of cotton at great profit to themselves; and we will pass now to the third proposition: that we have almost a monopoly of the foreign market, on account of our ability to produce a better and cheaper article than any other country in the world. We have already adverted to the superiority of our sea island variety. It is the best cotton in the Liverpool market, and commands the highest price. It has not been produced in larger quantities, because the localities where it can be cultivated are few. But for the amount we make there is no competition. The average value of our exports of this kind was $6,000,000 from 1805 to 1815, including the years of the war and the embargo; $10,000,000 in the next ten years; $10,000,000 in the next; $7,000,000 in the next; and $9,000,000 in the last, from 1845 to 1855. For 1859 the amount was 13,713,000 pounds. It is evident from these figures, that the production of sea-island cotton is not increasing. ton similar to ours, had already begun, and from 1826 to 1830 the decline continued. The average consumption of American was 9,200 bales, 2,400 from Brazil, 700 from Egypt, 700 from India, and only 400 from the West Indies, so that ours was more than two-thirds of the whole. In the next five years the American rose to 13,900, the West Indian declined to 200, and the others had but a slight increase; ours being three-fourths of the whole. From this time forward the United States supplied about eighty per cent. of the whole consumption of England, and also of the rest of Europe. In the last year (1859) the number of bales consumed in Great Britain and on the continent was 700,000, of which the American was eighty per cent., the West Indian one, the Brazilian three, the Egyptian four, and the East Indian twelve. And this ratio has been nearly the same for the last twenty years. The ratio of the supply from Egypt has increased a little faster than from America; while that from the West Indies has almost disappeared. Since the rise in the price of coffee, on account of the stoppage of the slave trade in Brazil, her exports have been stationary or declining. The imports from the East Indies have increased, but their comparative gain on American has been very small. In the eight years from 1840 to 1847, the average importation into England of American cotton was 468,000,000 pounds, and of East Indian 75,000,000; while for the next eight years, from 1848 to 1855, the former averaged 644,000,000 and the latter 115,000,000. The first ratio was 16 and the last 18. Since 1855 the ratio has slightly increased. In 1859 and 1860 it slightly declined. When we began the production of cotton, the supplies of Great Britain were furnished by the Levant and by America. Of the twentythree millions received in 1787, seven were from the West Indies, six from Turkey, and ten from the Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese colonies of South America. None was received from the United States or Egypt, which are now the principal sources of supply. The first imports from the East Indies were in 1798, and from Egypt in 1823. When the demand increased, by the application of machinery to the manufacture, we very soon assumed the first rank in the production and supply of cotton. By the year 1800 the receipts from our country equalled those of any other, and in some of the years before the war of 1812 we sur- The supplies furnished by the several passed all other countries taken together. countries are not, however, rivals of each After the war of 1812 we immediately re- other. Our sea island is the finest and sumed the chief place as producers for the dearest. The Egyptian and Brazilian are European market. In the five years from next, and are used for the finer fabrics. 1816 to 1820 the average weekly consump- Ours is suited for all the common yarns, tion in Great Britain of the different kinds uniting strength of fibre with smoothness of cotton was 3,800 bales of American, 2,200 and length of staple. The Indian comes from Brazil, 1,100 from the East Indies, last in price, is coarse, short stapled, and and 700 from the West Indies; and as our badly cleaned. It is mixed with American bags were the heaviest, the 3,800 American in the factories, and used for the coarser were more than the 4,000 from other countries. In the next five years Egyptian made its appearance in the market, and the average was 6,400 bales of American, 2,600 from Brazil, 200 from Egypt, 1,000 from India, and 600 from the West Indies. The decline of the West Indies, which was the only cot goods. Thus there is little or no competition between the different cottons. They are each used for their particular class of manufactures. The Indian would be of little use without ours to mix with it, so that an increase in the supply would require an in crease of American to be worked with it. The dearness of the Egyptian and South American, which are about fifty per cent. higher than ours, prevents them from being substituted in its place. In a paper read before the Society of Arts, J. B. Smith, Esq., member for Stockport, says: "It will be seen, therefore, that while we require for the purposes of our manufacture a limited quantity of the sca island and short-staple qualities of raw cotton, we need and can consume an almost unlimited supply of the medium-staple, orUnited States quality. In this fact lies our real difficulty; for while several quarters of the world supply the first sort, and India could supply enormous quantities of the short-staple sort, the United States of America alone have hitherto produced the second and most necessary kind." "The finest long cotton in the world is called the 'sea island.' It is grown on the low-lying lands and small islands on the coast of Georgia. The quantity is small, and the price very high. It is used mostly for muslin thread, and the very finest numbers of yarn-say 100's and upward; and price, in fact, is of little moment to the manufacturers who purchase it. It usually sells at about two shillings per pound. A quality much resembling it, and almost, if not quite as good, has been grown, as a sample article, in Australia. But of this denomination of cotton the consumption is very small. Another species-long, strong, fine, and yellowish-is grown in Egypt, and imported in considerable quantities. An inferior quality-coarse, harsh, bright in color, but strong is imported from Brazil, and a very small quantity from the West Indies. Doubtless, if the price were adequate, and the demand here very great and steady, the supply from many of these quarters might be largely augmented. But it is not of this sort that we need any considerable increase, nor could we afford the price which probably alone would remunerate the grower. numbers. We need and consume nine bags of this cotton for one bag of all others put together. 3. It is the insufficient supply, or the higher price of this cotton, that has driven our manufacturers upon the short-stapled native article of India, commonly called Surat. If the price of the two were equal, scarcely a bag of Surat would be employed. When the price of American cotton rises, owing to an inadequate supply, that of East India cotton follows it at a considerable interval-the usual ratio being two to three-and the import of the latter is greatly stimulated. It is always grown in India in large quantities, and, with improved means of communication and more careful preparation, might be supplied in time, in indefinite and probably ample quantities. But it is its quality that is in fault; and, as far as the past is a guide, it would seem incurably in fault. Many attempts to amend the character of this cotton have been made. American planters and American 'saw gins' have been sent over, and American seed has been planted; and the result has been a sensible amelioration in cleanliness and color, and some slight increase in length of fibre, but scarcely any change in specific character. The dry, fuzzy, woolly characteristics remain. Sometimes the first year's samples nearly resemble the American article, but the resemblance never becomes permanent. Hitherto (we believe we are correct in stating), either from the peculiarity of the soil or of the climate, or, as some say, from adulteration by the airborne pollen of the inferior native plant, the improved and altered character of the cotton has never been kept up." "The point we have to bear in mind, then, is this: our desideratum is not simply more cotton, but more cotton of the same character and price as that now imported from the States. If India were to send us two millions of bales of Surat cotton per annum, the desideratum would not be supplied, and our perilous problem would still be unsolved. We should be almost as dependent on America as ever." These observations of a practical manufacturer bring out conclusively this truth, that for the uses to which our cotton is applied we are without competition. The longstapled is too dear, and the short too coarse, fuzzy, weak, and rough to be substituted for ours. It thus appears that we have a monopoly of the European market, because we furnish a cheaper and better article for the same price. And this excellence is due to our soil and climate, and to the cheapness of the labor by which cotton is cultivated. The soil is everywhere favorable for cotton in our southern states. Where it is rich 'enough to produce any thing it will produce cotton. The climate is our main peculiarity. Although we are so near the equator that we have six months of the summer, and sometimes more, without a frost that will kill so tender a plant as cotton, we have in all that time a succession of rain, and sunshine, and dews, and clouds, such as belong to temperate latitudes. The weather is hot enough for cotton, and yet rainy and showery, so as to keep the growth of the plant vigorous, and bring to perfection a succession of fruit on the stalks from July to November. The first pickings begin as early as July at some places, everywhere in August, and during the whole of September and October new blossoms are appearing, new bolls forming, and new pods opening their silky product for the hands of the cultivator. Even after the frost has stopped the growth of the plant and stripped it of its leaves, the bolls still open, and the fields are whitened with a succession of fruit, until January arrives and warns the planter to prepare for another crop. This succession of rain and sunshine does not occur in India, which, after the United States, produces the principal part of the European supplies. And this is the reason that the American variety of the cotton plant will not grow there, or soon degenerates to the coarse, rough, short-stapled article which is native to the country. Another advantage we have over India is the length and cost of the voyage. It is worth two and a half or three cents a pound to transport cotton from our sea-ports to Liverpool. The distance from India to England being twice as great, and the voyage more than twice as long, freights and other expenses must increase in a like ratio; and as the best qualities of Bombay and Surat are worth, even now, when prices are high in England, only eight or nine cents, it is evident that almost nothing is left for the interior producer, especially for the inferior qualities. We can produce cotton with profit at much lower rates than we now name. A decline to the Indian planter is ruinous, because freights are stationary, and all, or nearly all the proceeds in England will be consumed in the transportation. Probably, however, the greatest advantage we have over the Indian producers is in the cheapness of our labor. It is true that wages are very low in India, but the labor is also inefficient. We have the cheapest and most efficient labor in the world. The African slave in the southern states is well fed with good and substantial food, that gives him strength, endurance, and health. He is well clad in winter, and well lodged, to protect him from the inclemencies of the season. He is cheerful, able to work, and he works faithfully. As the whole cost of this labor to the state is made up of the simplest necessaries of life, the support of the young, and the old, and the feeble, it is evident that the south has the cheapest labor that is possible. It was the doctrine of Malthus, that in every country there is a constant tendency to reduce the wages of labor down to the mere support of the laborer. That limit, however approximated to elsewhere, has never been reached but in the south. The slave is supplied with all he wants of meal, and with as much meat as is needed for his health and strength. This meal is prepared in many ways, and makes a most palatable bread. His master generally feeds on it in preference to flour. He has a garden, where he can raise potatoes, cabbages, collards, greens, turnips, beans, and such other vegetables as the taste and industry of the family may desire. He has clothingcheap, it is true, but warm and substantial. There is a separate dwelling for each family, and an unlimited supply of fuel for the winter. The old, who are unable to labor in the field, find some slight work about the house-the men in the garden, the women in the care of young children whose mothers are out on the usual plantation work. The sick are carefully attended to by regular physicians and good nursing. All this is essential to the health and strength of the laborer, and to his efficiency on the plantation. The humanity and sympathy of the master, who has often been reared by some of his slaves, are sufficient to secure their comfort; but if these should be wanting, there is an inexorable law sccuring the necessary wants of the servant. With less meat, or with insufficient food, the slave is unfitted for regular work. With less clothing, he is liable to sickness and disease. Without attention and nursing in sickness, his life is endangered, and his services lost to his master. These demands, united with the influences of humanity and sympathy, secure him the necessaries and some of the comforts of life. Another element of the cheapness of this labor is that nothing is wasted in vicious indulgences. In other countries, a large part of the wages of labor is expended in strong drink; but the most stringent laws are everywhere passed against selling spirits to slaves; the Maine liquor law is enforced with the most severe penalties, and with the utmost certainty of conviction for the guilty. Much time is lost in free countries in holidays and shows; in idleness and neglect of work; in seeking employment; in change from one place to another; but all this is saved in the south, for there are no idle hands about the plantation, and, excepting the week between Christmas and New Year's day, when there is a general holiday, there is no lost time, except from sickness, in any part of the year. his family times of want and suffering, with nothing laid up for sickness and old age. Now he is industrious and temperate, and receives the necessaries of life in return; then he would be lazy, and wasteful, and destitute. As industry and temperance are great virtues, and the necessaries of life at all seasons and times, in sickness and health, in youth and old age are a great boon to the laboring poor; and as want, and suffering, and neglect when sick or aged are great and real evils, philanthropy surely wastes its sympathy on the slave when it complains that he is denied his wages. The culture of cotton is specially suited for slave labor, because of its giving full employment for the whole year. January is devoted to fitting up the fences, clearing off the decayed trees that have fallen in the fields, and putting in order the cultivators and all the implements of the farm. The ploughs are also started, and some of the ground broken up for spring planting. February is the main time for ploughing, and in the more southern part of the cotton country, corn is planted in this month. In latitude 31° the time for corn is the 20th of February; above this line it gradually becomes later. About a month after the corn, cotton is planted. In every locality it is desired to have the cotton The children are all put at work at eleven or twelve years of age, as soon as they are able to guide a plough or pick cotton in the fields. The women and men are both efficient workers, and the division of labor is so complete that the children of many moth-up as soon as the fear of frost is gone. The ers are watched over and cared for by one, and the cooking for many families attended to by a single cook. This system of labor is thus the cheapest possible. The corn and the meat being, in most cases, raised on the plantation, and not burdened with the cost of transportation, are supplied at the cheapest prices; the work is all light and easy, so that women and boys, as well as men, can engage in it efficiently. Every thing is arranged so that labor is secured at the lowest possible rate. Some philanthropists, indeed, object to the system on this account: that the slave obtains no wages. But he has food and clothing, a house and fire, proper attention when sick, and support in old age. His children are taken care of, and every necessary want supplied. For an idle and improvident race like the negro, these are more than wages. They are more than his industry would secure. He would not earn as much for himself were he free, as he now receives from his master; and these earnings would be wasted in drink, or in excessive indulgences, or in dress, or in luxuries, leaving for himself and season for planting begins as early as the 15th of March in the most southern latitudes, is delayed to the 1st of April at the parallel of 32°, to the 15th in latitude 34°, and later still above this line. As the seed are planted close together in drills, the hands pass along the rows and chop down the weakest and smallest plants, leaving them in bunches, fifteen to twenty inches apart. The ploughs follow or precede the hoes, both being necessary to kill the grass and soften the ground about the plants. The hoes follow again, and thin out the bunches to one or two stalks, and finally they are reduced to one, the rest having perished from the cutworm or insects, or the blows of the plough and the hoe. For two or three months this hoeing and ploughing, to soften the ground and destroy the grass, gives full employment to the hands. The corn has also to be treated in the same way, and the work is continued on both until the summer has come and the fruit begins to appear on the cotton. There is a little leisure now to the hands before the picking is begun, and this gives time to harvest the wheat that has been sown; to cut |