholas Turn- 

 bull, on Skidaway Island, near Savannah ; and subsequently 



