places where these experiments were made will cease with the high prices that induced them, that he deems it unnecessary to make mention of them separately. The samples are all interesting as displaying evidences of what can be done under the power of price or necessity, and useful to the people where they were successful in testing the fitness of soil, climate, and other conditions for cotton growing. But cotton growing will be a leading business permanently only in those countries where it can be made more profitable than other pursuits. Where indigo, rice, tobacco, sugar, coffee, or breadstuffs will pay better, or will better suit the soil, or climate, or the necessities, habits, or other conditions of a people, than cotton, the culture of cotton may be temporarily forced by the power of high price as well as by the decree of a Pacha, or by the well-directed efforts of a resolute, intelligent, and persistent manufacturing people; but it will be only temporary, like any other enforced industry attempted in defiance of the laws of true economy.1

Those laws find a parallel and illustration in the laws governing the vegetable world. Indian cotton seed brought to the United States (from where it is a native to where it is an exotic) will produce a better cotton here than in India, tending to longer and better staple continually. On the contrary, New Orleans seed planted in India will produce cotton the first year nearly equal to its original, but every year of reproduction from the same seed will exhibit more and more deterioration until the product shall have assimilated to the native Indian cotton. The conditions of the two countries cause the characteristics of cotton to determine in opposite directions; hence the necessity for frequent renewals of good staple seeds in India. It is forcing a temporary deviation from nature's course, but always the tendency is to obey the natural law.

COMPARATIVE VALUES OF AMERICAN AND OTHER KINDS OF COTTON.

The classification or grading of cotton is not applied uniformly to the cotton of all countries, even in Liverpool, where all are found in market. "Fair" cotton from any part of the United States is a very high grade, almost clear of impurities and defects. It is four grades higher than the American "middling," yet the latter is a better grade in point of cleanliness than the grade of "fair" in Surats and some other sorts.

These incongruities make it difficult to convey to any one not familiar with the trade and its technicalities a proper idea of the relative value of the several kinds of cotton by the quotations of a price list. The following arrangement, classing American "middling" with the "fair" cotton of other countries, will bring them all nearly to uniformity of cleanliness and appearance. Differences of price from a common level will then indicate the relative values of all kinds by their merits for

See, in the Appendix I, a report from the London Times of the last meeting of the Cotton Supply Association.

per pound:

spinning. The prices are those of December 30, 1868, at Liverpool,

ANNUAL STATEMENT OF COTTON SUPPLY.

Annual cotton statistics are made up in the United States to the 31st of August, and in Great Britain, and Europe generally, to December 31st. To make up tables for both Europe and the United States in which the statistics of Europe shall conform in date to our crop statements, the account must be taken in Europe about September 30. For the greater part of the European statistics of that date we are indebted to the valuable tables of M. Ott-Trimpler, of Zurich.

SUPPLY AND CONSUMPTION OF COTTON.

Table of the supply and consumption of cotton in all Europe and the United States for the year 1859–260.

The foregoing table, or statement of 1859-60, represents the year of largest supply ever known. Compare with it the following statement of the last complete cotton year, 1867–68:

Supply and consumption of cotton in Europe and the United States for the

M. Trümpler's tables exclude the cotton trade of Spain, Russia, and Sweden. The entire cotton crop of the United States being stated on the side of supply, it is necessary to state on the side of consumption the export of United States cotton to those countries.1

1 See, in the Appendix G, a table of exports of American cotton to Spain, Russia, and Sweden and Norway, 1849 to 1867.

Table of the supply and consumption of cotton in all Europe and the United States, stated for a comparison of the three years 1858-59 to 1860-261 with the two years 1866–267 and 1867–68, (the year ending August 31 in the United States, and September 30 in Europe.)

While the number of bales consumed during the last year exceeds that of 1859-60 (the largest previous to the year 1867-68) by 387,600, the number of pounds consumed the last year was less than that of 1859-60 by 190,896,000, equal to 518,000 bales of the average weight of the last year. This exhibits the falling off in the average weight of bales since the proportion of American supply fell from seven-eighths to one-half of the whole supply.

The consumption of cotton in Europe and the United States during the last year, 1867-68, shows an increase upon the preceding year, 1866-67, of 495,900 bales, or 200,165,000 pounds.

Consumption-Europe

and United States.

CHAPTER III.

COTTON MANUFACTURING IN THE UNITED

STATES.

PROMINENT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN COTTON MANUFacture—StatisTICS OF MANUFACTURE—AVERAGES OF Spindles-RETURNS FROM COTTON MILLSCOMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE MOVEMENTS OF COTTON IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES-CONCLUSION.

HISTORICAL NOTICE.

The time allowed for preparing this report is too short to permit writing a history of the early cotton manufacture in this country; nor can space be given for any proper treatment of a subject so interesting.

We pass over the period from 1620, when cotton was recommended for cultivation in Virginia as a useful material for textile fabrics, down to 1760-'80, when the inventions in England of spinning and other machines by Highs, Lees, Hargreaves, and Arkwright, gave a new value to and demand for cotton.

The spinning and weaving in the colonies during that time was chiefly of wool and flax, and only for home wear, trade in such manufactures being prohibited. Indeed, the history of that period tells of the policy and laws of the mother country toward the colonies, interdicting or repressing such industries as might compete with the manufacturer at home or lessen his market.

For the brief narrative which follows, of the prominent events in the history of the American manufacture of cotton goods, we are mainly indebted to Samuel Batchelder, esq., of Boston, who was a practical manufacturer at New Ipswich, N. H., as early as 1808, and, though far advanced in years, still successfully directs the operations of one of the large corporations at Lawrence, Mass.

In 1863, Mr. Batchelder published a small book' containing such particulars of the history of the cotton manufacture in this country as he had collected, guided by the personal recollections of himself and his early cotemporaries, which reached back almost to the time of Slater and the introduction of the first Arkwright machines.

Spinning jennies and frames were put in operation in the United States very soon after they were started in England. Soon after the close of the war of the Revolution, in 1786-'87, the legislature of Massachusetts offered premiums for the introduction and setting up of manufacturing machinery. In 1789, the "Beverly Manufacturing Com

1 Introduction and Early Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1863.