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successful growth. The cleaning it, is a matter which enterprise 
ancl intelligence ought to accomplish.* 
Africa, no doubt, presents on its northern, western, and 
southern coasts, soils and climates adapted to the growth of 
cotton. Many years ago I forwarded specimens of cotton, 
which had been grown at Port Natal, to Manchester, and they 
were pronounced of excellent quality. The great difficulty, 
however, which Africa presents is that of seeming a perma- 
nent supply of labour. The native population is everywhere 
too rude in its habits to be depended on for producing 
any large quantities of a produce requiring so much attention 
for its culture as cotton. It will be a happy day for Africa 
when its inhabitants shall settle down to the permanent produc- 
tion of those substances so universally needed by man, and 
which its soil and climate are so capable of yielding in almost any 
quantity. 
To the West Indies we ought to look. Our own islands 
there were the first recipients of the plant which now supplies 
Manchester with its best cotton. Till the year 1786 we 
received above a third of all our cotton from the West Indies ; 
and there appears to be no valid reason why we should not 
receive a larger quota than this at the present day. Soil and 
climate are favourable to the production of cotton equal to the 
Sea-Island (fig. 12) ■ and there are only needed the enterprise, 
skill, and determination which have enabled the Southern states- 
man of America to obtain for Ins cotton access to all the 
markets of the world. Let it not be said that slavery is essential 
to the growth of good cotton, as it is very evident that this is 
an accident, and not a necessity of cotton culture. 
The only other country to which it is necessary here to draw 
attention is Australia (fig. 13). Upon the coasts of this vast 
country there must be innumerable localities in which cotton would 
find all the conditions of its most prosperous growth. Already 
specimens have been seen in this country, and a high authority 
has pronounced that “ cotton equal to the finest of the fine 
might be produced to an almost indefinite amount” in Aus- 
tralia. A new experiment must, however, be tried there before 
cotton cultivation can succeed, and that is the ability of the 
white labourer to meet the conditions necessary for the cultiva- 
tion of a plant whose natural climate lies within and a little 
beyond the tropics. This difficulty may not be insurmountable, 
and we may yet be indebted to Australia for a commodity more 
precious than gold. 
* Since the above was written, my attention has been called to some 
letters by Dr. Wight, on the subject of the culture of cotton in India, in the 
“ Gardener’s Chronicle” for December, 1861 , which claim the consideration 
of ail those interested in the culture of cotton in India. — E. L. 
