Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-03-06
Cotton.ndi,s CuI,Iyation.

In the wear 1921 cotton seeds were brought to
Virginia, and sprang up with great vigor on the
banks OF the James river. Yet nothing was ever
thought of this till after the war of Independence
Two things have produced the enormous demand
for the American staple. One is the cotton gin,
and the other the superior character ofthe Amer
lean seed, and the cotton it produces Africa and
Asia in fact more than half of those continents,
are capable of producing cotton do produce on
the whole, far more than America, and have pro-
duced it from the very earliest historic record.
The microscope has demonstrated that the ban
dages and cloths wrapped around the most an
cient mummies discovered in Egypt, are made OF
cotton, and some of these OF n very remarkable
fneness and beauty. Indeed, it has been matter
of controversy for hundreds of years, whether
cotton or fax is the real material used and the
microscope even has been declared to favor the
pretensions of both.
In Turkey and in India cotton can be produced
at two pence per pound, and yet American, at
pence, will be preferred, because of the two
advantages named. As to cleaning, the Ameri-
can is superior, because of the cotton GIN for one
thing, but also because on the rich bottom lands
the weed grows larger and higher from the ground,
hence it is not so apt to get mixed with sand,
| splashed upon it by the rains
Order and discipline in picking the cotton, so as
not to let it fall on the ground, would almost en-
tirely cure the complaint made against Indian
cotton. Or system of assortment for which
different prices would be paid would, by degrees,
produce greater care. 1t has even been remarked
that there has been a great falling of IN the
the quality of American cotton within the last few
years as to this matter of Gle InhnesS, large per
centaee of sand, and even stones, having been
left or put into the cotton TO make it weigh
more
1t is the quality of American cotton which
causes it to command such high price. This is
partly dependent upon climate, partly upon soil,
but chiefly upon the cultivation. No finer and
more perfect climate for the cotton plant has been
found or probably will, than that of the Southern
United States. Yet even there it grows we'll IN
such varieties of latitude, of hight above the sea,
of soil and of moisture that there will doubtless
be found plenty of regions in India, where the
climate will do all that climate Even as to
soil, we have seen the cotton doing well in the
rich black mud of the Alabama prairies and
cane brakes, where it had been sown for twenty
years successfully without manure and without
diminution of crop. And we have seen 1t on the
red-clay hills of Georgia, or the sandy loan of
South Carolina. OF course, the richer the soil
the better. Cotton is gross feeder, and the
scanty hight will give planter broad field when
he has worked his soil too hard and too long
Some planters are now beginning to find out
| (what all will have to come to- the importance
of manuring the soil. Thus far the thriftless
plan of clearing new ground has been generally
practised. 1t has been mainly because planted in
virgin SOIL that American cotton has increased in
the length of the staple upon that of the old
world, and improved the seed and become so val
liable.
But the care which used to be taken many
years ago in improving the seed, has been the
chief foundations of the success OF America.
The finest sen island varieties were produced by
a degree Of care hardly conceivable now and
quite gone out of practice. The master of the
plantation used to go through his fields with
pieces of red cloth in his hand, tying one of these
pieces round such plants as appeared the most
perfect in every particular. The cotton of these
was picked and kept separate from all the rest,
and the seeds separated by the hands of his own
wife and children.
These seeds were the only ones sown, and
thus, by selecting the best seed, and by great
care bestowed on each successive culture, the
seed has been brought up to its present high
standard. Much of this care is now relaxed. 1t
is probable, by the use of the same pains and
care, ON a carefully enriched soil, equal results
might be and will DC produced in parts of Asia
and Africa, but the American cotton producer
need not fear any such competition. BY the use
of cultivators and steam, instead of the hoe of
the negro, greater cheapness can be secured and
greater perfection in keeping down the grassland
refreshing the roots hiLddelphi Ledger.