514 
FOURTH BULLETIN OF 
[ 1846 . 
LETTER FROM HENRY T. JOHNSON, 
Offering suggestions and hints on the cultivation, manufacture , and 
consumption of various articles the similar growth of America arul 
India , and of others which might be introduced into the United 
States with a prospect of success. 
Hong Kong, China, April 18, 1846. 
Sir : Knowing the interest the National Institute, of which you are so active 
an officer, takes in whatever concerns the development of the resources of our com- 
mon country, I am induced to offer you a few suggestions and hints on the cultiva- 
tion, manufacture, and consumption of various articles the similar growth of 
America and India, and of others which might be introduced with a prospect of 
good success. They are made from personal observations and inquiries at the 
different places mentioned. 
Cotton. — This product is cultivated throughout the vast regions of the east, be. 
tween the latitudes of 30° south and north of the line, but nowhere is the quality 
equal to our, own. The principal part which is grown comes from the Presidencies 
of Madras and Bombay, under the East India Company’s government. It is also 
now attempting in Ceylon, but it will fail if it is attempted to be grown largely. 
The preparation is exceedingly careless and negligent, the quality of short staple, 
and very inferior. It is brought from the districts of Tinnivilly and Southeast 
India, in Madras, and Tutecoreen, Cochin, Guzerat, Surat, and other provinces of 
the Bombay government. It is always repicked and packed in those two cities, 
under the inspection of the native and European merchants, and pressed into bales 
containing not less than three hundred pounds by powerful screw presses, worked 
by manual labor, something on the principle of working a capstan on hoard ship, 
by capstan bars. Its principal market is China, where, on account of old preju- 
dices, and its short, silky, tough fibre, it is preferred to American. The shipments 
to China rarely exceed two hundred and fifty thousand bales a year, and are falling 
off on account of the low price that manufactured cottons and yarns can be put 
down here from England and America. The consumption in China of manufac- 
tured cottons of various kinds, foreign and domestic, can be safely stated at fifty 
cents per annum for ; each individual of a population of three hundred and fifty mil- 
lions. The consequence of this large consumption is extensive importations from 
America and England, chiefly confined to stout fabrics and yarns undyed. They 
are thoroughly acquainted with the art of dyeing in all its branches. 
The Chinese, from remote times, have used cotton for various other purposes be- 
sides clothing. Their coverlets, answering the purpose of blankets, are used, as I 
understand, throughout the nation, north and south, in conjunction with woollen 
blankets. They are made by carding the cotton in layers, something or rather in 
the precise form of what we call “cotton batting” in the United States, and cov- 
ered with calico ticking, quilted as we do at home. This, and the making it into 
mattresses and pillows, and also stuffinginto clothes, which are quilted in the same 
way as their coverlets, makes a large consumption throughout the country. A 
Chinese in the southern provinces uses very little wool in winter, preferring silks 
and these stuffed cotton jackets and cloaks to any thing else. They likewise use 
it in large quantities, in conjunction with bamboo, for making the finest qualities 
of their paper. These facts are well worthy the attention of our cotton planters. 
There is a large consumption of native-grown cotton in Java and the other 
Dutch possessions of the Eastern Archipelago, as there is also in the Spanish 
islands of Luconia and Mindinao. The Malays of these islands are very ingeni- 
ous in the manufacture of their cotton fabrics, and make nearly enough to supply 
the demands of their several countries. They are tolerably acquainted with the art 
of dyeing, and their dyes stand well. If the Dutch and Spanish Governments 
were not so monopolizing in their policy, there would be, doubtless, a much larger 
consumption of American yarns and cotton fabrics in these vast continental regions 
of the east. It is a singular fact, not generally known, however, that Javanese 
and Bugese made cotton fabrics meet in the Singapore and Penang markets in 
large competition with English and American articles of the same nature. 
The people of India witl never be able to compete to any extent with the United 
