The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-04-02
THE HOME OF KING COTTON.
VARIOUS COUNTRIES IN WHICH THE
STAPLE Is GROWN.
The American Cotton Raising In
dustry-C and Prepnr-
alton of the staple for Market.

The American Cotton Raising In
dustry-Cu and Prepar-
alton of the staple for Market.
What is cotton; why does it spin, and
who can compete with us in the produc-
ton of the fiber asks Edward Atkinson
in his paper on the cotton manufactures
of the United States, printed in the
United States Census Report, and then
tells us what it is. He says: Cotton is
the wing of the seed of one of the plants
belonging to variety of which the
hibiscus and mallow are well-known
specimens growing elsewhere. 1t is in
digenous in many parts of the world,
both in tropical and temperate regions,
but the useful sorts are those which grow
in the Southern part of the temperate
zone. A tree cotton is found in the
tropics, producing fiber very silky in
appearance, resembling in structure the
fiber of the asclepias, but useless, like
the latter, for spinning purposes, for
want of the form and structure
which makes it possible to
spin the cotton of commerce. A
vine cotton may be found in some of the
West India islands. In China and Japan
are found varieties producing a short,
clean and very whiSe staple, practically
useless, except it be spun and woven by
hand. In India many varieties are to be
found, commonly known as "Surats," a
name which belongs to district, but
which is often applied to all East India
cotton. East India cotton is, rs a rule,
short in fibre and rough in its character,
adhering closely by its end to the seed,
and is therefore difficult to remove, ex-
cept with great waste. There is, how
ever, one exception to this rule: In the
Dacca province long and fine staple is
grown, which is produced by class of
people with whom its cultivation is an
hereditary employment, and from which
the fine muslin known us "woven wind
is manufactured. In Africa are to be
found several varieties; but the only
kind known to commerce is the cotton
of Egypt, next in quality to our Sea
Island staple. Aside from this the cot
ton of Africa is short and woolly. There
are large areas of land, formerly
irrigated but now desert, upon which
1000, 900 or more bales of the most
valuable cotton could be annually grown,
if Egypt were well governed and labor
had its true reward. In Brazil a con-
siderable quantity of useful cotton is
now produced, but slavery stands in
the way of any great increase or improve
ment of the staple There are vast
tracts of land on the Paraguay and
Parana rivers capable OF producing the
best varieties, but as yet these places lack
good government and that security to
property which can alone assure adequate
labor and good cultivation. The same
may for the present be said of Mexico,
but the conditions are so rapidly chang
ing in that country that Mexico may vet
become an important factor in the culti-
vation of the cotton crop of the world.
Cotton has been raised in Asia Minor,
Turkey, Italy and the islands of the
Pacific; in fact, the area of land adapted
to its growth in some degree is practical
ly unlimited; but the area which pro-
duces the most useful varieties is at
present substantially limited to the
southern portion of the United States.
No treatment of the manufacture of cot
ton can rightly begin without giving the
reason why cotton spins. Nature begins
to twist each fiber upon its own axis, else
man could make no use of it. Is is the
cnly fiber, either vegetable or animal,
with the exception OF silk, which can be
worked without any preparation
or machine just as it comes from
the boil or fleece. 1t can be imagined
how some Indian woman in Central
Asia first gathered the fiber as it hung
from the boil, twisted it with her fingers
into strand, as one may now do; then,
holding it by the middle with her teeth,
doubled it and made a strong, rough
cord: and then, making bobbin of a bit
of bamboo reed and tying the ends of
the cord to other reeds, interlaccd them,
and made the first web of cotton cloth
Any one can do this to-day with cotton,
and it would be difficult or impossible to
perform this work with any other fiber.
The next step in the process might have
been the one which is even now practised
in making the finest fabric ever spun and
woven in the world-the Dacca muslin
previously referred to and known as the
''woven wind. " The cotton is separated
from the seed by hand machine known
as the churka, of which the modern
roller gin is but modification; and no
invention has ever yet displaced the roller
gin in the treatment of the finest fiber,
like that of Dacca and the sea island cot
ton of America Next may have been
the application of the fshbone to the
carding of the fiber, which is still in use,
and of which the modern card is but a
modification. Twisting upon distaff,
in the same way as the cotton is spun in
India and tiaxin Italy, may be the next
step in the progress of the art, and at last
the weaver may have constructedsuch {
loom of reeds as is pictured upon the
walls of Babylon, while the weaver, sit
ting under palm tree, as she does to-day
in India, and weaving only in the morn
ing when the dew makes the handling
of the fiber possible, may have brought
the art slowly and gradually to the per
fection of the woven wind In the whole
treatment of cotton, as it is now prac