Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-01-28

Et Is of Greater Antiquity Than Is Gener-
ally Supposed.

xt Is of Greater Antiquity Than Is Gener~
ally Supposed.
When or where cotton-the down or
fine cellular hair attached to the seeds
of plants of the genus G0ssypiam, nat
ural order Mdtudct@-was first cul tivated
for spinning and weaving into garments
curiosity than value. Invention OF
spinning and weaving was ascribed by
the Egyptians to Isis. by Pliny to Queen
Semiramis, and by the Peruvians to
Nance Capac
Herodotus, father of secular history,
was the first of all European wri ters to
mention cotton, and this about $50 B. G.
Even then the beautiful cotton fabrics
of India, delicate and translucent and
fine as gossamer webs manufactured
from the Gossypsuns herbaceuna, were
Egypt Dacca mnslins>were POLITICALLY
known as ''webs of woven wind. }"
Greeks, Romans, Phenicians and ORR
entails delighted in these and other
semi robes. In the seventh
century the Chinese cultivated the cot
compliant for it's flowers, but not un til
the thirteenth for its focculent fiber
Now the annual production is said to
exceed 10, 600, 900 Amer. can bales. In
Africa cotton has been raised and woven
from time immemorlaL Lord Palmer
ston predicted that it would yet supply
Europe. Column bus found cotton in use
among the natives of Hispaniola, and
Cortez among the Mexicans 1t is an
inter tropical plant, and Is best Guilt
waited by inter-tropical races. although
apparently intended to furnish the in
habitants of all the zones with the most
comfortable portion of their clothing.
In 1919, Magellan, the circumnavi-
gator, found the Brazilians using this
vegetable down" in making the r beds.
History repeats the rumor that in 1856
the cotton plant was discovered by De
Vica in Louisiana and Texas. What is
we'll authenticated is that some colonists
from Barbadoes, who SO It'll ed on the Cape
Fear River, North Carolina, in 1864,
brought cotton seed with them, and
planted it for domestic purposes Its
cultivation was greatly stimulated
by the invention of Dubreuil's cot
ton-gin in 1742. Seven bags, valued
at about $125, were exported from
Charleston between November, 1747,
and November, 174S Fresh i'm
pulse to cotton production was impaired
by the Introduction of the roller-gin for
separating the fiber from the seed be-
fore the revolution The invention Of
the saw-gin by Whitney in 1903 in
| augurated an era of splendid prosperity
both in culture and manufacture
The green-seed, or short staple, cot
ton Gossip. am hirsutum) was princi-
pally cultivated before the revolution.
Then came the tawny, or gray-seed,
probably of Mexican origin. The black
seed, or Sea Island, cotton (Gossypium
bdr6GdfnS.) was introduced into Georgia
from the Bahamas about the year 1886.
| In 1795-thanks to Whitney's cotton
gin-the exports of American cotton
| were 6 900, 900 pounds, and in 1901, 90
! 900, 000 Negro labor was exactly suited
| to the culture of cotton and American
| genius no less exactly suited to direct
| the labor. This is also true of the pres
| emit time. when the wonderful adapta
| ton of the South-with it's climate,
| coal, water-power, abundance of food,
and plentiful white and colored labor
| to manufacturing purposes is daily be-
coming more obvious DR.. Richard
| II