SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
337 
We give belotv our usual table of the amouut of Cotton 
coosumed tlTe last year in the States .South and West of Virginia, 
and not included in the receipts at theports. We have largely in- 
creased the estimate front tiie year previous, but only give it for 
what it purports to be — an estimate which we believe approxi- 
mates correctness. Thus : 
1819. 
18.50. 
18.51. 
18-52 
N. Carolina. . 
.bales. 
.20.090 
20.000 
13.000 
15,000 
S. Carolina.. 
1.5.000 
10.000 
10.000 
Georgia 
27.000 
13,000 
22,000 
Alabama 
..7000 
6.000 
4,000 
.5,000 
TeunC'^see. . . 
..12.000 
12,000 
8,000 
7,000 
On the Ohio, 
&c... 
-.35.000 
27,000 
12,000 
16,000 
Total to Sept. 1 .. 
lit) 000 
107,500 
60.000 
75.000 
1853. 
18.54. 
1855. 
1856. 
N. Carol'na. 
.bales. 
. . 20.000 
20,000 
18, .500 
22,000 
8. Carolina . . 
.10,000 
12.000 
10, .500 
15.000 
Georgia 
..20.000 
23,000 
20,500 
25,000 
Alabama . . 
6,000 
5,500 
6.500 
Tennessee . . 
6,000 
4,000 
7.000 
On the Ohio, 
icz... 
..30.000 
38,000 
26,000 
42,000 
Total to Sept 
. 1 
.90,000 
105,000 
85,000 
117,500 
To which, if we add (for the past year) the stocks in the interior 
-towns 1st inst.. (sav bales.) the quantity now detained in the 
interior, (say 50,000 bales.) and that lost on its way to market the 
past year, to the crop as given above, received at the shipping 
ports, the aggregate will show, as near as may bo, the amount 
raised in the United States the past *eason — say, in round num- 
bers. 0, 335, 000 bales, (after deducting IS' 0 bales new crop received 
this year to l.st inst. and some 250,000 bales detained in the interior 
September 1st, 1855, by low rivers, etc., which it is f iir to suppose 
ijame forward the past season, and is already added to the receipts 
at the ports,) against 
Bales. Bales. Bales. Bales. 
1855. ..3,178,000TS53- . 3.300.0001 1851. . .2,450.00011849. ..2,840 000 
1854. -.3, 000, 000; 1852. . .3,100,0001 1850. . . 2, 212, C00ll848. ..2,357,000 
The quantity of new Cotton received at the shqjping ports to 1st 
Sept, was in 
Bales. Bales. Bales. Bales. 
18.56.. 
...1.800 1 
1853... 
. . 716 1 
18.50. - . 
... 2.55 1 
1847... 
. . .1,121 
1855.. 
18,52.. 
,...5,12.5 1 
1849... 
. . . 575 1 
1846... 
.. . 200 
.18.54 . . 
...1,890 1 
1 1851 . . . 
1 1848... 
. - .3,000 1 
1 1845-- . . 
COTTON GIN AND PACKING SCEEW. 
Editors Southf.r.v Cc;ltiv.4tor — One of your corres- 
pondents has discovered that cast-iron screws are a de- 
.sideraturn in packing cotton, and refers to Mr. Finley, of 
3[acon, for the cost of them. This is no new discovery 
Tiie first screw employed in packing cotton was probably 
made of iron. About the year seventeen hundred and nine- 
ty-five. a gentleman from Baltimore — the father of Judge 
Bt’Lr,, of LaGray.ge — settled in Columbia county, in this 
State, and introduced the cotton gin, although Whit.ney 
claimed the credit of it and will probably always be 
Icnown as the inventor of a machine which has produced 
such a marvelous revolution in the commerce of the world. 
Bell lived in CeJumbia county, and Whit.ney resided on 
the plantation of Gen. Ghken (of revolutionary memory) 
in Liberty county, two counties at that peiiod considered 
very remote from each other and between them there was 
but little intercourse. Their inventions having the same 
object in view were nevertheless made without a know- 
ledge of ;iny pre-existing machine fur ginning cotton. 
Bell used at first perpendicular saws, but very soon as- 
certained that circular sasvs were better adapted to his 
purposes and substituted them. Whii-ney obtained a 
patent for his invention and commenced suits against 
Bull and others who were using his gins in the L^nited 
States Court, as the records of that Court cit Savannah 
will, I presume, show. These suits were never tried as 
it was understood that Buli, was prepared to prove by 
reliable and incontrovertible testimony that his gin was 
bis own invention and was no infringement of Whitney’s 
rights under his patent; and I have Judge Bull's author- 
ity for saying that Whit.vey oflfered his father ten thou- 
sand dollars to suffer a judgment to be rendered against 
liim. which he refused. 
When Bull first put his gin in operation he ginned for 
the fourth, and excluded all male visitors, but females who 
Were prompted by motives of curiosity to see it, were ad- 
mitted. Some one who was a mechanic or a machinist 
introduced himself in the disguise of an old woman and 
with a walking stick on which its measure in inches was 
obscurely marked, obtained the dimensions of the machine 
and with the knowledge thus surreptitiously procured, 
constructed a gin on the same model. 
That Whitney was entitled to the credit of the inven- 
vention which he patented is probable, but that Bull was 
the first to introduce the saw gin — the prototype of the gin 
now in use — I have not the least doubt. Whitney’s 
name has ever been and will always be connected with 
this great and important invention, and it is to be regret- 
ted that Bull’s claim to the honor of an invention which 
has excited such a wonderful influence in controling the 
commerce of the world and has contributed so much to 
the comforts and the wants of mankind cannot, owing to 
the lapse of years, be successfully vindicated. 
After his extraordinary success in constructing a ma- 
chine for ginning Cotton, Bull went to New York and 
had two iron screws cast for pressing cotton. They were 
employed in the city of Augusta in repacking cotton for 
shipment. These were probably the first screws ever 
used baling cotton. Whatever doubt may existin relation 
to Bull’s claim to the invention of the gin, there is but 
little dohbt but that he is entitled to the credit of the first 
packing screw. 
Col. D.awson, of the Sulphur Springs in Meriwether 
county, remembers when Edward Lyon, who had been 
in Bull’s service, built the first gin in Wilkes county. 
He thinks this occurred in the year 1806; and he remem- 
bers that Gilbert & Pruden had the first screws for 
packing cotton in that county, which were locaied in 
Washington and made of cast iron. There are many in 
Georgia who remember when -the wooden screw was in- 
troduced. Previous to that timCjnearly all the cotton made 
was packed in rouud bales without the agency of the 
screw. Such screws as were in use were made of cast 
iron. 
Your correspondent does not seem to be aware of this 
fact, and I think it probable that the two he found on his 
plantation had been long since discarded and their place 
supplied with the safer and more economical wooden 
screw. He refers to their durability as a recommendation. 
It is true that no limit can be prescribed to the duration of 
cast iron, but in the shape of a screw it is, because of its 
brittleness, liable to break in exerting the immense power 
which is recp-iired of it in packing a bale of cotton, and 
when it does break it gives no pre-monition of the danger 
which menaces every one within reach of it. The age of 
cast iron screws has passed away, and I do not think that 
your correspondent, even with the aid of Mr. Finley, can 
revive it. Antiquary. 
Pike, County, Ga , 1856. 
A SOUTHERN DAIRY. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — A subscriber wishes 
to inquire through the pages of your Southern Cultivator 
the best and most ecomonical plan for building a South- 
ern dairy on a large scale, say for the purpose of market- 
ing milk, butter, cheese, &c., <&:c. 
Whether brick dairies under ground answer well in 
winter, also what system offeeding will preserve the cows 
in good condition and abundance of milk “I What kind 
of milk vessel is preferable'? 
Perhaps some of your numerous subscribers can furnisW 
a good many items on this interesting subject. 
^ E. G. P. 
^i^^That which moveth the heart most is the best 
poetry ; it comes nearest unto God, the source of all power. 
