As all the world knows and laments, the cultivation of this wealth-creating, work-providing shrub is, in America, carried on entirely by slave-labour; and it has been maintained that the substitution of free labour would so run up the cost of picking—picking especially, for picking is a dilatory and tedious operation,—as to act fatally on the question of remuneration which the planter is of all men most anxious to adjust on a satisfactory basis. It need hardly be added, that this short-sighted policy takes the form of an apology, put forward by those whose silly apprehensions for their own selfish advantage preponderate over the sagacity, liberality, and charity in which the cotton-planters, as a class, are not deficient. The slaves thus supplying the field-labour of the states, number, in the low country, three-fourths of the entire population.
Before the enhanced demand for cotton promised such flattering results to its cultivators, rice, indigo, maize, and tobacco were the principal vegetable products of South Carolina. Now, whilst this last has taken the place of indigo (indigo having fallen almost entirely out of cultivation), cotton has become the great staple of exportation, 20,000 bags being yearly sent away from South Carolina and Georgia alone. The further extension of this kind of agriculture, however, does not appear possible in the United States, for physical reasons lead us to conclude that it has already nearly, if not quite, reached its climax. In 1859-60, the supply from this quarter amounted to 4,675,770 bags, whereas the present year produced but 3,700,000, a disparity not to be accounted for by any of those fortuitous circumstances which regularly affect all production. And as regards the famous long-stapled cotton of the islands of South Carolina and Georgia, the above inference is still more forcibly and emphatically correct. The produce of inland districts is, in respect of quality, coarser and shorter in the staple than that nurtured by the sea-side. What is technically termed the Georgia Upland is of this description, and is accordingly adapted for spinning into stout yarns only. In proportion to their distance from the briny deep, the cotton-fields suffer abatement in reference to the quality of their yield. Twenty-five miles is the maximum limit, beyond which the character of the wool undergoes a marked deterioration. The finest seeds are therefore sown within this range, and perhaps the finest of all fructify on the small islands of Edisto, Wadmalan, and St. Helena, which fringe a portion of the Carolinian sea-board. The process of cultivation in lands and latitudes suited to the plant is neither costly nor difficult, but in the states of North America it is attended with considerable risk, and requires frequent and vigilant interference. In the two states to which I have so often alluded, the caterpillar is computed to devour the leaves once in every seven years, when, of course, the destruction of the crop is inevitable. There are worms, too, equally prejudical to the health of the plant, and in their depredations almost equally disastrous. Then rains and winds, which in these latitudes are excessively violent, inflict their share of mischief upon the ill-fated victim; so that, casting out of the account all floricultural sentimentalism for the plant itself, the grower must contrive for his own peace as best he may, and, in order to do so effectually, keep a sharp look-out, a book calculated upon these probabilities of evil, a temper proof against deferred profits, and a willingness to be written down by creditors among the bad and doubtful debts.
Albeit my intention is far from writing a practical treatise on the rearing of cotton, a few facts connected with the subject, conveyed in a few words, may be of some general interest. The quantity of seed sown to an acre is, on an average, about half a bushel. The first material care falling on the cultivator, after the plant has attained a certain amount of strength and elevation, is the joint operation of hoeing and cleaning. This latter consists in freeing it from grass and weeds, the spontaneous growth of which is generally rapid, and its effects so noxious that it must be dealt with by a summary process of ejectment or extirpation. This takes place between April and June. Then comes thinning, which involves toil and judgment, and is likewise performed chiefly during the act of hoeing. When the boles crack, which they do with a loud explosive noise, very appreciable by the ear, it is a signal that the season for plucking the fleecy treasure has arrived. This gathering the crop, which is also a work of time, delicacy and patience, peculiarly well adapted to the minute instrumentality of a child’s hand, commences about the middle of August, and is brought to completion with the month of November. As the value of the wool depends very mainly upon the cleaning or ginning, great attention should be given to this important operation, which is so differently accomplished on different estates, that it is often a principal cause of the variation in price of the same description of produce. It is thought that if the Egyptian cotton were thoroughly well ginned, and thus freed from the gross impurities with which it is commonly mixed, it would approach nearer in value to the genuine Sea Island than any other sort imported; but with the present imperfections in cleaning prevalent in Egypt, the innate quality of the material, which is excellent, undergoes a false and unnecessary deterioration. Of wool in this clean condition five hundred weight is the average yield of four acres of plantation.
As there have been great benefactors to the spinning and weaving departments of the economy of cotton, so now and then men of ingenuity and enterprise have sprung up meriting in the estimation of the planters the highest praise and the deepest gratitude, men whose head-work has served to mitigate bodily toil and appease mental anxieties, and whose cunning inventions, though less brilliant than those begotten of the special necessities of the manufacturer, have greatly facilitated production and multiplied its pecuniary returns. The difficulty which has occupied so much attention has been that of freeing the silky fibres within the pod from the husks, seeds, and other foreign substances with which they get encumbered. The names of Harvie, Eli Whitney, and Joseph Eubank, distinguished in connection with this and kindred objects, sound as