BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
163 
the staple, eight bag^s of cotton were seized at Liverpool on board of an American 
vessel, because it was supposed by the custom house oflficers that such an amount 
could not have been raised in North America. 
Out of 19,900,000 lbs. of cotton wool imported in 1786, 5,800,000 lbs. came 
from the British West Indies, 5,500,000 lbs, from the French and Spanish Colonies, 
1,600,000 lbs. from the Dutch Colonies, 2,000,000 lbs. from the Portuguese Colo- 
nies, and 5,000,000 lbs. from Smyrna and Turkey; whilst out of 227,760,000 lbs., 
being the import of 1828, 151,652,000 lbs. were from the United States, 29,143,000 
lbs. from Brazil, 32,187,000 lbs. from the East Indies, 6,454,000 lbs. from Egypt, 
5,893,000 lbs. from the Briiish West Indies, 72G,O00 lbs. from Columbia, and 
471,000 lbs. from Turkey and Greece. 
It is supposed that about two millions of persons are engaged directly, and 
about two millions more indirectly, in the manufacture of the raw material into, 
cotton cloth in Great Britain alone. 
Introduction into the United States. 
In the Southern States, many of the planters, and other gentlemen residents, 
had for a long time been accustomed to, small fields of cotton, but it had never be- 
come an export, and none conceived, the important part which the cotton plant 
was about to play in the commercial prosperity of the Southern States— for its cul- 
tivation can only be carried on advantageously as far as Virginia, as it requires a 
certain duration of warm weather to perfect its seeds, and consequently any further 
tending to the northward ends in failure. 
As the machinery for the proper manufacture of the raw material into cotton 
cloth became more improved, so did the demand for the production become 
greater, and the impulse having been once given, the small fields soon became 
plantations. But still, it was, although a rapidly increasing, yet by no means a 
considerable, article of commerce. 
At length, however, Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and many 
others arose, and, aided by the steam-engine of Watt, so vastly improved themachin-. 
ery for the production of cotton cloth, that the consumption far exceeded the sup- 
ply. It was found then, that not without immense expense could the fibre be separ- 
ated from the seed to which it was attached. But the necessity produced the man 
— the bane its antidote — a New Englandcr froui Massachusetts on reaching Georgia, 
where he had determined to settle, at onqe perceived the difficulty, an.d his genius 
soon SI pplied the want, by the invention (1793) of the saw-gin^ commonly called 
the cotton gin — and that so perfectly, that Eli Whitney's invention has held to.th^ 
present day without material improvement. 
