180 
COTTON PLANT. 
the cotton been cultivated in that quarter. We are 
under the same incertitude with respect to the Caffre 
country and Ethiopia, although the climate of both 
these places is very well calculated to promote its 
growth. 
It is said that considerable quantities of cotton 
were once cultivated in Egypt. This, however, has 
been doubted by some, who suppose that it was not 
the production of their own country, but imported 
from Persia and India by the way of the Red Sea. 
What is now grown by the Egyptians appears to 
be more for domestic purposes than for any com- 
mercial speculation. The climate of Barbary is 
well calculated to produce good cotton ; but the 
plant is unknown there, the inhabitants being con- 
tent with their fine wools, which they not only 
make into garments, but export to considerable ad- 
vantage. 
Cultivation of Cotton in America. 
After having reviewed the cultivation of this use- 
ful vegetable in the three other quarters of the 
world, we now come to the last, which in this, as 
well as in other respects, is by no means the least 
considerable. In the West Indies, in Guinea, and 
in the greatest part of Brazil, the culture of this 
plant is particularly attended to ; and such is the 
genial nature of the soil, that it grows almost in 
any situation. The plants generally flourish for 
four or five years successively, after which they 
