The daily gazette., 1879-11-25
Southern Industries.
A PROMISED INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
n ON n Letter from Georgia


One Of the results Of the defeats Of
October and November has been to make
the people turn their faces away from
politics and give their attention TO the
problem Of practical development. The
unexpected aud art fetal rise in the price
Of cotton has added fully two cents
pound to the ordinary price of this
staple. This surplus of $40 per bale,
which strikes the farmers as happily as
did the fairy goGfathers gift to the Gin
derella, and which comes quite as gratui-
tously, has given everything boom.
The cotton Is being rushed to market as
rapidly as possible. Just upon this
boom comes the discussion of little
machine that Is already famous over the
continent and that promises the grand
est results--the Clement attachment.
This machine, the invention Of a Mem
phis mechanic, who died of the yellow
fever, provides for the spinning Of yarn
from seed cotton. At present the cotton
is picked from the boil, taken to the gin
which simply separates the lint from the
seed. The lint Is then baled and sent
North for manufacturing. With the
Clement mill the lint Is not only sepa-
rated from the seed, but 1t is spun into
yarn. The difference in value is enolm-
GUS.
The lint cotton is worth only about
eight cents pound on the plantations
III. yarn is worth seventeen cents
pound. 1t will be seen there
fore that every pound of cotton
spun is doubled in va.ue. A
bale of cotton ginned by the old
process is worth say $50; the same cot
ton run through the new process Is
worth 500. OF this added value fully
SIS is clear profit. A crop of 5,000,O00
bales spun into yarn would therefore
leave $500, 200, 900 in The South, while II
leaves now only $250,O00,OOO there
would be $75,00O,O00 profit. The rest
would be kept on the farms in the way
OF wages, etc. 1t looks unreasonable to
apply these figures to the whole crop,
and yet 1t would require no more capital
to spin the crop into yarns by the new
process than it does to gin 1t by the old.
One Clement mill will do the work OF
three gins and costs about one-third as
much. 1t is believed that they will rap
idly take the place Of gins on the plan
tatioDs and that thorough revolution
will be effected. There are six of these
little mills in operation IN Georgia aud
the Carolinas. Each of them is visited
daily by crowds OF sight-seers and farm
ers ana capitalists. Letters are received
from all parts OF the country, and SAM
pies Of the yarn have been sent for by
Liverpool capitalists. The yarns made
by this process are superior to any others
and took the premiums at all the fans.
hIa. In \ lla "A 4. a
supply a fraction of the demand that
comes f.om Philadelphia alone for the
yarns.
One point that commends the Gle
ineut mills To the South IL that they will
make an essentially Southern industry.
The seed cotton caunot be carried away
from the plantations. IL must be spun
there Just as completely az It is now lgiD-
ned tisere. The mills are very simple. IL
Is simply the connection of a gin with a
spindle by means of carding cylinders.
In the old system the fibre is chopped
and torn from the seed by lightning-li like
saws and then thrown all tangled and
torn into the lint pile, then packed into
bales. taken to the factories, picked out
and froggled again and then carded into
rolls and spun. In the new process the
| GIN moves slower, pulls the fibre from
the seed instead OF earring or cutting IL,
| transfers 1t carefully TO a cardiug cyIin-
DIR, instead OF throwing IL into tie lint
pile and spins II at once. Instead of pack
ing II, comprising il aud pick ing 10 out
again. la the process uf converting seed
cotton 10 thread no less than four ma
chimes 1sed Ia the old process are eimi-
mated in the new process, and profit Of
nearly two cents pound is gained. Th =
~ an enormous margin of profit. IL is
proved also that by the superior gius
used in the Clement mills eight per
cent. more of lint IN taken from the seed
than by the old gins. This eight per
c ent. has heretofore been wasted, From
the lint to the thread there is another
five per cent. OF wastage saved.
The Juror over these mills is wonder
sui. They drive out all thoughts of pol
iics. IL is estimat d that over one hun
dred Will lie put to work in Georgia
within the next year. A prominent cot
ton factory man predicted to me that
the time would come lwhen the old fac.
tories would scatter their spiniles
among these plant ttlon mills and sup.
ply their place with looms to weave Ill,
yarns sent in from the farms. The pro.
nts OF these mills are large percentage
The six mi lis in operation average from
thirty to sixty per cent. A mill that cost!
$500 has made 81 ,SiD clear in one year
and u will do better uext year. A dou
bile mill that cost ST 900 is making from
81 to $40 day, and is safe for S3 900
year. They are simple, snug little struc
lures, looking like the ordinary countr,
grist mills. A six-horse power will ruI
one OF them. Several Northern capital
lists have visited the mills and severa
companies are being formed to put then
up. The Southern papers are full of Ell
thusiasfic articles concerning them.
THE GOLD YIELD OF GEORGIA.
simultaneously with this dlscussio OF
we have surprisingly development q
the gold fields OF Georgia. From "A yi.l,
of 100000 in bullion four years ago tn
yield IL now over 81 ,0y0, 900 per anuui
and is rapidly increasing. New mine
are being opened and new veins discov
cred. The mining operations exten
from OglethOrpe and Wilkes, ON th
right. to the Alabama line on the Ief
leaving little doubt that the whole of uI
per Georgia is rich with golt bearin
, quartz: The local papers have their reg
ular mining departments ami the talk q
nuggets is becOmiu < quite common. TIL
/ Georgia mines are ve'y rich, the quar-
is soft and is easily crushed; water pow
er is abundant, railroad convenient an
e wood and labor cheap. Before the WI
the excitement was caused by surfAc
: mining alone. The surface deposit
were soon worked up, after giving sue
RESULT, however, that & mint was T.
= tablished at Dahlonega. After a ::turb
n lent and eag period OF about ten yea
a the mines were deserted and IlIe mil
- closed. Only within the past five yea
o has quartz mining been attempted ser
a ou>ly. DR.. Little, the S ate Geolngis
saws that the ore Is practically inexhau