The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-05 00:00:00

THE COTTON CULTURE-ITS

PROJECTED INTRODUCTION INTO TURKEY.
(From the New York Herald of August 20.)
It will be recollected that several years since the cot-
ton culture was introduced into Hindostan by the East
India Company, under the superintendence of several
American planters or overseers. One of these was the
overseer of a South Carolina planter ; and at his request
he was punctually furnished by his late steward, with a
statement of the climate, seasons, soil, &c., for eight
consecutive months, including the season of the growth
of the plant through all its stages. The returns thus
furnished were made the subject of a paper in one of our
agricultural magazines, in which the author predicted a
failure of the experiment in India, from the excess of
wet and humidity during the growing season ; but he
also incidentally referred to Turkey in Asia as very
likely, at no remote period, to become a formidable op-
ponent to the United States in the production of the raw
ma`erial.

The prediction of the result of the experiment in India
has since been verified—for the cotton of that country
turns out to be far inferior, in quality and quantity, to
the staple of the South ; and the only obstacle that it
has been to our trade is, that from its very inferior cha-
racter, the price at which it sells in England enables the
manufacturer to mix it into his coarser fabrics, with a
fair profit at a reduced price, upon the same fabric made
exclusively from the American article. Yet this impo •
sition has been of no small benefit to our own manufac-
turers in the sale of their coarser fabrics in South
America, where the secret of the difference in the staple
between the British and American goods has been dis-
.

covered. We have but little to fear, therefore, from

India ; for the better quality will continue, in the spread
of civilisation, to monopol;so the advantages of the pro-
fitable markets of the world.

But, returning to Turkey ; the Sultan, through some
agency unknown to u., was apprised of the publication

Ai which we have adverted, arid the hint that his dom

'lions, devoted, from the days of the patriarchs, to silk
and flax, " and purple and fine linen," were susceptible
of cotton, and that in its highest perfection, immediately
attracted his attention. The very idea suggested to him
an element for the improvement of his people, and the
strengthening of his empire by the sinews of its domestic
products. He has been looking around him—he is
anxious to appropriate the experience of the western na-
tions to the advancement of his own. He promptly,
therefore, through our Minister at Constantinople (Mr.
Carr) conferred with our Secretary of State, and autho •
rised him, in a carte blanche to dispatch him a special
instructor or two to undertake the experiment of the
cotton culture on the eastern side of the Dardanelles,
and among the kiosks and mosques of the Prophet. The
Sultan desired as a fraternal favour that the American
Government would send him one or two (two if they
could be procured to go) cotton planters, of intelligence,
experience, and competency, to introduce the culture of
cotton into his own dominions.

Under this authority, D. J. L. Smith, of Charleston,
was appointed, a young gentleman educated in Germany
—a student of Liebig, and who has obtained some cele-

brity in agricultural chemistry in this country, and as a
man of general science. The other gentleman selected
is Dr. J. B. Davis, of Fairfield, South Carolina, (whose
overseer is the one referred to in this article as having
been employed to test the experiment in India, Dr.
Davis, as we are informed, has established a high credit
in South Carolina, as a practical planter and farmer,
making many successful experiments upon the old system
of things.
It has been suggested that should the experiment
succeed in Turkey, it will be necessary to the introduc-
tion of cotton as a staple of that empire, to export a few
thousand of the free blacks of the south experienced in
the art, on the most favourable terms to themselves, as
an inducement to go ; or that the Sultan may find it ex-
pedient to hire for a term of years, on the condition that
they are then to have their liberty, a sufficient number of
slaves from the cotton planting States, to initiate his
subjects into the rudiments of the culture. _ _

We shall look to the results of this experiment with
the greatest interest. From the latitude, climate, and
productions of Turkey, the cotton plant will take hold
there as readily as the potato in Ireland ; and if it be as
successful, the demand for cotton gins and cotton presses
will give not a little employment to our manufacturers
and navigators, while the demand for the raw material

in England, will scarcely be diminished, as fabrics of
cotton will supersede among the faithful, their fabrics of
silk, wool, flax, and hemp, which they have worn from
time immemorial. The empire of the Sultan will become
an empire of cotton-wearing Mahomedans, half Chris-
' tianised from this single innovation. We have no reason
to fear from the innovation a diminution of our own
market. The demand has increased with our supply,
stupendous as that increase has been from year to year.
The fifty-three millions of pounds of raw cotton from
Egypt, scarcely produces an impression on the English
market ; it is absorbed as a bucket of water in a flowing
stream. The demand will continue to be commensu-
rate with the supply, and with the empire of China
thrown open to our ships, we mad• continue our ratio of
increase in the cotton production for a hundred years to
come, introducing the culture meantime into successful
operation in the dominions of the brother of the Sun,
whose spouse is the sister of the Moon, and who, if they
say to their subjects, " produce cotton," it must be pro-
duced.

We learn that Dr. Davis will leave to-morrow in the
Great Western, en route for the Sublime Porte, to
ideiitify himself with the success of his predictions.
After making an outline and a projection, he will inform
us of his proceedings, of the adaptation of the country
to his enterprise, and of the facilities for planting, as he
contemplates being there in time for the planting season
in that quarter of the world.
Looking at the undertaking of these gentlemen, as in
its results calculated to extend the operations of com-
merce, and the intimacy and friendship of widely sepa-
rate nations, as adapted to be of great advantage to the
mass of the Turkish people, without any detriment to
an abundant market for our favourite staple, we wish
our agents to the Sultan a successful experiment; and
it is a high source of gratification (of which this is but
an instance) that America and the Americans are being
sent for from the remotest quarters of the earth, to
develop their domestic recourses, to introduce new
elements of domestic wealth, stability, and inde-
pendence, and to elevate and improve the character of
their people.

ATTEMPTED HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On Wednes-
day night last a desperate attempt at highway robbery
was made on the person of Mr. William Metcalf, a
builder residing at Pagnal green, near Wiifrome. It
appears that between eleven and twelve o'clock Mr.
Metcalf was returning from Walbech in a chaise cart,
when, on ascending the hills at Rushton, two men sud-
denly seized the reins, at the same time calling on Mr.
Metcalf to alight. Mr. Metcalf alighted, and one of the
robbers advanced towards him. Seeing that the fellow
was armed only with a stick, Mr. Metcalf closed with
him and threw him heavily in the road. His companion
then left the horse's head and attacked him, and the
other robber having recovered his legs, the two com-
menced a desperate assault. Mr. Metcalf, however,
being, a powerful man, contrived to! maintain his resist-
ance until the keeper of a toll-bar, at some distance,
attracted by the cries for help, ran to the spot, upon
which the villains made off. Mr. Metcalf sustained some
severe bruises, &c., but was not otherwise seriously in-
jured. The robbers were dressed in dark clothes and
had their faces blackened. They were doubtless aware
of the fact of Mr. Metcalf having a large sum of money
in his possession at the time.
A case of double iniquity, involving fraticide and
incestuous adultery, was brought on Saturday before the
court of assizes for the Seine et Oise, held at Versailles.
Eugene Clairet was put to the bar on a charge of
having attempted the life of his brother, Jacques Clairet.
with whose wife he had carried on for some time an

illicit intercourse. Tie had been previously tried before
the court of fisises for the Eure et Loire, and condemned
to hard labour for life at the hulks; but on an appeal
by him to the Cuurt of Cessation, the judgment was
quashed, and a new trial ordered before the Court at
Versailles. The following are the circumstances of the
case:—ln the evening of the 30th of January last, as the
two brothers were returning to La Plesse, from
the farm of 111. Guerrin, at Alareauville, Jacques, when
they were near a small wood, received a number of small
shot at the back of his neck, discharged friom a fire arm.
Thirteen shot lodged in the collar of his jacket,. and
only two penetrated his skin, and caused him little or
no injury. Three weeks afterwards a gendarme found
in a ditch, near Mareauville, a pocket pistol, which had
evidently been fired before thrown away. Further in-
quiries led to the belief that the pistol had been fired by
Eugene, and he was accordingly arrested. M. Blin, a
gunsmith at Ninancourt, recognised the pistol, and deposed
that he sold it on January 26, to Eugene, who said his
name was Freya. The inducements to his firing
on his brother were disclosed by the discovery that
Eugene had carried on an improper intercourse with his
sister-in-law, though she was 44 years of age and he
only 22 ; that Jacques had made a will, bequeathing to
his wife all his property ; by the death of his brother,
Eugene, who was in the army, but absent on furlough,
would become the only son of his widowed mother, and
thereby exempted from service, and could then marry
his brother's widow. The evidence at the trial on Sa-
turday, as well as at the former trial, fully verified all
these circumstances, and the jury at once declared him
guilty, finding also, as before, extenuating civum-
stances, thus saving him from capital punishment. He
was again sentenced to hard labour at the hulks for life.
He has lodged a second appeal, oa the ground of some
irregularity in conducting the prosecution.
THE BLACK DITCH, BLACKFRIARS-ROAD.—This
intolerable nuisance still exists in Boundary-row, Black-
friars-road, although the inhabitants have repeatedly
applied to the Commissioners of Sewers to have it co-
vered over. During the few hot days lately the stench
has been so great as to cause serious illness to many of
the inhabitants.