COTTON 
19 
imported 800 pounds of American cotton, in 1787, 
16,350 pounds, in 1788, 58,500 pounds, and in 
1792, 138,328 pounds. 
By this time it was America rather than England 
which was wrestling with a problem — and our prob- 
lem was how to separate the seed from the lint in 
quantities sufficient to supply the British demand. 
Eli Whitney solved it — just how and when we shall 
consider at greater length in a subsequent chapter. 
It is enough here to say that the year Whitney 
invented the cotton gin the South grew the equiva- 
lent of 10,000 400-pound bales; a hundred years 
later we grew 10,000,000 400-pound bales, 
