3 
it valued at two shillings per lb., but being mixed, 
the best sold for the price of the inferior. Speak- 
ing of samples of Queensland cotton sent in 1856, 
Mr. Clegg, of Manchester, writes in a letter which 
is given in full at the close of this paper, “ to show 
that there is no risk, I dare at this moment buy 
500 bales of from 300 to 500 lbs. each of this 
cotton at two shillings per lb.” That is to say, 
that he, as an individual only, would purchase 
£20,000 worth. He says again, alluding to the 
Queensland growers, “ho not, however, Jet them 
deceive themselves, hut calculate, as one of them- j 
selves lately said, oa realising an average of fif- j 
teenpence to eighteenpence per lb.” But sup- j 
posing the grower could sell in Queensland for j 
ten pence per pound, the value of 3000 lbs. would 
be £125. With this income from five acres, with 
regularity and certainty every year, few of our 
farmers would complain. 
Maize and English potatoes have been spoken 
of as being of a perishable nature even when ga- 
thered in ; cotton may be said to be, in compari- 
son, imperishable. They are again, sometimes 
difficult to sell, and prices vary considerably. 
Cotton has, on the contrary, a sure and instantly 
realisable cash value, which is liable to but slight 
and unimportant fluctuations. A farmer of 
known steadiness and integrity, would easily ob- 
tain an advance upon his cotton crop, while being 
picked, or while yet growing ; to ask similar as- 
sistance upon the security of either maize or 
English potatoes would be regarded with suspi- 
cion, nor would such a request be generally grant- j 
ed. Upon cotton as a security, it would be quite |j 
a legitimate transaction : equally so, indeed, as |j 
upon that usual security, a lien of wool upon the j j 
sheep’s back. 
The difficulty most apparently formidable con- 1 
neeted with a large cotton cultivation, is the 
picking ; but there is no reason at all to conclude (I 
that it is insurmountable. As an annual opera- j| 
tion, requiring for a time a concentration of la- j 
hour, it much resembles shearing. Who would j 
suppose, that with labour scarce and expensive, our I 
squatters would so easily effect the shearing of their ' 
20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000 sheep ? They ! 
do manage it, and always have managed it, even I 
in the worst of limes. If ever the wool has re- I 
mained on the sheep, the reason has been that | 
t ne price of wool was too low to make it worth j 
while cutting it oil. From analogy, therefore, it i 
may be interred, that ii there is cotton to be || 
picked, it will be picked, especially as in this, the j 
labour of women and children can be turned to I 
account. It is not easy to put the labour of i 
picking into the form of a calculation in figures, i 
But in the United States 200 lbs. per day is con- i 
si tiered an average day’s picking for one person ; ! 
now' the crop we have mentioned of 9000 lbs. of I 
cotton in the seed would be gathered in 15 days, | 
or in less than half the time the picking season I 
continues, by a man, a woman, and a boy, sup- j 
posing that they amongst them picked 200 lbs. 
per day. 
Looking at the cultivation of cotton as affect- 
ing other colonial interests, it should not be lost 
sight of that the land on which cotton would be 
grown, is the land which is not used for pastoral 
purposes ; or at least, the land which is least 
valuable and not selected by preference for pas- 
toral purposes. It would not be so much land 
withdrawn from pastoral occupation, but so 
much land now liberally contributing to the opu- 
lence and stability of the colony, previously al- 
most entirely valueless and unproductive. Car- 
riage is an expensive item with wool, it would 
not be so, in an equal degree, with cotton. Coast- 
wise, the conveyance of cotton to the central de- 
pot would be more readily and economically ac- 
complished than that of wool per bullock-team 
from even the Darling Downs to Brisbane. 
When, a few years ago, some cotton was plant- 
ed, and public attention was being directed to it 
as a probable export, there were difficulties in the 
way which do not now exist. The want of a 
good cotton gin was then a serious inconvenience, 
which perhaps more than any other cause, dis- 
couraged the efforts then made, and which, under 
other and more favourable circumstances, would 
very likely have been continued. The Manches- 
ter Cotton Supply Association have forwarded 
some cotton-gins to Australia, and there are 
now in Brisbane, three or four of Dunlop’s ma- 
nufacture, belonging to a firm who have steam- 
power to apply to the working of them, and who 
are prepared to clean and ship on growers’ account, 
and who would probably purchase any cotton 
in the seed offered. These gins have reduced very 
much the expense of cleaning the sea-island cot- 
ton, and our having several on the spot has re- 
moved a great obstacle. 
At Maryborough, a seaport town about 150 
miles north of Brisbane, a Joint Stock Company 
for the cultivation of cotton has been formed, 
and proceedings have been commenced with vi- 
gorous enterprise. Every one must wish them 
success, but the past history of colonial agricul- 
tural companies is not encouraging. There are 
so many difficulties, some only of which can be 
foreseen and partially provided against, that we 
are unable to coincide with those who look for 
the establishment of a cotton export from auy 
joint stock company. Our plan is altogether 
different. We would have cotton grown as one 
of several other products by individual efforts on 
convenient sized farms, each the actual property 
of its cultivator. In other words, we advocate 
the formation of a class of agricult ural freeholders. 
But our reasons for thus thinking will be more 
appropriately embodied in the following and last 
division. 
3. In the preceding division of our subject, a 
point of considerable importance was but just re- 
ferred to, and we now propose to develope it more 
