17 



I speak of these things because no exhibition of material resources, 

 no show of cotton, corn, or wool, will much avail, unless the mental as 

 well as the material progress of the States and of the Nation are alike 

 promoted. 



I have asked these questions as to your methods of cultivation, 

 as to 3'our treatment of "the land, and as to your tools, implements, 

 gin-houses, and the like, for a purpose. 



Maybe 3*011 think this is somewhat of an assumption on my part, a 

 mere outside observer and theorist ; but I tell you the questions are not 

 mine. If you want to find the originals, go to De Bow's Review ; to 

 Dr. N. B. Cloud of Alabama, and other Southern writers ; to any of 

 your Southern magazines and papers from 1840 to 1860, and 3'ou 

 will find these questions all there, together with assertions of the bad 

 methods referred to, but put with more vigor and more^pertinence or 

 impertinence, whichever you choose to call it, than can be attributed 

 to me. 



We are members one of another ; and, if you want to "jaw back," 

 come up to New England and search out all our weak places, and we 

 will cure them if we can. 



I assume that 3-011 listen to me now as my good old friend Edward 

 Harris used to when a man came to look over his great woollen mill. 

 He was one of the most skilful woollen manufacturers we ever had 

 in New England, and the doors of his mill were open to every man 

 who applied to him. 'I asked him one day win- he let me and his 

 other competitors enter. " Oh," said he, u any one ma3* go in ; but 

 I always want to go with 'em myself. A 113* fool can teach me some- 

 thing." So, maybe, I can teach you. [Laughter.] 



I suppose 3 - ou think I speak with more urgency than the present 

 case will warrant ; but you would comprehend it more fully if you had 

 bought as much cotton for manufacturing purposes as I have; and I 

 only echo the present and urgent complaint of Northern manufacturers 

 against the dirty, wet, muddy bales of cotton fibre, badly ginned, 

 badly covered, and badly packed, that still constitute the bulk of the 

 receipts; and it is sometimes enough to make a saint swear to get a 

 lot of peeler or other type of extra stapled uplands, and find it all 

 nepped and gin-cut by' the saw-gin, when we have every reason to 

 believe that Dobson & Barlow of Bolton, and Platt Bros. & Co. of 

 Oldham, Eng., have perfected the knife roller-gin so, that- it will not 

 only save the staple and beat the saw-gin in quality, but also in the 

 quantity that either will turn off per horse-power applied. 



We have reason to believe this on the testimony of the most ex- 

 haustive series of trials of gins ever made, the results of which have 

 lately been published by the East India Board. 



This is but one of the many subjects that would come up in the 

 proposed exhibition. 



Another subject which impresses me as of the greatest importance 

 is cotton, wool, and perhaps paper from the same field. 



In submitting this as a part of my address, I desire to say that it 

 was written for a different purpose. I intended, and still intend, to 



