The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-26
History of the Cotton Industry,
IDr. Richard Whcatly, III Harper
NEaaEly

IDr. Richard Whcatly, in Harpcrs
Weekly.l
When or where cotton-the down or
fine cellular hair attached to the seeds
of plants of the genus Gosssgptun1, nat
ural order Nalrdcea-was first culti-
waited for spinning and weaving into
garments for human beings, is ques-
ton of more curiosity than value. In
vention Of spinning and weaving was
ascribed by the Egyptians to Isis, Dy
Pliny to Queen Semiramis, and by
the Peruvians to Nance Capac.
Herodotus, father of secular history,
was the first of all European writers to
mention cotton, and this about 430 b.
c. Even then the beautiful cotton ia
brics of India, delicate and translucent,
and fine as gossaTer webs, manutac-
tured from the GossypieHm her6aceun,
were valued as highly as the fine linen
of Egypt. Decca muslins were poetl-
cally known as ''webs of woven Wind.'
Greeks, Romans, Phenicians, and ORR
entails delighted in these and other
semi-transparent robes. In this seventh
century the Chinese cultivated the
cotton-plant for its flowers, but not
until the thirteenth for its tlocculent
fibre. Now the annual production IS
said to exceed 100000 American
bales. In Africa cotton has been raised
and woven from time immemorial.
Lord Palmerston predicted that 1t
would yet supply Europe. Columbus
found cotton in use among the natives
of Hispaniola, and Cortez among the
Mexicans. 1t is an intertropical.plant,
and is best cultivated by races, al
though apparently intended toI furn-
ish the inhabitants Of all the zones
with the most comfortable portion of
their clothing.
In 1919, Magellan, the circuninavi-
gator, found the Brazilians using this
"vegetable down" in making their
beds. History repeats the rumor that
in 1886 the cotton-plant was discovered
by De Vica in Louisiana and Texas.
what is we'll authenticated is that
some colonists from Barbados, who
settled 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 Dubre-
uil's cotton-gin in l742. Seven bags,
valued at about s125, were exported
from Charleston between November,
1747, and November, l74S. Fresh i'm
pulse to cotton production was i'm
parted by the introduction of the roller
gin for separating the fibre from the
seed before the Revolution. The in
vention Of the saw-gin by Whitney in
1893 inaugurated an era Of splendid
prosperity both in culture and manu-
factureS.
The green-seed, or short staple, cot
ton Gossyoium hirsmern9 was princl-
pally cultivated before the Revolution.
Then came the tawny, or gray-seed,
probably of Mexican origin. The black
seed, or or Sea Island, cotton { Ga$ypiuna
5orbadense) was introduced intoGeorgia
from the Bahamas about the year l7S9:s
In l7G6-thanks to Whitney's cotton
gin-the exports of American cotton
were 6,UGO,000 pounds, and in 1901 20,-
100000. 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
ent time, when the wonderful adapta-
ton Of the South-with its climate,
coal, water-power. abundance of food,
and plentiful white and colored labor
to manufacturing purposes is daily be-
coming more obvious.