New-York daily tribune., 1862-05-13
PHASES OF THE COTTON CULTURE

The careful student Of commercial and man.
ufacturing industry knows that many OF the
great staples Of the world have been subject
to extraordinary mutations. Not mutations OF
price. but revolutions of location, by being
rooted out from one country where they had
been domesticated for centuries, to be planted
and TO nourish in others where they had been
previously unknown. The time was when
indigo was a staple product of South Carolina,
of which many tuns were annually exported
TO England, where its reputation surpassed
that of all others. The island Of Hayt once
supplied the world with coffee. Europe once
looked to India only for rice. But rice, INTRO
duced by accident into South Carolina, In q
few years drove indigo out, while 1t also e1-
pelled the rice of India from Europe. The
revolutionary hurricane which drenched Hayh
in blood, destroyed her monopoly of the coffee
culture, and it became domesiicated in Brazil.
As Hayti permanently lost it, 80 Brazil has
permanently retained it. Rice in Carolina
and coffee in Brazil, are both exotics But
these changes of locality in tho production
of tho great staples were not Effected
suddenly. Hayt, it is true, lost her coffee
at blow, but Brazil was years in bringing
her plantations into bearing. The great fact
is nevertheless apparent, that accident or con-
yulsion may deprive q country Of its leading
staple, and that when once lost, 1t may never
bs regaiDed
Furope. for q twevemonth has watched the
VARYING phases Of the Shareholders Rebellion
with feverish anxiety. But its sympathies were
not with Liberty, but with Cotton. But in the
latter it has failed to discover tAe least evi-
dence Of sympathy for its destitution OF the
great staple. On the contrary, though at first
courted and csjoled, il has finally become nn
object Of the iercest s!ayeholdDg hatred. Eu-
rope. Ike the North, was to be c0erced by
Cotton. II it wore shocked at the atrocity of
the stone blockade, it has been even more con-
founded by tho determination OF the Rebels To
destroy their Cotton, rather than that 1t should
reach Europe through Union agencies. 10 this
.ucceeded the action of the Rebel Congress,
directing its army to burn 1t wherever found,
az If distrustlul Of the cOtton.sacriiicng nerve
of the people. Then came the popular recon-
meudaton to plant no more; and, last OF all,
tho act Of the Rebel Legislature Of Arkansas,
imposing tax Of $50 on every bale which any
citizen of that State might be sufficiently en-
terprising to produce. Hayti lost her coffee
monopoly by misfortune; but the Cotton States
commit deliberate suicide. Europe, and espe
cially England, may well be indignant at their
unyieding rashness, their unmatched insoence,
their unappeasable rufianism, aud make up
her mind that Gs with them the cotton monoP-
oly il apparently dead, so it must look else
where for permanent supply, as waiting for
n return Of CONT sense is out Of the ques-
ton. Her vast industry can submit TO no such
disastrous interregnum as tho cotton-growers
have deliberately created
The evidence accumuates that she has at
last come to this conclusion. Tie Manchester
Cotton Supply Reporter for March says that
" spinners and manufacturers are coming face
! 10 face with the stern realities Of their posi-
ton. The last lingering hopes of relief from
the blockaded American crop are dying away;
and ms the stock of American ut Liverpool
would only feed our mills for u few weeks at
the present reduced rate of working the only
alternative 10 their entire st0ppage is being
adopted, even before absolute necessity COM
pels. There is an evident desire to deal gently
with the last remaining morsel from the States.
Then the alternative proves less Objectionable
than many had supposed. As the practical
usefulness Of Indian cotton becomes more thor
ouRhly tested, results quite unlocked for are
arrived at; and every recorded instance OF
marked success ia its manufacture Dmpsrts AZ
additional stimulus TO Us consumption The
| Reporter believes that when our ports are again
opened, the large crop of 1862, now concen-
trating at Bombay, viii have attained strong
bold on The market, because of i.s anticipated
superior cleaners. Ii says that last year En-.
gland paid India 5000, coo for the DIRT aud
rubbish ostensibly sold as cotton. Vast effort
has been made to remedy this nuisance, and
Just in proportion as II ID remedied will the
Indian staple interfere with the American. But
even with Ill this amount OF dirt and rubbish,
Brtith machinery has been so changed within
a year as to be able readily TO digest them.
Thus the aspects of the cotton culture have
undergone continual ana apparently vital chang
ed within very brief period. What its future
in this country is to be, no man can say. II
appears evident that much of last years crop
will DO destroyed by the madmen who control
il, and that but little will be grown the present
\ s,agon in fbe Cation Statea II 10 true that