it consists of three distinct departments : to wit, 1st, the preparation 

 of the cotton for the spinner ; 2d, spinning ; 3d, weaving and finishing. 



The preparation of the cotton must be conducted near the place 

 where the cotton is grown : it must therefore be diffused over a wide 

 area. It offers a vast field for invention, improvement, and for profit. 

 On the other hand, the spinning and weaving of cotton in factories 

 tends, iix all countries, to concentration in special places. Climatic 

 conditions may have much to do with the first beginnings ; but after 

 a time the whole training and habit of the people are directed to the 

 work, all the subsidiary empk>3 T ments are established, a market 

 exists for the waste, and the subdivision of labor is carried to the 

 point of utmost economy. All this is necessary in a business that is 

 so close, that the profit or loss in the larger part of the work turns 

 on a quarter of a cent a yard. 



The special districts in which the cotton manufacture has become 

 established are those in which the mean temperature gives the stimu- 

 lus needed for the continuous work of the factory, and where in-door 

 work is more consistent with comfort than out-door labor. 



It is true that, many years since, the daughters of the farmers of 

 New England constituted the most numerous 'class in the cotton fac- 

 tories, but they have long since gone into easier and better paid 

 occupations ; and the factories would now be unable to compete, even 

 in the relatively dense population of the North, were it not for the 

 constant supply of French-Canadian operatives. 



If this difficulty obtains in the North because of the competition 

 for labor in the vast diversity of the less conspicuous branches of 

 work, how much greater may it not be in the South ? The Southern 

 friends of the writer may not be averse to accepting an opinion that 

 the South has a vast field of wprk in the manufacturing and mechanic 

 arts that promises a much greater profit than the manufacture of 

 cotton fabrics can offer for many years to come. 



Let us consider some of these, first admitting fully that the cli- 

 matic conditions of Atlanta and throughout the Piedmont district may 

 be favorable to the cotton manufacture. There ai?e many other rea- 

 sons why many other branches of industry should precede the textile 

 factory. 



Ought not capital to be first used in the undertakings that will give 

 employment to the largest number of persons at the highest wages ? 



For instance, the largest tannery in the United States is now situ- 

 ated at Chattanooga, Tenn. Why should the six hundred hides that 

 are daily sent there from New York, to reach the supply of oak-bark, 

 furnished by the woods of Tennessee, be sent back to the North to be 

 made into boots and shoes ? It requires an investment of eight hun- 

 dred to twelve hundred dollars for each operative employed in the cot- 

 ton factory, less than four hundred dollars in a boot or shoe factory. 



A few comparisons may be useful to make this point clear. Tho 

 industrial census of Massachusetts of 1875 was very accurately 

 taken. The number of cotton spindles then existing was somewhat 

 less than now ; but the data will serve as well for comparison as any 

 that could now be compiled. 



