The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-06-11
COTTON SUPPLY

discussion on cotton supply bv the sooiat,, .,
Arts, which we find fully reported in tbe Tast 90 o'
per OF the Socletys journal, represents in the b,
form the various opinions current ON the srh;t
| Speculative inqurers. manufacturers n,an -
sentative OF all English interests concerned mot ~
discuss one OF the most important practical ousS
tions of the day.
The discussion was introduced by paper frou
| Mr.. John Crawford, late Governor of Singapore
Cotton, he said, was indigenous to Hindusan ant
America, where 1t had clothed Indians in the dav
OF Alexander, Peruvians aud Mexicans in the dav!
ct Cnrtez. 1t has spread from those countries /,
Wlthin 30 degrees away from the Equator, and viii
flourish IN many different varieties of soil. or all
great staple articles of cultivation except maize
ana ana tobacco, it has the widest geographical range
Dut lor the cheap and sufficient production af a
permanent supply OF good cotton certain conditions
are, Mr.. Crawford argued, Indispensable "a pro
pl'ious climate, suitable SOIL land free from heavy
impostS, whether in the shape of rent or tax sut-
nc'ent supply of labor, skilful and enterprisinq
,;,k cheap ana easy means of transport
win government that amply secures life proper-
! " ana liberty" These he said, are found TO exist
m :" '!e eeSt proportion in the Southern States of
tHe american Union. They produce years crop
VI tne worth OF forty millions sterling and furnish
US OUT OF IL with rs per cent. of the uusntty and
OIL per cent OF the value of our whole suppIy
Inc extent ot land capable of growing cotton in
tnose States exceeds by ten thousand souare n;Ias
Tue whole area OF England and ales but of this i'm
mense surface little more than a sixth part is nov,
under cultivation. There can be five-fod increase
OF the supply, said Mr.. Crawford, by the occuna.
ton OF the virgin land, without any increase of the
| cost; and If allowance be made tor improved sys.
TENS OF agriculture that estimate is too low Since
the day when itNwas first cultivated for exnort
american cotton has not risen, but fallen in price
hitneY's saw-gin, and the pushing of the cuItiva
tlon INTO mder regions. bave been the main causes
OF the iail IN price. In 1898 the price of uplard
heOrRla was about Old a pound now il is ahnut
od. ihe cultivation has been in the hands of an
energetic European race, an offshoot from ENGLAND
WORKING IN cooperation with the mother country.
but Tor our Inventions, our enterprise and our in
| dustry, the cotton of America would never have
| reached the value of $40, 600 600 a year nor with
| out the planted colonies would the value of our
manu'actures have reached sixty millions.
haVlng thus stated the grounds of confidence in
supply from the Southern States, Mr.. Crawford
turned TO the grounds for existing hesitation and
| aistrust What if there should come murrain.
IKE the vine or potato disease on American cot
ton! His reply is that the potato and vine are ex
otics in Europe; cotton is an indigenous nlant Of
North America as it is of India where from time
lmmemorial no epidemic is known to have at
tackled it. " "'' AZ
What if there should be an insurrection of tba
slaVeS! his reply is that this is unlikely The
masters are the superior race are two to one are
organized, and have the power. The Hayti insur-
recton was no case in point for there the masters
were IN minority, and were divided smono them.
selves while the struggle was carried on in a eli
mate and locality favorable to the slaves and fatal
| to the masters.
But what will be the effect of the high and in.
creasing cost Of slave labor? Mr. Crawford's reniv
Is that the abundance of fertile land seems to have
more than c0unterbalanced this as it has more tb
counterbalanced in the Northern States the costly
| labor of freemen 0S'''
Lastly, what of the revolution now fairly
passed into hostlllties by the successful attack on
| Fort Sumter? The reply is, that NAV cansa tennn'
rary inconvenience, but the South lives by cotton
as the North by corn; the culture of the crop is
inulspensaoIe While we can pay for cotton we
NAV rest certain, saws Mr.. Crawford that the
Southern States of America ''under whatever form
OF Government-and it is difficult to imagine thai
an Anglo-Saxon people, long disciplined to liberty
| should establish bad One-wi continue to sup
ply us"
AS producer of the cotton used nv Rritisl
| manufacturers, next to America GENES India But
We derive thence only fifteen per cent of the
whole value. The quality of Indian cotton has not
| improved while the quantity imported has in
creased. The soil and climate are not less suitabIe
than those of America, but the cultivator instead
OF being an active and intelligent capitalist who
| owns ms land In fee simple, and works with i'm
proved implements of trade is an untaught Indian
peasant, who works his forefathers worked
with ''a pair nr two of ill-fed oxen a hoe worth q
shilllng, harrow worth two shings, and a
plough worth perhaps as much four" Instead
or sowing seed in drills, and thinning carefully on
| well-ted soil, the Indian scatters his seed broad
cast; and the seed he scatters is that which ha.
been reproduced on the same land from time immr-
moral The American planter introduces fresh see
| from remote places every hve or six The
well nourished American plant rises to a height Of
SIX or eight feet. In India it attains onlv to ono
| halt that height. The punv Indian machine uscf
ior cleaning the cotton hardly yields three pounds
adav; an ordinary American saw-gin Yields thre,
hundred pounds a day. From MANY illustration
here given by Mr.. Crawford of the low quality n
all products of rude agriculture that REQUIRE NOR
than the cheapest and simplest manipulation W,
may select rice, native plant of India cultivated
there since the beginning of history. By the acci
dent OF an lndiaman's touching at Charleston ric,
was introduced into Carolina about the middle n
last century, and Carolina rice, raised from Benga
duets Of a sndss are rec IT.
HANGED in price. From China there is for this rea
! son, no export of rice or cotton but tea can he
grown for expectation, because it can be grown on
the hill Sides and occupies land not available for
growth of the other staples, of which there is vet
more to be had. So it is with everything in Java
but the coffee that grows the freer tracts OF
mountain land; and the true cotton-producipg dis.
tricts of India are all under-peopled
1t happens, again, in India, not ONLY that the
quality OF cotton is because of its rude cultivation
| "t the lowest, but that it has to be brought to
market by the worst roads and the rudest means of
| transport from the greatest distances. And when
| the cotton arrives at the coast we find that in an
extensive coast line there but three convenient
ports of export; while within the more limited
coast of the American cotton States there are more
| than thrice that number But cannot the Euro
pean grow cotton in India? At the outset he will
require what he cannot yet have, the fee simple o
his land with moderate and fixed taxation
| From other countries than India and the Ameri
can States we get at present only seven parts in a
| hundred OF our cotton supply. Chief among tn,
lesser sources is Egypt, which yields thirty-seconC
part OF our whole quantity from seed introduced
forty years ago, during which time there has beer
no very great increase of the yield. Next to Egvp
is Brazil, from which a cotton comes of an ayerap
quality Is per cent. better than the average of al
| American. But Brazil has found it better wort
while to beat America in the production Of suqa
| than to cOmDete in the nrOducf;on
small quantity of very superior cotton comes fror
Chill and Peru, that from Peru being the fines
brought into the English market. But industr
in these regions is spent rather on WOOL minerals
and other products.
In all the countries between Bengal and China
and in all the considerable islands of the MaIaba
and Philippine Archpelagos, the cotton plant ha
been always, next to corn the chief object of hus
bandry But there has been little for export
Java has eleven millions to clothe, and is even be
ginning to cease from its export of corn. Chm
has always had to import well as produce bot
corn and cotton. In West Indian coonie
cotton is superseded by the sugar.cane, and not il
our colonies only, but also in Cuba and Porto Rico
Only the Danish colony of St Thomas Yields us
little cotton and that of the highest quality; equa
indeed to the Peruvian, and forty per cent. bette
than the average Of the American. st. Doming
as a French colony supplied France with the chic
part of her cotton; now, under a native govern
ment it has ceased to produce not only cotton bu
also sugar, and grows some OF the worst cotfe
known in European markets.
Turkey once when our want was small, our sol
source of supply, Yields to US still about eleve
thousand pounds worth every year, but there ar
not many Europeans whn for the extension of II
cotton growth would invest capital in the most di
orderly part OF disordered empire. 1t is
Asatic Turkey that the cotton grows.
2 In tropical Africa there must needs be much M
| vantage both of soil aud climate. But all otht
4 | requisites are at present wanting. viii the nj
! groes learn in a few generations what the compar
| in vii HindnS hav laarpt in th
' | ages of past history. The first cotton was i'm
: ported from west Africa in 1858, and the import
A | ZION OF 2, ll6 cwts. was owing to the benevole
: enterprise of an English merchant, MIR. Clegg.
] | Eastern Africa there none of the navigah
s rivers and alluval lands of the West but y
&: Livingstone has indicated plateau near the riv,
= Shere, tributary of the Zambesi, as a verv
= locality for cotton-pantug. There are in tn
? region a few rude, anarchica inhabitants the riv
t Shere has thirty miles of cataracts; the Iambe
t in its upper course is navgable only by boats, ar
= in its lower course it breeds malaria. Like 9TH
= unciviliZed people the natives of tropical Afr
i show the power of producing crude comm
? dity, palm oil, that makes exorbitant d
j. mand upon their knowledge or industry.
+? The French have failed in efforts to get cott
:. from Algeria, and there has been scheme for pr
It curing it from the Feejes, because those island
: which if planted over wherever growth is poSSbl
: would yield only forty-fourth part of our suppl
), will, it is found, grow cotton. But the diiicul
d rather is to find place within twenty-five degre
4 Of the Equator that would not, win niue car
e produce a sample of good cotton. From this ella
crate review of the present state OF our means al
+, expectations, Mr.. Crawford concluded that OF
main reliance must still be upon the Southern Stat
n nf America.-London Examiner, ApId q.
: GEN. BEAUREGARD.-The New York Times of We
= terday publishes the following letter from its co
Y respondent at Washington
: WAsuIYGToN, June 81 have learned from
, gentleman whose reliability is beyond question
q that on Wednesday last, Gen. Beauregard was
: Charleston, $. c. There he was seen and conver