New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-20
THE COTTON SUPPLY.

A geographical TACT OF inc Blcd'ceV ll'Poi'
ance lies at the foundation of all just views on
the question of the Cotton Supply. England
believes that deeper blowing, seecter seed,
more diligent culture, nicer picking and mar
keting, will enable her to offset our South
with her India. AS to quantities, this may be;
as to quality of staple, never; and this 10 the
reason.
Cotton. as to the size of the plant and the
number of pods it holds depends upon richness
of soil and solar heat. These England finds in
sufficient perfection i'll the valley OF the Ganges
and on the tabe-lands of Deccan. But as to
the color and oiliness of the seed the tineness
and length of its silken faments, cotton varies
III onality according to the midness and even
ness of the Autumnal climate. Different
repions in our sunny cotton belt differ
in this respect, but the contrast is mid
| one, and we have great advantage
! over the whole Of the East Indian peninsula.
After July our Southern climate is for the
most part rainless till late in the Fall. This
! is caused by the high lands, which commence
! from one to two hundred miles from the sea
side, where the best cotton grows. Clouds
loaded with moisture from the gulf and the
ocean off Florida are waited northward, but do
cool wooded slopes of the Cumberland and
! Allegheny Mountains. This circumstance gives
| America her unequaled advantages as a pro-
Queer of long cottons. In India there is a
small district where the conditions are some
| what similar, and rain-clouds in the picking
season are attracted northward across the
! lower portion of the Ganges Valley to expend
! their waters upon the fTigid slopes of the range
that parts India from Tibet Dacca is the cen
trail city of this region, and Dacca lawns have
a romantic fame like that of Damascus blades
A study of the geographical conditions in India,
as etched on any good map, will show how
limited is the area to which England must be
confined in her endeavDr to grow such cottons
as her finest looms demand. Yigilant and
grasping as ever, she has of late
been moving to secure that hereditary pet of
all her policies a monopoly. She proposes to
do it by active and potent stimulants applied
to cotton culture in the GaDges Valley, and
the transporting facilities of that country. In
Lancashire the great seat of the cotton indus
try of the Kingdom, there is at present no
more cotton than will keep the mills going five
days out of six, and there is a continual
struggle among the manufacturers to obtain
the mills. Sad effects are showing themselves
in the rapidly growing number of operatives
thrown out of employment, and in the increase
of paupersm. At meeting just held in Lon
don of representatives of the cotton industry
of the North of England. and of members of
Parliament whose constituencies are interested
in that industry, the conviction was generally
expressed by the speakers that Lancashire will
have to look elsewhere than to this country,
seeing that the Americans are using their cot
ton more and more largely themselves, and
will consequently be able to spare less and less
of it every year. AS TO other fields of cotton
supply, Egypt and Turkey, it was said,
could not be relied upon, and the South
American States including Brazil, had disap-
pointed expectation India, therefore, APP
peared to be the sole quarter to which
British manufacturers could look for succor.
Resolutions were passed earnestly recon-
mending the Government to establish Boards
of Agriculture in each Presidency of India,
with view to the introduction of improved
methods of cultivation Including plOws and
other implements), the proper selection of Seeds
and the use of fertilizers; and also expressing
the hope that the Government will see the
necessity of expanding not less than fifty
millions of dollars a year in extending the
railway system of India, and meeting the re-
quire ments necessary for the agricultural de-
velopment of the country. The question of
labor was not lost sight of and it was re-
marked by one of the speakers that, even with
large importation of Chinese, the Southern
States of America could not get labor for
cotton growing at as low rate as it could be
had in India.
In another column our readers find a full de-
scriptiOn of the cotton interest In British India.
A careful perusal of this paper with good
map will enable any one to form as sound an
opinion as Lancashire or The London Times can
give of the likelihood of our losing an English
market, and au eager English market for our