APRIL — JUNE, 1857.] 



Observations on Cotton. 



Ill 



competition of the American white and gray fabrics with those of 

 Britain in foreign markets ; the great production of the raw ma- 

 terial by slave labour in the States ; the general inferiority of that 

 imported from India ; the practicabilty of obtaining larger supplies 

 by free labour from other quarters within our reach ; the improve- 

 ment of the staple and consequently of the fabric ; and the open- 

 ing of new markets in Africa and elsewhere, will be the subject 

 of the few accompanying remarks, but which deserve more atten- 

 tion than the writer has been able to devote to them. 



AMERICAN COTTON, QUANTITIES, VALUES. 

 The Honorable Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the United States 

 Treasury, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, in a letter 

 on the cultivation and foreign trade of Cotton, states that: — 



The Cotton crop of the United States in 1835 was estimated at 

 480,000,0Q0lbs. weight ; which, computing 3001bs. to the acre, 

 would give 1,600,000 of acres, and at 250lbs. per acre, 1,920,000 

 acres cultivated for Cotton. 



Value of land 2,000,000 acres at 20 dollars per acre, about £4 

 Sterling, is 40,000,000 dollars, or about £8,000,000 Sterling. 



340,000 field hands, (that is slaves) supposed to be employed, 

 estimated then at 800 dollars each is 272,000,000 dollars, being 

 £54,400,000 Sterling; also 340,000 assistants, estimated at half- 

 price. 



Total capital invested in theUnitedStates, in the production of cot- 

 ton, estimated at 800.000,000 dollars, being£160,000,000 sterling* 



The quantity in the year 1834-5, was 1,254,000 bales, of about 

 350 to 400 lbs. each, in 1842-3 it was nearly double, or 2,378,000 

 bales ;f so that the total investment in the cultivation of slave 

 grown Cotton in the States will be now nearly £300,000,000 Sterling. 



Of the unfortunate system of slavery, which Britain left in hev 

 former American plantations, the principal supports are Cotton, 

 Tobacco, and Rice. Out of 113,000,000 dollars of domestic ex - 



* See Tables and Extracts from said Letter in American Almanac for 1837, 

 page 93. . 



t Cotton crop of United States for 1843. 



