Year: 1875

A writer in the Scientific American
has the following to say regarding the
manufacture of cotton IN the south


1t is a well known fact that cotton
factories at the south have been making
money while manv of those at the north
have been compelled to suspend opera
tfons IN whole or IN part. Some of the
reasons for this state of things are as
follows:


1. Labor is cheaper at the south than
at the north.


2. In consequence of a milder cli-
mate, the necessary expenses of living
is less there than in New England, as
is also that of heating factory build
ings, etc.


8. Coal is abundant in the south, and
cheap water privileges can be obtained
in every direction.


4 The purchase of raw matierRl di~
rect from the producer saves the profits
of numerous middlemen, the cost of
several buildings, and long tTansporta-
tion.


To these advantages I am satisfied
that still another of great importance
can be added. The southern factory
buy the cotton IN the seed. gin, and
then spin il, without packing into
bales; and it is to urge some of your
inventive readers to arrange machinery
for this purpose that I write this com
munication. Some of the advantages
of such a system that would be as fol-
lows


1. The yarn would be stronger.
Baled cotton cannot be prepared for
carding without beating, and thus
weakening the fiber to a greater or less
extent.


2. There would be less waste. Ere
quently much cotton is discolored and
otherwise injured by foreign substances
that have been packed with it. / un-
derstRnd at the north in Europe it takes
from 108 to 1f5 lbs. of cotton to make
100 lbs. of yarn and although the
waste is not so great at the south, it is
nevertheless considerable.
3. The cotton seed would be pressed
| at the same establishment, and the oil
and oilcake sold for many million each
year.


4. The interest on gins and gin houses,
which are now idle the greater part of
the year would be saved to planters.


B. The raising of cottons on small
farms would be encouraged. The
plantation system is not adapted to free
labor, and is steadily breaking up but
until cotton can be readily sold in the
seed, few small farms will be opened In
the cotton section, for the reason that
a man cannot afford to buy and operate
a gin if he only plants few acres of
cotton. Better cottons and more per
acre will bs obtained on small farms
than on large ones. The reason of this
is that hand can plant and cultivate
two or three times as much cotton as he
can pick. During the picking season,
the entire field should be gone over al
least once a day. Even under the slave
system, planters who put in an acre Oi
corn for each acre of cotton, and sent
the smallest pickanniny into the field
to pick cotton, were often unable tC
pick fast enough; and now that they
have so little control over their work
men, the result is sometimes disastrous
But the small farmer if he is unable {;
get extra hands when he needs them
can generally rely on wife and childreI
to help.


am confident that, under the system
proposed, the south can manufacture
cotton cheaper than New England. O
Old England either; and that if tn
proper effort is made, it need not b.
long before her income from cotton vii
be double what it is now.