61 



the Georgia and South Carolina coast. It is very valuable on ac- 



e 'iint of its kmg ribre, and is only employed in the manufacture of 

 and other costly articles of luxury. 

 Cotton fibre, when examined by the microscope, is found to be 

 som ;d bluntly triangular. Its direction is not straight, 



but contorted so that the locks can be extended and drawn out with- 

 out doing violence to the tibres. The threads are finely toothed, 

 winch is the reason for their adhering together. 



The New Orleans and Mobile cotton is. most valued in the 

 EaropOMi markets. Before the war four millions of bales, at four 

 hundred pounds a bale, were produced, the value of which was esti- 

 mated at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Louisiana pro- 

 duced before the war live hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton, 

 whose value was no less than twenty-two millions of dollars. 



Cotton seed contains a fixed oil which is expressed and sold for 

 lubricating purposes. It is valuable as food for cattle, and as man- 

 r exhausted cotton lands. 



sitiva was cultivated in the East from time imme- 

 morial. It is the most wide spread of all the cereal grasses. In 

 Southern Asia it is almost the only food of the lower classes. The 

 Japanese and Chinese, and the people of the East Indies, of Mada- 

 ur, T ia and North Africa would be exposed to great suffering 

 without a sufficient supply of rice. It flourishes in the countries 

 north of the Mediterranean — Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain. It 

 lias been found in a wild state in the interior of South America. It 

 foims the principal staple product of the coast plantations of Geor- 

 gia and the Carolinas, and it is cultivated to a limited extent on 

 some of the coast plantations below New Orleans. It is an annual 

 98 growing up with a stalk similar to that of wheat, having the 

 joint-, h wl ver, much closer, and much more numerous. The grains 

 are enveloped in rough yellow husks, provided with an awn. The 

 i divested of the husks constitute the rice of commerce. 

 There are several varieties. The common rice grows only in 

 mamhjF soil, and requires irrigation at certain stages of its growth, 

 mountain rice (Oryza mutica) is cultivated in Cochin China and 

 . and flourishes best on the slopes of hills. 

 robac o Nicotiana tabaccum) is probably a native of tropical 

 America. It is now cultivated in most parts of the world, of which 

 i and the Virginia tobacco are the most celebrated. To- 



