Evening star., 1896-11-14

Total for the world d............ II $40 600 ho,es
The cotton area in all the other coun-
tries is growing. Europe and Asia would
IKE to be independent of us, and thew are
dong all they can to stimulate cotton rails
ing elsewhere. They cannot succeed. how
ever, for there is 10 soil in the world as
COCO lot cotton as that of some parts of
the United. States. The famed Sea Island
cotton, which grows on the Islands Off the
coast of South Carolina and Georgia. is
the hnest cotton that old Mother Earth
mas ever worn Upon her bosom, and other
lands have tried in vain to surpass it. I
saw 1t during my visit to Brunswick, Ga
last week. Our ordinary cotton plant grows
from one to three feet high. The Sea Is
land cotton grows like a tree. The plant
at the ground is as big around as a broom
stick. and it towers aloft to the hei=ht of
SIX feet and upward, shooting off branches
every few inches which are loaded with
cotton bolls These bolls are as big as
black walnut with the null on, and when
the cotton is ripe it hangs down all over
the plant like SO many balls of white pop
corn. Inc cotton is as fine as silk. 1t
shines like satin, and it's fiber is from
one and half to three inches long the
longest cotton fiber in the world, and about
one inch longer than the cotton from other
parts OF the United States. All of our cot
ton surpasses that of other countries, with
the exception Of that of Egypt, which is
rot so coed as the Sea Island but Is bet-
ter than the cotton grown back in the in
terror of the SOUTH Egyptian cotton is
valuable to mix with our cotton and if
surprised me to find that our manufacture
ers import about 100000 bales of Egyptian
cotton every year.
The cotton yield of Egypt took jump at
the time of our late civil war, as did also
that of India. The moment Sumter was
hred upon cotton went up like shot The
English factories soon ran out of their
supply, and the price of cotton doubled and
quadrupled. The Khedive of Egypt took
advantage of the situation. He put out i'm
mense cotton plantations, and between 1861
and 1860 the crop of Egyptian cotton in
creased over four hundred per cent Since
1Ss2, when the English practically got con-
troll of the country, they have tried to
stimulate cotton raising in the valley of
the Nile, and the figures above given rep
resent one of the biggest crops Egypt has
ever had, / am told that the English are
now attempting to establish cotton fac
tories in the suburbs of Cairo, and that a
mill Is now being built at Boulak, there,
near the famous museum in which the
mummies of the Pharaohs rest
When L was in Bombay, India, a few
years ago, l saw great cotton factories
there, and the English capitalists told me
that our war had made India a great cot
ton country. Today it ranks next to the
United States. but the Indian cotton Is
short In staple and it does not produce
more than one-fourth as much to the
acre as our American cotton fields. Fully
half CT the Indian crop is used by the In
Clan cotton mills, viii, are steadily in
creasing II number. and England has still
to buy the bulk of her cotton from US
China will eventually use all of her own
cotton in the new factories she Is building
and Japan, so our consul general at Yoko-
hama once told me- now Ises about S14,0OO-
coo worth Of American raw cotton, which
is shipped to that country not direct from
the United States, but via Liverpool The
cotton raised in Japan Is of the poorest
variety. 1t Is worse than that of China
which Is worse than the Indian cotton. 1t