to the cultivation of five acres ; and a plantation is considered capable of yielding 1,000 pounds of merchan- 
table cotton for each able-bodied labourer employed. In Georgia it is calculated that the usual expenses on 
the cultivation of cotton are twopence halfpenny a pound on the produce, but in the West Indies, owing to 
a less productive species being employed, of which the produce is only one half the weight per acre, the ex- 
penses are said to be as high as seven pence a pound. In comparing the careful culture of America with 
that which is practised in India, we shall find it, as truly stated by Mr. Crawford, no where considered as a 
matter of primary importance, but made secondary to rice, wheat, and grain generally ; and, I may add, that 
I have never observed any care bestowed on the selection or exchange of seed, the preparation of the soil, 
or the growth of the plant, and, least of all, in the collection of the produce; being in its earlier periods 
grown with some other crop, and in the later overgrown with weeds, while the picking does not take place 
until the leaves are so brittle, that it is impossible to prevent them mixing with the cotton. 
The commerce of Great Britain has of late years been peculiarly indebted to the cotton manufactory, 
which produces clothing for people of all ranks, from Russia to Guinea, and unites elegance with cheapness, 
in an unrivalled degree. Great quantities of the native fabrics of the East are also imported into Europe; 
some of these, by the advantage of an excellent material and incomparable manufacture, dexterity and 
patience in the workmen, though made with very simple machinery, surpass in fineness and beauty, any 
thing of European manufacture. The natives are said to perform their finest work in moist cool places, 
under ground, which makes the cotton hold together, so as to draw out to the thinnest threads; 
and the soft and delicate fingers of the Indian women give them the sense of feeling to a degree of nicety 
much beyond that of our common people. It is probable that cotton at present clothes more people in the 
world than any other substance; its peculiar advantages, besides cheapness, is the union of warmth with 
lightness, whence it is fitted for a great variety of climates ; to the hot it is better adapted than linen, on 
account of its absorbing quality, which keeps the skin dry and comfortable. The woolliness of cotton gives 
a kind of nap to the clothes made of it, which renders them soft to the touch, but apt to attract dust; in 
the fine muslins this is burned off, by passing them between red-hot cylinders with such velocity as not to 
take fire; which, we may conceive, considering the combustibility of cotton, to be a very nice operation; a 
readiness to catch fire is indeed a dangerous quality of this material, and many fatal accidents have arisen 
from it, since the prevailing use of muslins in women’s dress. Much mischief has also proceeded from colds 
taken in these delicate garments, which are by no means fitted to protect the wearers from the inclemencies 
of our variable climate. 
The downy matter surrounding the seeds in some other plants, has been employed for the same purpose 
as cotton, and by proper preparation, has, in some instances, succeeded very well; but in most cases it is 
too brittle or of too short a staple to be used with advantage, in the form of thread; it has, however, afforded 
a useful material for stuffing beds and pillows, and for quilting; in this way the down of a plant growing 
copiously upon some of our bogs, called cotton grass, has been employed by the neighbouring poor. 
Having thus given the natural history of the Cotton plant, and briefly described the changes it under- 
goes in its passage through the hands of the manufacturer, as well as the various uses to which his ingenuity 
and industry have enabled it to be applied; we shall now add the Travels of a Pound of Cotton, as the best 
means of showing the prodigious advantages of commerce and manufactures. If many of the improvements 
of modern life are so many ways of providing luxuries or even superfluities to the rich, we must always, at 
the same time, recollect, that the preparation of these articles gives employment and support to the indus- 
trious artizan, and furnishes him also with an abundance of additional enjoyments. 
There was sent off for London lately, from Paisley, in Scotland, a small piece of muslin, about one 
pound weight, the history of which is as follows : — The cotton came from the East Indies to London; from 
London it went into Lancashire, where it was manufactured into yarn ; from Manchester it was sent to 
Paisley, where it was woven: it was sent into Ayrshire next, where it was tamboured; afterwards it was 
conveyed to Dumbarton, where it was hand-sewed, and again returned to Paisley, whence it was sent to a 
distant part of the county of Renfrew to be bleached, and was returned to Paisley; it was then sent to 
Glasgow to be finished, and from Glasgow was sent by the coach to London. It is difficult to ascertain the 
time, precisely, which was necessary to bring this article to market ; but it may be pretty near the truth to 
reckon it three years from the time it was packed in India, till it was fit for sale as cloth in the merchant’s 
warehouse in London. It must have travelled 5000 miles by sea and 900 by land, and perhaps was after- 
wards shipped for some part of South America, which would add about 5000 miles more to these distances. 
It contributed to the support of at least 150 different people, whose services were employed in the carryings 
and manufacture of this small quantity of cotton, by which the value was increased 2000 times. 
