The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1861-11-07
SllistGLLanGOns
A New Elsmotit in the Cotton CUES.

A New El5hi6flt in the Cotton Ques-
tion.
Tho perennial cotton tree Of Wcstern
South America has been trantplanted to
Maryland, and has Aourished in q most
remarkable manner. The experiment
was made by a Mr.. Kendall, Of that
State, who saw the tree in Peru and
Chill, in 1856, during a mission in which
he was sent by our government to col.
lect seeds aud plants, and TO assist in
taking obSorvations Of transit routes
across the continent. He found the
tree growing wild, and equally as we'll
in the cold highlands and mountain re-
gions, 90 in the sultry low lands This
suggested the idea that it might be
adapted TO the Northern portion Of the
United States, and he accordingly pro-
cured seeds and plants, and brought
them to this country From these he
raised a number Of trees on his own
farm, with great success and ease, and
he AYERS that they withstood, without
injury, the severest winter of our lati-
tude. He says that the tree will thrive
and produce nbundantly wherever corn
will mature. In its native condition
and in the higher Southern ATTITUDES, its
average size and altitude is said TO equal
The medium peach Of North America,
and the tree most nearly resembles the
white mulberry. The leaves are abund-
ant, the flowers profuse, the bolls, at
maturity, are twico the size Of those
borne by the herbaoeous plant, while
the fibre was found to be finer and the
length Of staple increased as the tree
approached the cooler regions. It may
be propagated from seed but more
readily from cuttings simply thrust into
the ground, and it may bo planted out
as an apple, peach or pear orchard in a
! field cropped with any of the cereals,
until, having reached its full growth,
the trees should be allowed to occupy
the land exclusively. IL bears cutting.
also, as kindly as any known tree, and
in the field culture may be kept so
Pruned that its produce shall be within
reach Of the hand. The crop in South
America has reached two thousand
pounds to the acre, whereas the annual
cotton plant of the Southern States
yields but Eve hundred pounds to the
same area. Peru already exports Of
this cotton about six thousand bales, Of
one hundred and ffy pounds to the
bale, and Wo ore told that the staple of
the Peruvian tree cotton, even when
produced without care or culture, as it
usually is in South America, is superior
to the best Upland staple of the cotton
States Of the South In proof of this
fact, it is said that the cotton grown in
the valley of tho Chira sold in the port
of Paita at sixteen dollars per hundred
pounds. Mr.. Kendall is to lecture at
the Cooper Institute, New York, on the
perennial cotton tree of South Ameri-
ca, and he proposes to show that it may
be naturalized in all our Northern
States. IF his views are well founded,
then better cotton than that of the
Southern or Gulf States NAV be pro-
duced, by free labor, north of Mason and
Dizon's line, and more abuudantly and
economically than that from below the
said line. In such event, Europe may
yet derive its chief supply Of cotton,
from the Northern States of this Union.