The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-27

For nearly three quarters of a century, the East
India Company, acting under the auspices of the
English Government, have made continual and
persistent efforts to extend the cultivation of Cot
ton in India; but they have never succeeded in
growing it upon large scale, and now, after
more than a million and a half of dollars has been
expended in the opening up of Cotton plantations,
and in experimenting upon the best mode of rails
ing Cotton economically, the attempt have been
finally abandoned. The Bombay Chamber of
Commerce, in announcing the fact, states that in
only one solitary instance has the enterprise been
attended with success, but the area cultivated was
small-every other attempt to grow merchantable
Cotton, offs quality and at a price which should
bring it into competition with the American sta.
pie, having resulted in heavy losses. 1t is not a
little singular that wherever the cultivation
mas been tried elsewhere-in South America
In the West India Islands, in Turkey and Algeria
and on the African COast-it has either been
wholly given up or remains in languishing con-
dition, yielding little or no profit 10 the planters
and exhausting government subsidies without
realizing Interpretations ofthe manufacturers The
Manchester Association for promoting the culture
of Cotton in the tropics, is not however content
TO relax its endeavors. That body called recently
for a subscription Of half million of dollars, to
be expended in further experiments. DR.. LIVING
STONES explorations of the interior region of Afri-
ca, and especially the accounts which he gave of
the luxuriant growth of Cotton on the alluvial
soils through which the Zambesi river flows
aroused public attention in England to that coun-
try as a.source of Cotton supply, and induced the
ID n
out a new and better appointed expedition, for the
purpose Of forming settlements among the wild
African tribes, and Of stimulating them, by the
prospect of gain, TO abandon their indoIent and
improvident mode of life and settle down to habits
of industry But it has been found there as well
as elsewhere, that the negro when left to his own
guidance has no notion Of steady, persistent
work, and that when his immediate wants, which
are few and simple, satisfied, he is dis
posed to take his ease and 10 leave the future to
take care of itself DR.. LIvINGsToNE's recent let
tiers to his English friends indicate very clearly
that the Cotton problem is not yet solved and that
those who hope for supplies from African planta
lions are destined to be disappointed. That section
OF country where the climate and soil appeared
W oe Best adapted to the growth of Cotton, and 10
met AT the same time facilities for transport to
'De Se''o"fd' he found to be continually devas-
wars between the inhabitants and the
ne's"oOu''"e 'n''s. These feuds of long dnra-
uon arc s',lVe'y ,''p'hle of peaceful adjustment,
for the only law known there i H.. ,.w of tho
strong hand, and the temptation, as resnects tbe
more powerful tripes, TO prey upon their vool,er
neighbors, is, therefore, irresistible o,nna;,.
is to them what the ingathering of the be-. :;
to u.s. They go to war for the sake of the snoiIs
OF conquest-for focks and herds, for grain ava
ivory, and for slaves to sell on the coast or to cul
tiyate their own fields. 1t may be safely asserted,
then, that many years must elapse before Cotton
for the English market will be foated down the
Zambes or the exertions of the Manchester Cotton