302 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



rtipted tlieir conversation, by saying, " Gentlemen, apply to 

 my young friend, Mr. Whitney, he can make anything." 

 After showing them, as the results of his ingenuity, the vari- 

 ous mechanical contrivances which he had devised and ex- 

 ecuted, she introduced him to the circle, who at once made 

 known the object to be accomplished, and the difficulties 

 which were in the way. Whitney, in reply, disclaimed any 

 superiority of mechanical genius, and added, that he had never 

 in his life seen either cotton or cotton seed. Mrs. Greene 

 then said, " I have accomplished my aim. Mr. Whitney is a 

 very deserving young man, and to bring him into notice was 

 my object. The interest which our friends now feel for him, 

 will, I hope, lead to his getting some employment to enable 

 him to prosecute the study of the law." The interest of Mrs. 

 Greene in this young and ingenious stranger, who had been 

 fortuitously thrown in her way, deserves to be recorded in her 

 honor. Such interest is not, we believe, uncommon, particu- 

 larly at the hospitable home of the generous Southerner. It 

 is rare that it meets with a reward so befitting, yet so splendid, 

 as awaited Mrs. Greene, of having her name associated with 

 the man and the invention which was destined to produce so 

 striking a change on the interests and importance of the entire 

 southern country. 



Some of our northern readers may here, perhaps, need to 

 be informed, that there are two kinds of cotton raised at the 

 south the one, the Sea Island, the black seed or long staple 

 cotton ; the other the upland, green seed or short staple. One 

 of these species can be grown only upon the lowlands near 

 the sea. Its fibre is long and fine ; it can be separated from 

 the seed with comparative ease, and it is used in the finer 

 fabrics, as cambrics and muslins. This cotton was the only 

 species that was extensively cultivated previous to Whitney's 

 invention, and its growth was confined, as it is now, to rare 



