COTTON-GUM-COTTON INDUSTRY Cotton-gum (Nyssa aquatica), belongs to the natural order Cornacea. Besides this species there are three others, natives of eastern North America. It is a large tree, which sometimes reaches the height of 100 feet, with a circumference of four feet, abounding in deep swamps and ponds from Florida to southern Virginia and westward to Texas, Missouri, and Illinois. The wood of the N. aquatica is soft, though hard to split, and of a light brown, nearly white color. It is also called tupelo-gum. Cotton Industry. The production of the cotton plant was very limited until the invention of the saw-gin. A number of cotton machinery improvements made prior to Whitney's invention of the gin had brought about an increasing demand in England for cotton, and there was considerable anxiety on the part of mill owners there as to whether production could be so stimulated as to cause it to keep pace with the growth of the demand. The total crop of the South in 1791 is estimated to have been 2,000,000 pounds, or 4,000 bales, of which about one tenth is supposed to have been exported to England. A shipment of eight bags had been made to Liverpool in 1784, though there are reports of small shipments prior to that date, which were probably West Indian cotton exported via Charleston. This shipment of eight bags was sold to an English firm in whose mill was employed a Samuel Slater, who in 1790 built in Pawtucket, R. I., a mill for Almy & Brown of Providence. It is supposed that the first mill built in the South was in the same year, 1790, and that it was in South Carolina. An early report states that a mill was then established in that State, driven by water and having "spinning machines with 84 spindles each." Thus the South built its first cotton-mill probably the same year that the foundation of New England's textile industry was laid by the building of the mill for Almy & Brown. The spinning and weaving of cotton for domestic use, or, as it was called, the making of "homespun goods, was almost universal throughout the South at that period. It is related of Jefferson that in his own household he "employed two spinning jennies, a carding machine and a loom with flying shuttle, by which he made more than 2,000 yards of cloth which his family and servants required yearly." "The four southernmost States," said Mr. Jefferson in a letter written in 1786, four years before Slater built the small mill in Pawtucket for Almy & Brown of Providence, "make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely clothed in it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, and even many of them wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe." This domestic manufacture was very general throughout the South. The cotton for the spinning process was prepared in general by the farm laborers, who picked the seed from the lint by hand. The necessity of some improved method of ginning the cotton was so generally appreciated that many efforts were made to devise a method which would overcome the neces sity of hand-picking. In 1792 Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, while in Georgia, had his attention called to this need, and in 1793 he perfected the saw-gin. for many years as to whether Whitney or Holmes is In view of the discussion which has been going on entitled to the credit for this invention, Mr. D. A. " Tompkins, of Charlotte, N. C., in his Cotton and Cotton Oil, gives a very complete and comprehensive history of the gin, and in closing says: The real facts about the cotton gin are: I. Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts, a graduate of Yale College, invented a cotton gin, consisting of spikes through which these spiked teeth passed, and having driven in a wooden cylinder, and having a slotted bar a brush to clear the spikes. He obtained a patent 14 March 1794, signed by George Washington, president; Edmund Randolph, secretary of state, and Wm. Bradford, attorney-general. 2. Hodgen Holmes, of Georgia, a resourceful and practical mechanic, invented an improved gin, using circular saws properly spaced, passing through spaces between ribs. For this invention he obtained a patent 12 May 1796, signed by George Washington, president; Timothy Pickering, secretary of state, and Chas. Lee, attorney-general. 3. Whitney's invention, consisting of a wooden cylinder carrying annular rows of wire spikes, with a slotted bar and clearing brush, was fundamental. 4. The practical application of the fundamental idea was Holmes' invention of the saw-gin, which consisted of a mandrel or shaft carrying collars separating cir cular saws which pass through narrow spaces between ribs. 5. Whitney went South without money, business experience or mechanical training. He received from the Southern States the following amounts: From South Carolina.. From North Carolina (at least) Royalties from Southern States... $50,000 30,000 10,000 $90,000 6. In Georgia, his firm (Miller & Whitney)__attempted to monopolize the ginning business. This ject was never successfully accomplished. brought on long and vexatious litigation, and the ob 10,000,000 With the invention of the saw-gin the growth of the cotton business of the South became very rapid. The production advanced from 2,000,000 pounds in 1790 to pounds in 1796, and to 40,000,000 pounds in 1800, while the yield of 1810 was 80,000,000 pounds, and that of 1820, 160,000,000 pounds. The rapid increase in the demand for cotton and the profitableness of its cultivation caused a concentration of the energy and capital of the South in cotton planting, and industrial interests which had been flourishing declined. According to Donnell's 'History of Cotton' the tariff on cotton goods was largely increased in 1816, the measure being strongly supported by the South on the ground that it would promote the consumption of its cotton, and opposed by some of the northern States because of their large shipping interests. From a crop of about 400,000 bales in 1820, production rapidly increased, the growth of this industry probably surpassing in extent and wide-reaching importance any other crop in Europe or America. The energy of the South was turned into cottonraising with such vigor that production gradually increased more rapidly than the world's consumptive demand. Other agricultural interests were not, however, neglected. Diversified farming was the rule, and the South was more nearly self-supporting in the way of foodstuffs, such as corn, bacon, etc., than it has ever been since, notwithstanding the very marked growth in diversified farming during the last few years. In general, cotton prices were well maintained for 40 years, though gradually tending down COTTON INDUSTRY a yet equal the average prior to 1860, while the possibilities of wheat cultivation, shown notably in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas, have yet hardly begun to be touched. In 1881-2 the crop was 5,456,000 bales, in 1899 it rose to over 9,000,000 bales and has not been less than 10,000,000 bales in any year since; 1904 was the banner cotton crop year, the yield being 13,845,385 bales. The government report of 2 Sept. 1910, estimated the crop for the present year between 11,500,000 and 12,000,000 bales. ward at the beginning of the century. In 1801 he had paid nearly double the cash values for the average New York price was 44 cents a his supplies, and had paid commission, storage, pound, and from this it slowly declined (often and drayage, and insurance on his cotton when with an upward spurt of a year or two) to 131⁄2 marketed, the planter usually ended the year in cents in 1839. With prices ranging from 13 debt to his factor. The profits of the factor, cents to 44 cents per pound, and averaging for though, were sufficiently large to justify him 40 years, from 1800 to 1839, a fraction over in continuing his credit, and by doing so the 17 cents per pound, cotton cultivation was so average farmer was kept in debt from year to profitable that it is not to be wondered at that year, though, of course, the better class of the people of the South concentrated their efforts farmers gradually worked their way to an immore and more on cotton cultivation, to the neg- proved financial condition. The negroes and the lect of industrial interests. By 1840 cotton pro- tenant class of whites could borrow money on duction had advanced beyond the requirements cotton in the same way, and thus developed a of consumption, and there commenced a period tenant system for raising cotton, which preof extremely low prices, the cotton States suf- vented any attention being given to the improvefering very much from this decline. In that ment of the land. Year after year the farmer year the average of New York prices dropped was forced into cotton-raising to the exclusion to 9 cents, and this was followed by a continuous of everything else, until it became a common decline until 1844-5, when the average was 5.63 saying that "the South kept its corn-crib and cents-the lowest average price for a year ever smoke-house in the West." By 1880, although known to the cotton trade. Moreover, in 1844-5 still heavily in debt, southern farmers had comthe seed was without market value, while now menced to give more attention to the cultivation the sale of seed adds largely to the value of of grain and to raising early fruits and vegethe crop, and transportation is likewise very tables. The agricultural progress made by the much cheaper than at that period. In 1847 the South since that year has been very remarkable, crop was short, and prices advanced sharply, but, despite the great increase in the production only to drop back to 8 cents, and then to 7% of corn and of foodstuffs, the yield of corn in cents. These excessively low prices brought the central Cotton States per capita does not about a revival of public interest in other pursuits than cotton cultivation, and the natural tendency of the people to industrial matters, which had long been dormant, was again aroused, and for some years there was very active spirit manifested in the building of railroads and the development of manufactures. In 1850 a period of much higher prices began, and for the next 10 years the average was about 12 cents a pound. The wonderful prosperity which cotton production at the prices prevailing up to 1860 brought about, except for the decade from 1840 to 1849, is illustrated in the statement that though the South had only one third of the total population of the country, and only one fourth of its white population, the assessed value of its property was, according to the census of 1860, $5,200,000,000, out of a total of $12,000,000,000 for the entire country, or 433 per cent. With the coming of the War the cotton trade was completely demoralized, and the small amount produced during that period could only get to the markets by running the blockade. Prices rapidly advanced until in 1863-4 the New York average was 1012 cents. When the War ended the world was almost bare of cotton, the demand was pressing, and prices continued very high. But the South was bankrupt. It had but little capital on which to operate, its planters were burdened with debt, their houses and fences destroyed, their labor system disorganized; and in this condition they were in no position to buy or to produce foodstuffs and live stock. Money-lenders, however, seeing the world-hunger for cotton, were ready to make advances on mortgages on unplanted cotton, but not on other crops. Most of the were factors or commission merchants, who would agree to advance money or to grant credit at their stores for merchandise of all kinds against every acre planted in cotton. Under these circumstances diversified agriculture had to be abandoned, and the planter was forced to buy western corn and bacon, and devote all his time to raising cotton. By the time According to the table of consumption of cotton in 20 years, it will be noted, the takings of northern mills have increased from 1,573,997 to 1,966,897, while the consumption of southern mills has increased from 221,337 to 1,620,931 bales. In 1880 the consumption at southern mills represented about 12 per cent of the total consumed in the whole country, but in 1900-1 the consumption of southern mills had increased to more than 45 per cent of the total consumed in the country. The actual consumption by northern mills since 1880 has increased very slowly and with many fluctuations, while that by southern mills has steadily progressed from 221,000 bales in that year, or less than one seventh as much as at northern mills, to over 2,290,000 bales, as against 2,016,000 bales at northern mills in 1910. With this progress in the number of bales consumed has come a tendency of southern mills to turn their attention to the finer goods. Moreover in the last decade the number of spindles in the South increased from 1,500,000 to more than 10,000,000. The South practically controls the trade in cheap goods from this country in China, and with the development of our commerce with that country southern mills may be expected to enjoy even a greater share of the trade than at present, while the campaign for diversification of products of the mills is likely to give the southern mills greater importance than ever and lead to the consumption in this country of a greater proportion of American-grown cotton. COTTON INDUSTRY The following table prepared by the Department of Commerce and Labor gives the cotton crop from 1899 to 1909: 1906 to 1909 the decrease in the number of establishments which ginned upland cotton was over 2,000; but the number of gin stands and SUMMARY-CROPS OF 1899 TO 1909. It will be seen from the table that the crop of 1909 (including linters and counting rounds as half bales) was 10,386,209 running bales. Expressed in 500-pound bales the crop amounted to 10,315,382 bales, which is 3,271,924 bales (or 24.1 per cent) less than the total for 1908. The crop of 1909 was the smallest produced since 1903, but its value exceeded that of any previous year, being estimated at $812,090,000, or $130,860,000 (19.2 per cent) more than in 1908. Louisiana sustained the greatest loss in cotton production in 1909, showing a decrease of 45.6 per cent; other States sustained losses as follows: Mississippi, 34.3 per cent; Texas, 33.4 per cent; Arkansas, 30.6 per cent; Tennessee, 27.8 per cent; Alabama, 23.6 per cent; and Oklahoma, 19.9 per cent. These decreases were due for the most part to unfavorable weather conditions. The aggregate value of the cotton crop (including cotton seed) in each of the Southern States for 1909 is computed as follows: Alabama, $83,040,000; Arkansas, $57,750,000; Florida, $5,760,000; Georgia, $148,040,000; Louisiana, $20,590,000; Mississippi, $88,210,000; North Carolina, $48,800,000; Oklahoma, $43,560,000; South Carolina, $83,820,000; Tennessee, $19,870,000; Texas, $201,940,000. The total value of the cotton produced in Arizona, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico and Virginia for 1909 is placed at $4,650,000. It is interesting to note that the value of the cotton crop in the United States for 1909 was about one-half that of the corn crop for the same year; nearly $100,000,000 more than that of the wheat crop and twice the value of the oat crop. The world's production of gold in 1909 was $460,000,000, only a little more than onehalf the value of the cotton crop in the United States. The price of the cotton has fluctuated considerably. In the summer of 1003 the price went up to 13 cents and in August 1909 to 20 cents, the highest figure since 1873. The number of active ginneries in 1909 was 26,669 as compared with 27,598 in 1908, showing a decrease due to consolidation of plants. From 9.760.518 saws increased 5.1 and 3.1 per cent, respectively during the same period. The number of active spindles in the United States in 1909 was 512,883 less than in 1908, but the amount of cotton consumed was over 700,000 bales greater. The area planted in cotton, as estimated by the Department of Agriculture, in 1909 was 32,292,000 acres, but 1,354,000 acres were abandoned, leaving 30,938,000 acres from which the crop was grown. According to the estimates of the Government's report 2 Sept. 1910 the following State comparisons show the per cent of production: The greatest decline for 1910 is in Texas, from 82 to 69 per cent. Louisiana also shows a falling off from 69 to 60 per cent. Oklahoma and California show a slight decrease. North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri show moderate gains. Nearly 30 per cent of the 1910 crop was grown in Texas, the percentage for this State being the same as its ten year average. The world production of cotton for mill consumption in 1909 amounted to about 8,279,000,000 pounds, valued at about $1,000,000,000. As the cotten of India, China, and other foreign countries does not enter into commercial channels, these figures are only approximate. COTTON INSECTS. into In 26 years, from 1875-6 to 1900-1, cotton brought into the South more than $8,600,000,000. The system of putting all energies the single crop and turning to other sections for provisions and grain, left but little surplus money out of the cotton crop for the cotton farmer during the first part of the period mentioned. The West and the North drained the South of several hundred million dollars every year, because it depended upon them for all of its manufactured goods as well as for the bulk of its foodstuffs. During the past 10 or 12 years, however, diversified farming has become more general, and the raising of home supplies, the development of truck farming and the building of factories of many kinds are combining to keep at home the money which formerly went North and West. The destruction by the War of the industrial interests which were developing in the South prevented the taking up by that section of manufacturing undertakings until about 1879-80, when there were marked signs of a tendency toward the building of cotton mills in the South. In the North, on the contrary, the cotton-mill business developed very rapidly in the decade following the War. Of late years the chief increase has been in the South. The number of spindles in the whole country in 1909 was 28.018,000, and the South had 10,429,000. The cotton production of the United States, which is now averaging over 10,000,000 bales, or about three fourths of the world's supply, can be indefinitely extended to meet the increasing consumptive requirements of the world. Hon. Charles W. Dabney, late assistant secretary of agriculture, in a careful study of the cotton potentialities of the South, ha indicated that this section can, whenever the demand justifies it, produce as much as 50,000,000 bales of cotton without intrenching on the area necessary for diversified agriculture, and that by intensive farming it may some day be possible even to double this. The consumption of cotton in this country in 1908 was 5,198.963 bales. It has been estimated that the capital invested in the cottonmanufacturing business of the world, which, as stated, depends for at least three fourths of its supply of raw material upon the South, aggregates not less than $2,000,000,000, of which this country has probably about $500,000,000. There is practically no limit to the possible extension of cotton-growing and cotton-manu VOL. 614 facturing in the United States. With the power to increase its cotton crop to 50,000,000 bales, should the world ever demand such a yield, and with every natural advantage for manufacturing, the limit of profitable cotton-mill business in the United States will not be reached until its own mills consume its own production. The increase in the textile industry must naturally centre mainly in the South. Consult: Young, "The American Cotton Industry' (1903). RICHARD H. EDMONDS, Editor Manufacturers' Record,' Baltimore, Md. Cotton Insects. The cotton worm and boll-worm are the chief enemies of the cotton plant in the United States; in other countries different insects prey upon it. Various caterpillars and other insects attack this plant wherever it is grown. In Egypt a noctuid larva, in Greece various kinds of cut-worms, in India a small tineid boll-worm (Depressaria), while in Australia a red-bug, allied to the cotton-stainer (Dysdercus suturellus) affects it. This insect; by sucking the buds, causes the bolls to blast or become diminutive, and also stains the cotton fibre by its excrement. The cotton worm is by far the most serious pest. It is the caterpillar of a noctuid moth (Aletia xylina), which often feeds in vast numbers on the leaves of the cotton-plant. It has a loping gait; is slightly hairy, green, dotted with black along a subdorsal yellowish line, with black dots beneath, and changes to a pale reddish-brown moth. The insect, as shown by Riley, "never hibernates in either of the first three states of egg, larva, or chrysalis, and it survives the winter in the moth or imago state only in the southern portion of the cotton belt." "The moth," he adds, "hibernates principally under the shelter of rank wire-grass in the more heavily timbered portions of the South, and begins laying its eggs (400 to 500 in number) on the ratoon cotton when this is only an inch or two high." The localities where it hibernates, and where, consequently, the earliest worms appear, seem to be more common in the western part of the cotton belt (Texas), than in the Atlantic cotton States. It is inferred that from this region the moths emigrate east and north, laying their eggs later than the original Texan brood, as in Alabama and Georgia. The recently hatched worms of different sizes were found late in March on ratoon cotton in southern Georgia and Florida, and in late seasons from the middle of April to the middle of May, though they do not attract the attention of planters until the middle or last of June. In midsummer the period from hatching to the time when the moth lays her eggs is less than three weeks, but in spring and late autumn twice that time may be required. There are thus in the northern cotton States at least three "crops" or broods of caterpillars in a season, while in Texas there are at least seven annual generations. The first generation is only local, but in Texas, says Riley, "the third generation of worms may become, under favorable conditions. not only widespread, but disastrous, and the moths produced from them so numerous that they acquire the migrating habit. This generation appears in southern Texas during the latter part of June, and in southern Alabama and Georgia somewhat later," and this is the first brood which attracts general attention. When COTTON-MOUSE - COTTON-SEED-OIL INDUSTRY the worms are very abundant and the cotton the Great Lakes. Another insect, destroying great numbers of cotton buds, is the boll-worm, the caterpillar of another noctuid moth (Heliothis armigera), well-known for its injuries to tomato and toThe adult bacco plants and to corn in the ear. is a tawny, yellowish moth, about an inch and three quarters across the wings, which may be seen toward evening, in summer and autumn, hovering over the cotton blooms, and depositing a single egg in each flower; the egg is hatched in three or four days, and the worm eats its way into the centre of the boll, causing its premature fall; the insect instinctively leaves the boll when it is about to fall, and enters another, and finally attacks the nearly matured bolls, rendering the cotton rotten and useless. The caterpillars have 16 feet, and creep with a gradual motion, unlike the true cotten worm; they vary much in color, some being green, others brown, but all more or less spotted with black, and having a few short hairs. A single moth will lay 500 eggs, and, as three broods are produced in a year, a whole field will be very soon ir.fested with them. These are the two greatest enemies on the cotton plantations, and the same remedies are effectual in both. The natural enemies of the cotton worms are numerous and abound in proportion as the worms are abundant. Certain kinds of ants are most efficacious in reducing their numbers, as well as ground beetles, bugs and ichneumon flies (q.v.). The general and most practical remedies against this troublesome pest are the insecticides, especially Paris green and kerosene emulsions. The dry preparation is one pound of the green to from 20 to 35 pounds of cheap flour, or, instead of flour, land plaster (gypsum) or cotton-seed meal. The best preparation of Paris green consists of one pound to 40 gallons of water. London purple may be applied dry, using two pounds to 18 of flour, etc.; or wet, one half a pound to 50 or 55 gallons of water. A fine spray of kerosene oil applied to the leaves will kill all the worms in a remarkably short time, but as petroleum in any form injures the plant, the oil must be so diluted as to injure only the worm and not affect the plant. The use of milk as a diluent has been suggested. Consult: Riley, 'Report IV.' of the United States Entomological Commission (1885); and Bulletin 18 of the Entomological Division of the United States Department of Agriculture (1898). For cotton-boll weevil, see WEEVIL. Cotton-mouse, a small field mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus), native to the southern portions of the United States, and destructive to cotton-plants. It is dark brown in color, with grayish feet. Its habits are like those of the white-footed deer-mouse (q.v.), common in the North. Cotton-seed-oil Industry. The utilization of one waste product does more to enrich the world than an increase of many millions of dollars of product in some old and well-established industry. Perhaps there is no single thing that The dilatoriness of Americans in availing |