The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-21 00:00:00

COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.

At the usual weekly meeting of the Executive Committee
on Wednesday, a letter was read on the cultivation of
cotton in Paraguay, which the Government is earnestly
endeavouring to promote. The President of the republic
having directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs to forward
a sample of the cotton grown in Paraguay, 12 bales have
been sent to the Association for examination and sale.
Samples of fabrics made in Paraguay from the same
cotton have also been received, and may be seen at the
rooms of the Association.—A letter was received from
Trinidad, stating that cotton cultivation is extending;
that numerous applications are made for seed ; and that
in a year or two, should the price continue to be re-
munerative, cotton will no doubt again form a prin-
cipal item in the exports of the island. A letter
was read from the British Legation, reporting the
arrival of seed and its distribution in Hayti.—A letter
was received from Belize, Honduras, stating that notwith-
standing the failure of several experiments in cotton
cultivation, there is no doubt of ultimate success. The
staple, mahogany, being no longer profitable, land cultiva-
tion, one half of which is cotton,fis the next resource. Cotton
has been Drought to Belize from Yucatan on the north,
Paten on the west, and Ruatan on the south, and from the
fact that it was readily taken by the merchants a much larger
production will doubtless be offered next year. Samples of
cotton from Jamaica, grown by inmates of the Reformatory
at Kingston, were submitted for examination, and valued at
21d., 25d., 28d., 29d., and 31d. per lb. respectively.--A copy
of a letter from the Government of Madras, dated the 26th
June, forwarded by the India-office, was received, accom-
panying a sample of cotton grown in the Malabar district, and
thus described by P. J. Brown, Esq. :—" About four or five
years ago, long before the cotton famine, my notice was at-
tracted to a solitary cotton shrub growing neglected in a
large orchard in consequence of seeing its head brilliantly
white with a crop of expending bolls. The gardener's
account was that it had been growing there, just as I saw
it, for several years, and was either chance sown or bird
sown. I had the remaining bolls gathered, the seeds
separated, and these distributed in twos and threes among
a few of my labourers, with instructions to sow the seed in
their grounds, and when the plants should bear, carefully
to gather the cotton, and bring it to me. Sample 1 is the first
year's produce from one seed and one shrub. The gross pro-
duce was ltlb ; of clear cotton 211 b, seed lilb, and a frac-
tional quantity of refuse, not dirt. In cotton properly cleaned
there is no dirt; by native spinners what there is of refuse,
after sending, is turned to account. Sample 2, sent to Madras
was the produce of another shrub, which I afterwards found
growing wild in one of the grounds, my attention being now
drawn to this cotton. It is clear that both shrubs are foreign
perennials originally from foreign seed, not native annuals.
From the superior quality of the cotton they have pro-
duced, as well as from the situations and the manner in
which they were found growing, I cannot have a doubt that
both shrubs are the lineal and undegenerate descendants
from the original Bourbon seed which my father obtained
from Madras, and sowed at Anjarakandy in February,
1798, the very first month after he settled there; of
which he sent the first produce to the Court of Directors,
and the Court sold in London at 2s 2d a lb. in 1802, at the
time the Court were selling the best Surat cotton at 9d to
lid a lb. This decisive trial and introduction of Burbon
cotton dates, therefore, so far back as upwards of 65 years
ago. But the peculiar value of sample lat the present time,
when cotton-growing facts, not theories, are what the cotton
grower seeks to guide him on his way, is the proof it fur-
nishes that this foreign cotton has continued to grow sport»
taneously and vigorously from that year to this. The soil
in which it has grown is the very opposite to that which par
excellence is called in India cotton soil ; it is the ordinary
ferruginous, stiff, red clay composing the steep hills and
hillsides of Malabar, and which was no doubt erected from
mud volcanoes in a former geological era, This cotton has
not only withstood, but flourished, under a mean annual
rain fall of 125 inches. There is, therefore, existing positive
evidence—first, that good cotton, of the foreign kinds most
required for the manufacturers of Lancashire, can be natu-
ralised in India, and grown there in every climate; ranging
from that whi,l is rainless, where the plant receives its
indispensable moisture either from the copious dews of
Heaven alone, or from artificial irrigation, to the tracts where
the annual rainfall is from 120 to 140 inches ; second, that
cotton of those kinds can be successfully grown on every soil
in India, from the rich black, locustrine deposit, in
which
the plant delights, extending over vast surfaces in the inte-
rior, from the remote south to the far north, to the ordinary
red clay constituting more or less the rest of the agricul-
tural soil."—Consular despatches forwarded by the Fo-
reign-office were received from Guatemala, Mr. Consul
W. Hall, under date June 26, stating that, although
during last year 246 bales of cotton were shipped from
the port of Son Jose de Guatemala, as also a quantity
sent by land to the Mexican territory, all the produce of
the coast on the Pacific, it is not likely that the cultivation
will be carried to any extent. The working classes are
chiefly Indians, content to subsist on plantains, the cultiva-
tion of which needs scarcely any labour. The absence of
' roads, too, is another formidable obstacle. From Guayquil,
Mr. Consul Mocatta, dated July 3, reporting that cotton of
middling quality grows along the entire coast of Ecudor.
About 200 quintals were exported last year, but in conse-
quence of the high price of this article, and of the establish-
ment of new manufactories in the interior of the country,
the plantations have increased, and the production during
the present year will probably exceed 9 An
-7-.0 quintals. The
soil in which all that is desired can be grown, is excellent,
and washed by navigable rivers. Much enthusiasm exists
for the growth of gotton, but unfortunately there is a total
want of labour. This is the only difficulty to be overcome,