94 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Memoir on weight ; aiid when the wool is separated from 

 Cultivation, the seed, the produce of fine clean cotton is from 



29 March 1819. 



one-quarter to one-third of the weight of every 

 pound gross cotton and seed. The muster now^ 

 sent containing pods of Brazil cotton was actually 

 planted and reared by myself. When I weighed 

 thirty-six pods of this Brazil produce, the gross 

 weight was 887 grains. After separating the wool 

 from the seed, the wool weighed 234 grains, the 

 seed 653 grains, not a particle of leaf or dirt in it. 

 Thirty-six pods of Bourbon weighed gross 294 

 grains. After separating the wool from the seed, 

 the wool weighed 80 grains^ the seed 214 grains. 

 Thus, it seems, Brazil cotton produces about 

 twenty-five or twenty-six per cent, wool ; Bourbon 

 27 per cent. Mr. Metcalfe found that old native 

 cotton produced only twenty-two per cent, of wool ; 

 and he declared, justly, that it cleared or separated 

 most tediously, and was quite a vexatious proceed- 

 ing. But the most remarkable circumstance is, 

 that old native produce is not more than 30 lbs. of 

 clean cotton an acre. So small a produce has 

 always surprised me, and caused a suspicion that 

 my information was not correct ; yet, after every 

 enquiry, I have not been able to find a better 

 result. The Brazil cotton is about, taking the 

 lowest calculation, seed and wool 1,085 lbs. an 

 acre, or 271^ lbs. clean cotton free from seed ; 

 perhaps Bourbon may produce something more or 

 less, depending upon how the shrubs come up, 



and 



