The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-09-03
~aIhe Future Possibilities of Cotton.

l
problems, shows, in letter to the New York
Herath that Cotton remains King of American
products in commercial poipt of view. lie
| shows that the as yet undeveloped resources
Of cotton will rrobabably turn out to be even
greater than those which we now know and use
lie says: 1.-The true forces now in action in the
South are industrial forces the opportunities t.
apply improvements and inventions, and for the
accumulation of widely diffused wealth by right
| fui methods. The true reconstruction and the
real union that are now being consummated are
by means Of these industrial forces, and in this
work cotton has been and will be the most po-
tent force Of ALL" Slavery, he says, was econ
| omically wasteful and its remnants still tend to
keep cotton culture in q wastcful state. Yet
| there have been great improvements already, not
due entirely to the abolition Of slavery of course,
but in large to Tho fact that tho gene
raj impoverishment of the people has forced
them to give greater attention to their crops in
order to secure the utmost possible yield In
This way, from careful selection of seed AMI bet
ter culture, the plant natures earlier and has
been made more prolific, and hand can pick
much more ill day and season. Yet Mr.
tithe OF what remains the present power of
King Cotton is but the shadow of the substance
yet to come" The value of the seed, for in
stance, is rs yet an unknown quantity. If we
make six million bales the seed left over after
oil has been saved that is needed for planting
amounts to three million tons. In other words
the seed outwcghs the clint that is separated
from it more than two TO one. If all this refuse
were treated rs n small part of it is at present
in cotton seed oil mills we should annually have
9O,O00,000 gnllons of oil, 10000 tons of oil
cake or meal, and 100000 tons of hulls, from
which it is supposed that 75O, 900 tons of paper
may be made. If the hulls cannot be made into
paper they can be ground up with the cake into
meal and fed to sheep, every ton being capable
in conjunction with the wild grasses of the South
tokcep five sheep during year. Thus the waste
of the cotton fields will fatten sheep enough to
supply our woolen factories, while the sheep
folded on the cotton fields would 80 fertilize the
soil rs to double the crop of cotton, and the NUT
ton could be sold abroad to the full extent of
any foreign demand. Yet the soil now in cotton
in the South is less than two per cent of the
area of the Southern States and the only limit
to the extension of its culture is the power of
picking cotton. The future of cotton when it
can be secured as readily by machinery as the
wheat crop is saved in Minnesota and Cali
fornia, is simply something incalcuable. In
this connection Mr.. Atkinson truly says that
"there never was so great field suddenly opened
for the introduction of new tools, new cotton
gins, new presses and for every variety of imple-
ments and processes 1t is for this reason,
among others, that Mr. Atkinson strongly urges
the setting on foot of n great exhibition cxclu-
"ivc!y devoted TO cotton, in order to probe thor
oughly "thc secret Of its kngship.' What is
that secret. he asks. Is it because cotton or
cotton fabrics care almost n legal tender for all
the other commodities that tho world yields or
needs ~ Two hands. With their children OIL
gool land, will make and pick twenty bales q
year, aad another hands labor will GIN bale
and move this cotton to mill, one operative will
convert it into 5000 pounds of coarse cloth,
Indians for n year. Thus tho work of four
hands per year on cotton supplies the clothing
needs Of four to eight hundred times as many
people. These things can only be properly
shown by means of great cotton exhibition, in
which all the possibilities of the wonderful sta
pie can be adequately displayed, and Mr. At.
kinson calls upon the agricultural department,
the cotton exchanges, the Northern associations
of manufacturers and the Southern associations
Of planters and farmers to cooperate in bring
ing about the much needed exposition There
has as yet been no such exhibition anywhere.
and one which should be adequately and prop
erly got up would astonsh the world quite as
much as it would benefit the worlds foremost
industry.
o.