27 



The structure may be in the form of a Greek cross, the engines 

 being in the centre. The roof beams are eight feet apart, ten by twelve 

 inches, or less in j'our climate where 3*011 have no dread of heavy 

 snows ; the rows of posts twenty-four feet apart, and eight feet apart 

 in the rows. These divisions are convenient for almost any machines. 

 Each wing of the cross may be sevent}*-two feet wide, and as long as 

 called for. The end being a movable shield, sections can be built on 

 as fast as wanted. The roof to be covered with two and a half-inch 

 plank tongued and splined, and covered outside with cotton duck 

 painted with slate paint ; the floors of the same structure. For mill 

 use there would be one-inch top floor ; but for the exhibition this 

 would not be needed. Monitors or lanterns at every other bay for 

 light and air. 



Where you have pine timber in such abundance, there can be but 

 little doubt that you can put up this building at a cost of not over 

 fort}' cents a square foot of floor. It can all be put together with 

 bolts and nuts in such a way that, after it ceases to be needed for the 

 exhibition, it can be taken down without injuiy, and put up again in 

 sections to serve for gin-stands, workshops, oil mills, or any other 

 purpose. The whole can be protected against fire by automatic 

 sprinklers, by means of which a fire sounds its own alarm, lets on its 

 own water, and puts itself out. 



I have lately been hauled over the coals a bit in some of your 

 Southern papers because I said I could not conscientiously recom- 

 mend the construction of cotton mills in the South. 1 I do not sup- 

 pose you will be convinced by any thing I can say. Do not think we 

 fear 3*011 r competition. You have such vast fields in other and more 

 profitable directions, that we may expect the consumption of cotton 

 goods to increase here faster than the production possibly can. You 

 will have a hundred small workshops requiring but little capital to 

 one cotton mill, but promoting wealth and general welfare in a vastly 

 greater degree. But if 3*011 build cotton mills, concentrate them ; 

 don't scatter them. Each mill makes the next one easier to run. 

 The higher paid artisans and mechanics in these lesser arts and 

 trades will be our best customers. Then, too, the world is wide ; and, 

 as I have before stated, the foreign demand must greatl}' increase for 

 the product of our spindles or those of Europe. There is one point, 

 however, to which attention ma3 T well be turned. The world demands 

 an enormous quantity of coarse and medium cotton yarn. Nearly 

 or quite one-fourth the value of cotton fabrics exported from Great 

 Britain has for some years consisted of yarn. The cost of a yarn 



i The writer begs to state that he tried to avoid the discussion of this subject. 

 The editor of a New Orleans paper telegraphed hi m to write an article upon 

 Southern cotton manufactures, which he declined to do, only saying that he could 

 not conscientiously recommend investments in Southern cotton mills. This 

 reply was somewhat indiscreetly published, and has led to some unfriendly com- 

 ments, arid also to some absolute misstatements of the case. The writer has 

 given some reasons for an opinion, which, after all, is but that of a single person. 

 If he is mistaken, no one will be more glad to acknowledge the error; and he 

 would ask what method could be better adapted to prove him to be wrong than 

 the proposed cotton exhibition, with all its discussions ? 



