Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-05-27

Valuable Intentional Cotton I'iChkn <
Gin.
We have accounts from the Southwest
of the invention of new Cotton Gin,
which promises to be Of incnlculable bene-
fit to the cotton planter.
Since emancipation, 10 part of the de-
tails for cultivating and preparing the cot
ton crop for market has given planters
half the trouble they have experienced in
getting their crops picked and housed
ready for the gin. Hands who, before the
war, averaged 200 and $50 pounds day,
now rarely exceed ono half of that amount.
Indeed, the question OF tho future supply
of cotton from the South, has depended,
net SO much on the amount which, with
our present labor system, we could actuGl-
" produce, but rather how much could we
pick and gather from the fields. There IS
hardly a planter III the South, who, since
the war, has gathered the crop with the
same number of hands required to Guilt
vate it. Contemplating and fodder
pulling seem to be tho pet aversion of ne
gro field laborers.
The inventor of the new gin claims that
by the introduction and use of his machine,
the old, tedious and troublesome plan of
picking the cotton from the boils in the
field by hand, is entirely dispensed with.
An exchange, in giving description of
this new invention, says: cit Is now only
necessary to pluck 'bolls, cotton and all,
from the stalk Three or four bolls can
be grasped at once and torn away, and in
this crude state they are placed in the re-
ceiver of the machine, which separates
the cotton from the husks, leaves, stem,
dirt and sand, by running it through the
picker as fast as it is wanted for gin
ming The planter merely sends his
hands into the field, where they gath
er, IN the most rapid manner, all the ma
tured cotton, whether the bolls are open
or not. It is stored in this state until
convenient time for running through the
mill. tits estimated that one hand can
pick one thousand pounds Of cotton in the
new way quicker than person could pick
one hundred and fifty pounds after the old
style. It is said that on plantation of
five hundred acres of bottom land, a sim
gle machine will save in cotton and labor,
from 81, 900 to $4,000 year. Besides
turning out better article, the new ma
chine will exact at least fifteen per cent.
more cotton than was saved under the old
process. The price will be about fifty per
cent more than the old apparatus but
old gins can be so changed as to be utilized
in connection with the new invention"
If this gin shall perform all that is
claimed for it, the benefits which the cot
ton planter will derive from its introduce
There are two points of excellence claimed
in which we feel we'll assured there will be
failures. We DO not believe that it will
ever be possible to get machine which
will be able to get cotton of good quality
out of unopened or unmatured bolls, nor
do we have any faith in the statement that
the quality of cotton is improved by being
picked from the bells by u machine. We
do have faith, however, in the capacity of
American ingenuity to perfect machine
which will rapidly separate the cotton
from the bolls in place of the present
tedious system of hand picking.
We learn that arrangements have been
made for placing q large number OF these
new machines in the market III time for
the growing crop, and trust that
careful and intelligent experiments may
be made by planters to test their value.