New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-04-07

.u.,..;,;s. from time immemorisl for home USE
ah.,ca very considerable quantities are exported
70 CHM. and whence already England ise'i ufa"s
. larger supply than from any other country q:
cept the United States.
aI,bouob these efforts of the English to extend
flo cultivation of cotton in India, to improve It's
,,,.,.v bv the introduction Of American varieties
and II. nroductiyeness by better methods OF cu'u'
v.,;on have. Ike most other agricultural expert
nents failed immediately to realize all the san
ouipe expectations of those who set them on 'oo''
.tilI there seems to be steady increase IN 1uo
consumption in Great Britain OF cotton from inu',
~, inc not more TO its increased production ana
innor,stion at prices less than the American
than 10 an Improvement in its quality-the very
short staple of the native Indian cotsons oelng
great drawback to their value and chie'
obstacle hitherto to their extended USE
In addition TO this inferior quality, one OF the most
serous obstacles to the supply of England with
co,ton from India has hitherto been the cost oil
internal transportation previous to shPment-the
best cotton lands of India being situated tar
from the sea- and the want OF nayigable rivers ana
Of roads in that country making internal transport
alton very expensive. The vicinity of our Ameri'
can cotton lands to nayigabe waters, epJo!in as
thew do large extent of sea coast, and beng pene
trated BY 80 many rivers nayigabe during part oil
the wear by means of which our planters have been
enabled to put their cotton on Shipboard with COM
paratively little land carriage-thshas bsen hitherto
ore of the great advantages which our American
cotton growers have enjoyed over all competitors,
and serves in part to account for the comparative
monopoly which they have obtained oil the mar
ket But the invention of railroads goes very far to
supply the lack of nayigable rivers. and the rail-
roads now in progress in India, extending as some
of them do into the very heart of the best cotton
lands, are expected to addgreaty to the cultivation
Of that article for export.
The other great advantage which our American
cotton growers have enjoyed over all CON-
petitors in that branch of production, has been
the possession of virgin lands on which to grow
their crops, on which kind of land, as is the
case with most cultivated vegetables, not only is
the product of cotton much greater than on old
land, but its quality'is far superior. Tnis pos
session of virgin lands has been, and still Is the
main source of the rapid increase and growth OF
our Southern cotton cultivation but at the same
time. it is an advantage which dimnishes every
day; and constantly, as the crop increases and the
cultivation extends, approaches nearer and nearer
TO the term of its enjoyment. 1t to be recoected
that very email proportion Of the lands IN
our cotton. growing States are capable of
being employed for the growth OF cotton
The vast tracts of pine forest of which the soil is
stratum Of almost pure sand. are useless for this
purpose or indeed for any kind of cultivated crop
unless they first undergo manuring process. OF
the lards ct to produce cotton large proportion
from their rolling surface, and the lightness and
friability Of the SELL which the cotton cultivation
keeps constantly exposed to be operated upon by
the furious Summer rains of those climates, are
especially liable to be washed away-while even
those not exposed to this danger are hardly able
long to withstand, without serious dlmouhon OF
fertility, the exhaustive system OF perpetual crop
ping to which they are subjected.
The consequence is that III the older portions of
the cotton States aud in the vicinity of the water
courses the original fertility of the lands is already
much diminished and hence the great cry and effort
throughout the South for railroads. in order to reach
those outlying tracts of fertile land which re
moteness from water courses has hitherto shielded
from settlement and devastation. Undoubtedly the
advantage Of our cotton planters in the matter Of
virgin lands is not yet exhausted. 1t would be
strange il II was, when we consider that it is
only within the last twenty FIVE years that so large
a part of the greatest cotton growing States,
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, has
been snatched from the native Indian
possessors. At the same time it is evident that
even with all the new resources which railroads
may open to our planters, this facility of obtaining
fresh lands to exhaust and destroy becomes every
day less and less an advantage that can be perma-
nenty relied upon. And when we recollect that
in the production of indigo, which, prior to the
introduction of the staple cotton, was chief
object of industry to our Southern planters, the
English in India have contriyed entirely to cut us
cut, there certainly seems some reason to appre-
bend that they may gradually come also into serl-
GUS competition with us in the production OF
cotton.
But there is another country, less distant than
Indis, from which there are good grounds to ap-
prehend not less serious competition. All the
vast shores of the Mediterranean Sea, those of Eu
rope. not less than those of Asia and Africa, are
extremely well adapted to the cultivation
of cotton, which seems to be indigenous in
A.ia Minor, where, indeed it has been
cultivated and used from time immemOrial.
The growing importance Of cotton as an article
of cop marco has NOT hy ANY means eecaDed the