We have brought down our subject, in most of its particulars, to the year 1835, and discover with regret that it has grown upon us so rapidly that we have nearly exhausted the space which is reasonable to be occupied in a single number of our journal. There yet remain ten of the most interesting years in relation to the cotton trade to be examined, (from 1836 to 1846,) and we have not yet touched upon that wide and prolific field of investigation which was to occupy the sixth head of our article-the future prospects of cotton. We are forced into a change of plan, and terminate the statistics of trade here, to resume them in a future number of our journal. The subject will lose nothing of interest or value by the delay which is thus occasioned. Before coming to a conclusion, however, we will briefly explain the different varieties of cotton which are now brought into competition with that of American growth, or may hereafter be elevated to such competi- | tion. These varieties are comprised under the general heads of South American, Smyrna, Egyptian, West and East Indian cot tons. South American.-The climate of this portion of our continent is adapted to the cotton culture in no inconsiderable degree. Brazilian cottons are in high repute in the markets of the world, and receive the different appellations of Pernambuco, Maranham, Bahia, Para, &c. The Pernambuco is of the best description, and it enjoyed for a long period the reputation of being superior to any other than Sea Island or Bourbon. The Guiana, or Demerara, is described as a strong glossy wool of superior length but of unequal fibre, well cleaned and picked, but of only ordinary fineness. Smyrna. This is from the Levant, and supplied once almost the whole demand of 13 cts. 20 cts. 27 cts. Europe. For manufacturing purposes it is very inferior, but answers very well, from its inflammable nature, for candle wicks. Egyptian-About the year 1823, this cotton, of the long staple species, and of superior fineness, began to be imported into Europe. The Pacha, Mehemet Ali, revived its culture in Egypt after it had been suffered to decline for many centuries and entirely to fall away. The experiment having succeeded on a small scale, and demonstrated the capacity of the soil and climate, the crop from that time began to demand very general attention, and the consequence is, that at the present day it has become one of great importance. The bags are scarcely more than half the size of those made in this country. The Sea Island cotton seed was tested in Egypt in 1827 with signal success. The crops are very irregular. West Indian.-All of the South American, and most of the West Indian cotton, says Mr. Baines, is long stapled, and is produced from the shrub, not the herbaceous plant. It is supposed that some of the first cotton grown there was in the island of Tobago, by Mr. Robley, between the years 1789 and 1792, but in consequence of a fall in the price of cotton, and a rise in the price of sugar, that gentleman discontinued the cultivation of the former for that of the latter. East Indian.-The cotton of the East Indies ranges lowest in quality and value. It is imported in large quantities into Europe, but, from want of skill in cultivation, and in picking, excites but little regard Every effort has been made on the part of the British authorities to improve the quality of this staple, but thus far the efforts have been fruitless, and, although millions have been expended, the desired result seems no nearer attained than at first. The policy of Britain has been to build up her East at the expense of her West India possessions, and ultimately, in the production of cotton at least, at the expense of the United States; and, indeed, if nature did not present an insuperable obstacle, the last would have long since been effected, for there has been no want of capital and enterprise on her part. COTTON-SEA ISLAND.-This finest of all the varieties of cotton cultivated in the world, it is known, is almost exclusively the product of the islands which stretch along the coast between Charleston and Savannah. The Hon. Whitmarsh Seabrook, in an essay or memoir lately prepared upon the subject, as an appendix to his valuable paper some years ago, examines its history, cultivation, trade, &c. "The long-staple or black-seed cotton is cultivated in South Carolina to the distance of about thirty miles from the ocean. Of the raw material there are three distinct qualities, designated in the markets as Sea Islands, Mains, and Santees. The first, a pound of the finest of which, manufactured into the finest lace, is now worth from 8 to 15 guineas, and has been sold as high as 100 guineas, is the most valuable grown in any part of the world for exportation. Of descriptions of the plant reared on the seashore, the number is probably much greater than any examinations have yet disclosed. At present we are acquainted with only ten or fifteen varieties. These are distinguishable by certain criteria well known to the observant cultivator, but frequently the eye, unguided by the lights of botany, is unable to detect a difference, until the harvest itself shows the existence of perhaps a very material one. Invariably, fecundity in the plant is counterbalanced by defectiveness in the quality of the fruit; on the contrary, the better the fibre, the smaller is the harvest. This is in conformity with the wisdom of Nature as displayed in all her works. From analogical reasoning alone it may indeed be inferred, that our continued efforts to disCover a plant, combining productiveness with superiority of staple, in as high a degree as these properties are separately found in many species of cotton, are utterly hope less. "From the time when long cotton was first introduced into this State, to within a recent date, its cultivation was decidedly profitable. Now legal interest on the capital of the grower is rarely ever realized. From 1821 to 1830 inclusive, the aggregate crop was 107,294,930 lbs. In the ten succeeding years it was only 79,041,596 lbs., being a deficit of 28,253,334 lbs. The average annual product from 1805 to 1817, a period of nine years, excluding the four years of the embargo and the war, was greater by 797,033 lbs. than it has been for the last nine years, or since 1832. Although the number of acres at this time in tilth cannot with accuracy be stated, yet it is believed that it is at least one-third greater than it was in 1820, or twice that of 1804. Under the operation, therefore, of decreased and decreasing exports, with a vast augmented population in every part of the world-extraordinary improvements in machinery-greater skill and cheapness in spinning and weaving-lower duties on the importation, and the superior properties of the kinds at present raised, the value of long staple cotton is less now than it was thirty-five years ago. "Until lately, the Sea Island crop has been confined exclusively to high grounds, as contradistinguished from the marshes. The sagacity and perseverance of two members of the Agricultural Society of St. John's, Colleton, have been instrumental in effecting a change on this head, the ultimate consequences of which it is not easy to predict. There is no soil in South Carolina, if sown in long cotton, that will yield more money in a series of years, than those immense tracts which lie about the points where the salt and fresh waters meet. Nearer to the ocean, the land is low, intersected by numerous small creeks, and too salt for immediate use. Above the line, the total absence of saline ingredients renders the ground fitter for grain, especially rice, than cotton. Of the kind just noticed, there are thousands of acres in the parishes washed by the Atlantic, which to their owners are now barren wastes. This is the great prairie region of the lower country, capable of itself, from its inexhaustible fertility, of producing as much fine cotton as the demands of trade will probably require for a quarter of a century. As these marshes are very level, numerous ditches are required. If this work be faithfully done, such is the richness of the soil, that whether grown on beds or not, the crop, even the first year, will abundantly repay the labors of the cultivator. At this "Within three years, other agents than that of human power have been resorted to in separating the seed from cotton. time a few planters still depend on the common treadle-giu, but the propeller is steam; others use another machine, distinguishable from the foot-gin chiefly in the length of the roller, to which steam or horse-power is applied. The former produces only about twice the quantity of cotton as the treadle gin when the human foot is employed. Its advantages, therefore, when the outlay and incidental expenses are brought to view, are inconsiderable. The latter gives generally about 200 lbs. per day. On the debit side the items do not subtract materially from the interest of the capital employed. The objections to Farris' gin are: first, that it works irregu larly, and that unless the adjustment of the parts to the whole be entirely true, no calculations as to its performance can be made; and, secondly, that from the rapidity of the motion, which, for a profitable daily yield, 1836. 1839. Quantity 8,554,419. Price. 5,286,340......12 to 40d.. 7,286,340 Average 25 26 6,400,000-20,000 bags, at 320 lbs. each. must be kept up, the staple of the cotton is, Year injured. The first disadvantage is undeniably 1837. a strong one, but the last is at least problem- 1838 atical. Steam applied to Farris' gin has so far afforded more satisfaction than any other scheme of accomplishing the object of the planter yet tried. It is, however, certaiu, COTTON PLANTERS' CONVENthat a machine for detaching the seed from TION. STATISTICS OF PRODUCTION AND Sea Island cotton, without impairing some of CONSUMPTION OF THE COTTON PLANT, AND its valuable properties, is still a desideratum; HOW THE PLANTERS SHOULD COMBINE IN and as large expenditures of money and laTHEIR OWN DEFENCE. AS requested, we bor have been fruitlessly made in this and cheerfully publish the able address of the other countries to attain an end so desirable Committee of Florida Cotton Planters. We to the grower, the task may be pronounced agree entirely as to the importance of a conembarrassing and full of difficulties. If, nev-vention of the Planters of the South, and have ertheless, the labor of ginning cotton cannot always advocated such a convention. It would be essentially abridged, mechanical aid could effect much good in many ways, though we are and ought to be made subservient to the pre- not yet prepared to say how far the plan we paring of it for the giu, for the bag, and for packing it. In reference to the last operation, the desired results. We are inclined to doubt. now publish may be practicable or achieve why is not the screw used? This mechanical agent is equal to the power of about twenty men; in other words, with one boy and a mule, it can do in a day as much as twenty men can accomplish in the same time with the pestle. As the pressure of the screw is equal and regular, no damage whatever to the staple can ensue, from its action; on the contrary, the repeated blows of the pestle, always of a wedge-like shape, must in some degree operate injuriously. As it is believed that the ship-owners give a decided preference to the square over the round bale, if there be no weighty objectious on the part of the manufacturer, which can easily be ascertained, the planter would consult his interest by substituting the screw for the present clumsy instrument for packing cotton." the Court-House in the city of Tallahassee, At a meeting of Planters, convened at Col. Robert Butler was called to the chair, and, after a brief explanation of the objects of the meeting, Col. John Parkhill and Dr. G. W. Holland, were appointed Vice-Presidents, and B. F. Allen requested to act as Secretary. On motion, a committee of five, consisting of James E. Broome, Edward Houstoun, T. K. Leonard, Richard Hayward and Geo. Whitfield, were appointed by the Chair, to present business to the meeting. The committee retired for a few moments, and through their chairman, James E. Broome, submitted to the meeting the following report and resolutions: Your Committee have had under consideration the subject of a Cotton Planters' Convention, and beg leave to submit the following report : There is, perhaps, no interest in the world surrounded with so many difficulties or subject to so many disasters, as the cotton-planting interest. The great irregularity in the production, caused by the seasons, and the appearance or non-appearance of numerous enemies peculiar to this plant, produces fluetuations in the price, such as appear to visit Whether these flucno other great interest. tuations are necessarily incident to the production and sale of this staple, appears to be a question which has, as yet, engaged a very small share of the planter's attention. How far the difficulties which surround us are attributable to over-production, or to irregular production; or how far they result from mak ing our controlling markets too far from our own gin-houses, or how far a remedy for our evils might be supplied by a judicious concert of action among planters, are all questions in which we seem to feel but little concern. These, and many others connected with this subject, might, as your committee believe, be investigated with great benefit; and such a labor would be peculiarly appropriate to a Cotton Planters' Convention. Having met for the purpose of considering the expediency of calling on our cotton-planting brethren to meet us in convention, it is, perhaps, proper that your committee should present the reasons which induce them to advocate such a call. These will require, some extent, an examination of the causes of our difficulties and the possibility of applying a remedy. In this examination, the first question which presents itself for our consideration, is the question of over-production. to forced so often to submit, are attributed, generally to over-production. To ascertain whether this has been the cause, aggregates must be looked to, and not the relative production and consumption of any single year. For the purpose of testing this matter, your committee have gone back as far as the year 1825, and find that up to the year 1850, the production has not exceeded the consumption. On this subject, they present the following table, in which is shown the average annual production and annual average consumption of the world, for each period of five years, from 1825 to 1850: 1,231,000 bales per annnum. 46 Consumption. 1,187,000 bales per annum. .1,540,000 1830 to 1835 66 9,592,000 1,943,000 These results, multiplied by five, will show that the whole production in twenty-five years, has been 49,760,000 bales, and that the consumption in the same time, has been 49,765,000 bales, or an excess over the production of 5,000 bales, or 200 bales per annum. How much greater the consumption would have been had the raw material been furnished in increased quantity, your committee will not conjecture. Enough is shown by the facts to establish an important point -that the extent of consumption up to this time, has been controlled by the extent of production, and we must, therefore, look to other causes for the ruinous depressions in price, to which we have so often submitted. The second point requiring investigation, is the capacity of the world for over-production. To this, your committee concede there cannot be a definite answer given; they incline, however, strongly to the opinion, that at fair prices, and with proper organization on the part of the American cotton planters, the capacity for over-production does not, and never can exist. and 1850, not equaling the average con- Such a falling + The extraordinary increase in the production of the world in five years, from 1840 to 1845, averaging 642,000 bales per annum, caused a regular increase in the stock of raw material left on hand in Europe at the close of each year, until, on the 31st of December," Our supply of cotton has hitherto been 1815, it had reached 1,221,000 bales, estimated as sufficient for twenty-six weeks' consumption. The average increased production in the United States for the next four years (embracing the crops of 1845 and 1848), was 117.000 bales per annum; and yet on the 31st of December, 1849, the stock on hand in Europe was reduced to 646,000 bales, estimated as sufficient for only thirteen weeks' consumption. The crops of 1849 drawn in very fluctuating proportions from British India, Brazil, Egypt, our West India Colonies, and the United States of America. From this last-named country, the quantities were. for a long series of years, in a continual condition of increase. From Brazil, our importations have sensibly lessened, without any reasonable prospect of future increase. From Egypt, the quantities fluctuate violently, and depend greatly upon causes not falling with * * * * difficulties from a short supply of raw cotton. Our per cent. increase has been regularly and rapidly diminishing, as is shown from the following table, the data of which we take from Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, a work of high commercial character: Total. Per annum Increased per cent in 20 years..177.....or 8 85-100 66 66 66 15 ..119 .. 16 5 Thus it is seen that the per cent. increase in American cotton has been rapidly declining, until we are now down to three per cent. per annum. Not so, however, with American consumption-that is increased in the same time, more than nine per cent. per annum. The per cent. increased production in the world, for the last five years, is down to an average of 1 80-100 per annum; while the per cent. increase in consumption has been 3 80-100 per annum; and leaving out England, France, and the United States, the increase in the balance of the world has been 46 per cent., or more than nine per cent. per annum. This state of things cannot continue; the rate of production must be increased, or the rate of consumption diminished-the equilibrium will be found. in ordinary commercial considerations. In the British West Indies, the cultivation of cotton has for some time ceased to form a regular branch of industry, and it is hardly to be expected that, having thus ceased to be profitable when prices in Europe were uniformly at a higher level than they have been now for a long series of years, the culture to any important extent will be resumed in these Colonies. From British India, the quantities received depend upon a different set of circumstances, but of such a nature as to forbid any very sanguine hope of great and permanent increase in the shipments." After continuing the argument at some length, attention is called to the immense increased consumption of their cotton mills, showing that in 1800, they consumed 56,010,732 lbs., and in 1849, 775,468,008 lbs., and remark: "It is by no means improbable that the consumption during the last nine years would have gone forward at a constantly accelerated pace, so that it would by this time have gone beyond 1,000,000,000 pounds in the year, but for the check given to it in 1847, and in the present year, through insufficiency in the supply of the raw material." "This increase has been concurrent with, and mainly caused by, a continual reduction in the price of cotton." * These calculations show, that the area for "On the other hand, the continual fall in the the consumption of cotton goods is enlarging price has acted as a stimulus on the pro--that the vast and yet unsupplied populaducers (American), who have hitherto made up, in general, by the extent of their cultivation, for the diminished price of their crops." Thus it is seen that increased supplies are greatly wanted, but their experience is, that the surest means of stimulating production in the United States, is to reduce the price. Your committee might furnish many authorities to show, that in Great Britain, the great head of manufacturing industry, the idea that markets may not be found for all the cotton goods she can procure the raw material to produce, has long since been abandoned. Even the government is alarmed at the prospect of their industry being seriously checked, not for the want of customers, but for the want of cotton. The most powerful efforts have been made, and are still being made, to stimulate the production of cotton in every country where there is hope of success. How far they have succeeded may be inferred from the fact, that in five years preceding 1850, the production in India and Brazil declined sixteen per cent., and in the same time the supplies of Surat and Madras declined twenty-four per cent. Thus it will be seen that, notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts made to stimulate production in every quarter, the United States is the only country that has continued to furnish increased supplies. But the character of our increase for the last twenty years, must give small consolation to those who apprehend tion of the earth are rapidly maturing a competition, which, without greatly augmented supplies of the raw material, will at no distant day, be seriously felt by the manufacturers and consumers of England, France, and the United States. The commerce of every civilized nation is opening new markets, and enlarging old ones for our benefit. To what extent now markets already found have been supplied, compared with their wants, or how many others are yet to be opened and supplied, your committee have no means of ascertaining; but an inference may be drawn from the fact, that the largest five years' average production the world has yet furnished, is 2,791,000 bales per annum. That of these, England, France, and the United States require for their consumption, from 2,000,000 to 2,200,000 bales; leaving not more than one-fourth of the annual product to supply the balance of the world, with a population, probably ten times as large as their own. Under such circumstances, it may reasonably be supposed, that with fair average prices, markets will be found for all the cotton which we now have, or ever will have, the ability to produce. Having now shown that there has been no over-production, in the aggregate, and that there is no reasonable probability that there ever will be, your committee will attempt to show the effects of irregular production on prices and consumption. Here, your com |