118 



Selections. [no. 3, new series, 



QUANTITY PER ACRE. 



The American Cotton was estimated by the Hon. Levi Woodbury 

 at 250 to 300 lbs. per acre in 1835; since then, its cultivation 

 having extended to Alabama and southward, the returns of those 

 States are 400 lbs. per acre and upwards, in consequence of their 

 finer climate and longer summer ; in all probability, that of Texas 

 averages still more. 



The Cotton Plant, which in Carolina is an annual, being killed 

 yearly by the frost, rising only to a spread and height of eighteen 

 inches becomes a perennial, of from five to six feet in height and 

 spread in warmer climates. If we may rely on an experiment 

 made on ten acres in Jamaica, the American Sea Island seed gave 

 a return of 500 lbs. of wool per acre, (corresponding with that in 

 Demerara) ; and was expected to yield at two crops per annum 

 1,000 lbs. per acre,* 1 the wet season however is less favourable to 

 the opening of the pods, the regularity of the picking and the dry 

 quality of the Cotton ; but the same description of Cotton in 

 Carolina gives only 150 to 180 lbs. per acre. 



The expectation from crops in India is only 300 lbs. per acre, or 

 at most 300 to 500 lbs. of Wool from American seed. The native 

 seed is said to yield far less ; and that exported is of an inferior 

 sort. The East India seed which I have seen is small, and would 

 easily pass through between the rollers, and having a close adhesive 

 tuft is the more difficult to clean unless by the saw gin. Both 

 causes may possibly be owing to a want of change of seed, or a 

 rotation of crops ; the neglect of which is ascribed as causing the 

 abandonment of its cultivation in the West Indies, when it began 

 to spread in America. 



AMERICAN AND ENGLISH FABRICS. 



The American White and Gray Cottons are now maintaining a 

 successful rivalry with British manufactures in foreign markets. 

 Their unbleached domestics, as also their white calicoes, command 

 a higher price, from their superior strength and durability, than 



* Statement by H. Gourgues to the Assembly of Jamaica, 



