APRIL — JUNE, 1857.] Ohsenations on Cotton, 
119 
English goods.'"^ While the American manufacturer saves the dif- 
ference of freight, he buys a superior article, and gives \ a cent, to 
1 cent, more per lb. (|d. and |d.) than for shipping qualities sent 
to England. 
The English manufactures for foreign markets are composed 
greatly of East India Cottsn, which is shorter and weaker, though 
possibly finer, than American ; it is also greatly mixed with particles 
of brown leaves and motes, which, notwithstanding all preparatory 
processes, get spun into the thread and weaken its adhesion ; and 
though they are jemoved in the dressing of white cloths, they yet 
leave the web less entwined throughout : the leaves and motes are 
occasioned by neglect of picking the Seed-Cotton from the pods 
as they successively open. 
The fibre of Cotton,f viewed through a microscope, is described 
as having a range of hooks on its edges, by which one fibre ad- 
heres to another. On this account it is said to be less fit for sur- 
gical purposes than flax ; the fibre of which is found to be a suc- 
cession of smooth hollow joints. Where these serrated edges are 
less perfect the thread will be weakened, and to prevent their 
breaking, the English Fabrics require a slower operation, especi- 
ally when mixed with East India Cotton. 
It is said by an English operative, who counted the strokes with 
his watch in his hand, that the American spinner, having paid 
from 5 to 10 per cent, higher for his selected wool, gains 20 per 
cent, by the rapidity of his machinery ; as, when weaving for a 
foreign market, he can give 130 strokes at the loom per minute, 
instead of 100 to 110. On this point, however, I only repeat the 
information received. The American manufacturer has likewise, 
in different portions of the States, a great command of water-power, 
and in selecting new situations, in such an unoccupied country, 
* In ths year 1831 the export of American manufactures was £22(^,000 sterling. 
—American Almanac for 1833, ^o^e 126. In 1841, it was £600,000 sterling, 
chiefly of white cottons.— De7^o /or Y^iZ.jpage 191. In 1847, the value exported 
was £816,500; and in 1848, it reached £1,143,600 sterling.— DiVi'o /or \%b'^^Tpage 
176. 
t Baines' History of the Cotton Manufactures of Britain. 
