Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-04-17
Ntisfellantous 8tadina.
THE COTTON PLANT.

America, but it has been accllmated
and cultivated as far north as the 36th
degree of latitude. Its cultivation
covers very large portion of our
globe. In the Eastern hemisphere its
range of cultivation extends from
southern Europe on the north to the
Cape of Good Hope on the south
in the Western hemisphere from
Virginia to southern Brazil. 1t has
been most successfully cultivated,
however, between the 30th and 35th
degrees north latitude. Humboldt
found it growing in the Andes at
an elevation of 5000 feet, and in
Mexico at $500 feet. Boyle reports
it cultivated at an elevation of 1000
feet in the Himalayas. Such elevations,
however, are not favorable to its
best development. Botanically, cotton
belongs to the natural order Of NAL
vace, genus gossypium. Botanists
differ as to its proper classification
into species some enumerating as
many as ten species, others seven,
and others only three, as necessary
to clear discrimination between the
distinctive characteristics recognizable,
after making due allowances for differ
ences resulting from soil and climatic
influences.
The history Of the cotton plant
antedates in its beginnings the COM
mercial annals of the human family.
India seems to have been the most
ancient cotton growing country. For
five centuries before the Christian era
her inhabitants were clothed in cotton
goods Of domestic manufacture from
the fiber grown upon her own soil, by
her own crude methods.
Notwithstanding the proximity of
China to India, it was not until the
Eleventh century that the cotton
plant became an object of common
culture in China. The first mention
made of cotton in the records was 200
years before the Christian era. From
that time down to the Seventh century
it is mentioned, not as an object of
industry, but one ofinterest and curios-
ity an occupant of the flower garden,
the beauty of it's flowers being celebrat-
ed in poetry. In the Eleventh centu-
ry field culture of cotton commenced
in China but owing to the opposition
of the people, especially those engaged
in growing and manufacturing wool
eld fax, it was not until 1868 that
the cultivation and manufacture of
cotton were well established.
Central and South America and
the West Indies grew and manufactur-
ed cotton long before their discovery
by Columbus, who found the plant
under cultivation, and the people
using fabrics made from the staple. At
the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, in
1919, he found that the clothing of the
Mexicans consisted principally of cot
ton goods; the natives of Yucatan
presented him with cotton garments
and cloths for covering for his huts,
while Montezuma presented him with
"curtains, coverlets and robes of cot
ton, fine as silk, Of rich and various
dyes, interviewer with feather work,
that rivaled the delicacy of painting"
Egypt seems not to have either cul-
tivated cotton or used its fabrics at a
very early date, since the cloths in
which mummies were enveloped were
of flax instead of cotton. Indeed it
appears that those nations which were
celebrated for their manufacture of fine
linen were slow to substitute the cot
ton for the flax.
Spain was the first of the European
States to grow cotton. 1t was intro
duced there by the Moors in the Tenth
century. The first cotton was planted
in the United States in 1921. Gear
rolls Historical Collections of South
Carolina" mentions the growth of the
cotton plant in that province in 1866.
In 1876 it was planted in gardens in
Talbot county, Maryland, latitude 80
North. At the commencement of the
Revolutionary war General Delegall
was said to have had 80 acres planted
in cotton near Savannah, Ga. 1t is
stated that in 174S, among the exports
of Charleston, S. c., were seven bags
of cotton wool, valued at e3, lis. and
sd. a bag. Another small shipment
was made in 1854, and in ITO three
more, amounting to 10 bales. In 1854
eight bales shipped to England were
seized on the ground that so much
cotton could not be produced in the
United States.
The first Sea Island cotton was
grown on the coast of Georgia in 17S6,
and its expectation commenced in
1888, by Alexander Bissel, of St. ST.
mons Island. In 1791 the cotton crop
of the United States was 1900, 1000
pounds, of which three-fourths were
grown in South Carolina, and one
fourth in Georgia, ten years later,
1901, 100000 pounds were produc-
ed-2O,OOO,OoO pounds of which was
exported.-Prof. J. S. Newman.