Upland cotton

“ Every year the planters grew more and more cotton because now that they could get the seeds out it paid to raise it, and by and by they were exporting millions of bales. Cotton is now one of our biggest exports, the teacher said. We grow billions of pounds of it and for the most part it is the green seed, Upland cotton, cleaned by a gin founded on Whitney's idea. ”

“ The greatest part of the American crop consists of the Upland variety, although, as we have noted, there is a small but important crop of Sea Island in the Southern Atlantic states. Another long staple species, known as Pimas, has recently been introduced in Arizona, and the alluvial soil of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana has produced still other desirable species, locally known as “Rivers,” “Peelers,” and “Benders.” Before we consider the relative manufacturing merits of the various kinds of cotton, it would perhaps be well to consider briefly how the crop is grown. ”

“ It is evidently due to hybridization in the past history of the plant with a brown cotton. In Peru and other places, you know there are cottons which are perfectly brown; and we are now making tests in hybridizing the brown Peruvian cotton with the Sea Island and upland varieties in order to get this color. The color varies in Peruvian cottons all the way from a light brown to a deep brown; and it is supposed, I don't know how truthfully, that the color in this Egyptian cotton comes from a strain of one of the brown South American cottons infused into Sea Island. ”

“ Mary asked.
"The bulk of our cotton is long-stapled and is called Georgian Upland," was the response. "The whole plant is rough and hairy—leaf, branch, and pod. Some persons think that originally it came from Mexico. However that may be, here it is, and although we raise some little of other sorts we have far more of this than anything else. We can thank it, too, for much of the wealth of this country of ours for Texas, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas are all big cotton-growing States. ”

“ As the tree only attains to a height of from twelve to twenty feet, it is difficult to distinguish the tree cotton and the shrub cotton when referred to by travellers.
The cotton plant, in all its varieties, requires a sandy soil. It flourishes on the rocky hills of Hindostan, Africa, and the West Indies, and will grow where the soil is too poor to produce any other valuable crop.
Cotton has always been regarded as indigenous to India, and as the characteristic clothing material of that country, as flax is of Egypt, silk of China, and the wool of sheep and goats of Northern Asia. ”

“ The inhabitants of the northern forest boundary are a mixed people, many of whom have probably been driven from the countries farther north, where cotton is a recognised [75] field crop, whence they have introduced the cultivation. The adoption of cotton-growing by the Krepi tribes may be due to similar reasons, although there appears to be no evidence in support of this conjecture.
In the last-named places the seed is sown in rows on the tops of ridges, on the sides of which maize plants may be also grown, but it is not uncommon to find cotton plants growing alone. ”

“ The American, short stapled cottons can be cultivated as easily and with equal certainty of success in these districts, but are actually discouraged, though they succeed well, as being more troublesome and expensive to clean, and much less valuable, both as an article of export commerce, and for domestic consumption among themselves, than the Bourbon cotton. ”

“ Considerable crops are also grown in East India and Egypt, and lesser quantities come from the Caucasus, Turkestan, China, Brazil, Argentine, Peru and Africa. The continental consumption looks for the greater part to American cotton, but, also, East Indian is extensively used. In the Southern States of America, the first cotton ripens in August. The bolls containing cotton, will grow well into the Autumn, and even in Winter new bolls will be formed, and it is only a killing frost, which terminates the productive force of the plant. ”

“ This machine facilitated the separation of the seed from the fiber of the short-staple variety of cotton, which alone could be profitably cultivated in the uplands, and thus made possible a vast extension of the area of cotton culture.
The cotton gin came at an opportune moment for the Southern planters, since rice and indigo were declining in importance as exports, and their gangs of African slaves were likely to become a burden. They could now cultivate cotton under an extensive system of agriculture with large immediate profits. ”

“ As a general rule, cotton-seed brought to the United States, from where it is a native to where it is an exotic, will produce a better cotton than where it is grown, the tendency being continually to a longer and better staple. ”

“ Hence on large farms there will be something like uniform quality of cotton produced. It will, however, be clear to the general reader that on the small farms of India, say where sufficient cannot be gathered on one farm, or perhaps on a few farms, to make one bale, there will not be that uniformity which is desirable, hence Indian cotton, especially of the poorer types, varies a great deal more than the American varieties. ”

“ It only remains for us to refer summarily to the factors of supply. It is practically certain that the South will continue to produce the bulk of the world’s cotton. During the Civil War, when cotton was over $1.00 a pound, persistent efforts were made all over the world to develop cotton growing, but in vain. The Gulf Stream on one side, and a vast continent on the other, produce climatic conditions for cotton culture not duplicated anywhere else in the world. ”

“ Next to the land policy, cotton plays an important part in the national development, and due to it slavery was prolonged as an American institution. Short staple cotton had been known from the earliest settlement, for it was cultivated by the Southern Indians, but the great labor attending its preparation for the spinning wheel had made it unprofitable to grow even with slave labor. But in 1786 the long staple cotton was introduced into the South from the Sea Islands, and in 1793 Eli Whitney invented the saw gin which enabled a single man to clean 1,000 pounds of the fiber in a day. ”

“ The increase of cotton grown all over the world in ten years is therefore 190,000,000 lbs. Brazil has only increased 6,000,000; Egypt has increased 12,000,000; India, 5,000,000. Africa, West indies, South America, Asia, have all fallen off; but the defalcation has been made good by the United States, which have increased their growth by 205,000,000 of lbs.
In the Southern portion of America there are millions of acres on which cotton can be successfully cultivated, particularly Texas, the soil of which is so congenial that they can produce 1,000 lb. ”

“ The loss resulting from careless work is very serious. The cotton falls out easily or is dropped. The careless gathering of dead leaves and twigs, and the soiling of the cotton by earth or by the natural colouring matter from the bolls, injure the quality. It has been commonly thought that the production of cotton in the south is limited by the amount that can be picked, but this limit is evidently very remote. The negro population of the towns and villages of the cotton country is usually available for a considerable share in cotton-picking. ”

“ They (the Southern States) have the advantage of cotton location, and, when they have secured new and improved machinery, will do any unrivalled business. They can save freights, buy cheaper and hire cheaper labor. They save buyers' commission, and warehouse delivery and cartage, sampling, classing, pressing, shipping, marine risks and freight and cartage to interior towns, which amounts in all to some seven dollars per bale. The Northern mills also lose from receiving cotton poorly ginned, containing a good deal of leaf and sand, which is computed at six per cent. ”

“ Then we grow 2,000,000 acres in cotton, but cotton in India is grown only on black soils. We want some for red soils, and we are also seeking to increase the yield and the length of staple in the indigenous varieties. In both these points the Indian cotton now compares very badly with the American. Our average yield is only about 50 to 100 pounds lint per acre, and the staple is only three quarters to five eights of an inch in length, and not suitable for spinning over 20s in warp. ”

“ This spread of the growth of American cotton has already taken place to the eastward of Dharwar, to a considerable extent. The people in the Bellary district, and in neighbouring parts of the Nizam's territory, have for some years grown cotton from American seeds, and value it more highly than their native species. ”

“ The year following it cost them $1.82 a pound. We became satisfied that cotton could be raised here in sufficient quantities to supply our wants and to pay the cultivator. Thousands of the Saints have since then settled in this region, and are engaged in developing its resources. Much has been said with regard to raising and saving cotton. There is no use in raising wheat to let it be destroyed, nor in raising cotton to let it be wasted. When we visited the southern settlements last year the question was asked, "what can we do with our cotton when we have raised it? ”

“ Some have not done well owing to defective management. But others are working day and night. The importation of raw cotton has quadrupled in the last three years, while that of cotton on the seeds has doubled. A million dollars worth of the most improved British spinning machinery was laid down last year, and much attention is being given to the cultivation of the cotton plant, although, owing to the typhoons, with indifferent success. ”

“ In 1899 the cotton-seed product amounted to 4,566,100 tons, valued at $46,950,575. The development of manufacturing in the South has tended to enlarge the local markets for all farm products. In some sections this demand for a greater diversity of crops has tended to diminish the dependence upon cotton and the mortgage-holder. But in the greater part of the cotton area proper the tyranny of cotton has scarcely been weakened.
Oats. The only other crop which is grown on a scale comparable with the foregoing crops is oats. ”

“ But still she produces at least four million bales of cotton, and great changes are now in progress: railways are pervading the country; canals are being dug for irrigating, and irrigation quadruples the crop, while it improves the staple; and the diversion of a few districts from the ordinary crops, with improved tillage, will increase the production to an indefinite extent.
The latest intelligence from India apprises us that in one large cotton district the American planters have at length succeeded, and American cotton is now growing there on one hundred and forty-six thousand acres. ”

“ Cotton will continue to be the great staple crop of the South, and with the ever-increasing demand for cotton goods of all kinds, its cultivation will become increasingly profitable, but the southern cotton planter is learning the value of crop rotation; diversified farming and live-stock raising are becoming more general, and the increased supply of cotton demanded by the world will be produced by increasing the average productiveness of each acre as well as by increasing the acreage. ”

“ No system of rotation has been observed, although it is probable that the cotton is planted during the early years of cultivation immediately following the yam crop, which is the practice in some other West African countries.
Three distinct forms or varieties of cotton are cultivated in the forest region. The first variety is usually referred to as “Green seed,” and is the commonest one grown. The lint is long-stapled and nearly white, but experiments seem to show that this form does not yield heavily. ”

“ It is true that the staple of her cotton suffers from the dry summers, that her land is but half tilled by ploughs consisting of a simple beam of wood with two prongs and a single handle, that she has been destitute of roads and facilities for transportation, that her lands are held at oppressive rents, that American planters there have failed to make good cotton, and that the annual yield of her soil is as small as that of the exhausted fields of South Carolina. ”

“ I have been told that cotton, as it is grown here, exhausts the soil and that the people injure the staple and reduce the yield by overcropping. It was formerly planted on the same ground only every third year, the ground being used in the interval for other crops or allowed to lie fallow. At present some of the cotton fields are worked every year and others two years out of three. On most of the farms cotton is planted every other year, whereas the authorities say that in order to have a good yield not more than forty per cent. of a man’s farm should be kept to this crop from year to year. ”

“ These were the works of men who lived thousands of years before the times of the Incas, and amongst their manufactures was that of cotton.
In 1831, Lord Colchester brought from ancient tombs at Arica, in Peru, and placed in the British Museum, some mummy-cloths woven of cotton, the fibres of which seen under the microscope are very tortuous, and resemble those of Gossypium hirsutum, which is probably the primitive cotton plant of South America. The cultivation and manufacture of cotton, therefore, in the “New World [87] ” seems to have been at least coeval with the similar use of it in India. ”