Problem Separating Out Cotton Seed

It dies here in the winter; nevertheless the annual is good but requires more trouble in cleansing from the seed.

Continuing Enormous Growth of Cotton in America,
with a selection from The Cotton Plant (a Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin, Volume 33) by Robert B. Handy published in 1896. This selection is presented in 5 installments, each one 5 minutes long. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Enormous Growth of Cotton in America.

About the same time the settlers on the Savannah River, about twenty-one miles north of Savannah, are said to have experimented with cotton, the date being fixed by McCall as 1738. One of the striking features connected with the early culture of cotton in the American colonies is that it was grown as far north as the 39° of latitude. Trench Coxe, of Philadelphia, who contributed so greatly to the early success of the culture and manufacture of cotton in the United States, says: “It is a fact well authenticated to the writer that the cultivation of cotton on the garden scale, though not at all as a planter’s crop, was intimately known and thoroughly practised in the vicinity of Easton, in the county of Talbot, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as early as 1736.”

Its cultivation was so well understood in this part of the country that, according to the same authority, the necessities of the Revolutionary War occasioned it to be raised for army use in the counties of Cape May, New Jersey, and Sussex, Delaware, and it continued to be raised, though only in small quantities, for family use. At the time of the Revolution, the home-grown cotton was sufficiently abundant in Pennsylvania to supply the domestic needs of that State. Cotton was also cultivated in Charles, St. Mary’s, and Dorchester counties, Maryland, as late as 1826. And at a later date (1861-1864) upland cotton was cultivated, and at the prices current at that date was a most profitable crop on the eastern shore of Maryland. Cotton was grown with very good results in Northampton County, on the eastern shore of Virginia, in those years.

The culture and improvement of cotton had received considerable attention by the planters of South Carolina and Georgia as early as 1742. In 1739 Samuel Auspourguer attested under oath that the “climate and soil of Georgia are very fit for raising cotton.” William Spicer also certified to the adaptability of the country for cotton production, and that he had “brought over with him (to London) several pods of cotton which grew in Georgia.”

A tract entitled A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested Under Oath in the Court of Savannah, published in 1740, says of cotton that “large quantities had been raised, and it is much planted; but the cotton, which in some parts is perennial, dies here in the winter; nevertheless the annual is not inferior to it in goodness, but requires more trouble in cleansing from the seed.” In the same tract it was “proposed that a bounty be settled on every product of the land, viz., corn, peas, potatoes, wine, silk, cotton,” etc. In A Description of Georgia, by a Gentleman who has Resided there Upward of Seven Years and was One of the First Settlers, published in London in 1741, the author states that “the annual cotton grows well there, and has been by some industrious people made into clothes.”

Samuel Seabrook, in An Important Inquiry into the State and Utility of Georgia, published in 1741, says, “Among other beneficial articles of trade which it is found can be raised there, cotton, of which some has also been brought over as a sample, is mentioned.” In his description of St. Simon’s Island the same author says: “The country is well cultivated, several parcels of land not far distant from the camp of General Oglethorpe’s regiment having been granted in small lots to the soldiers, many of whom are married. The soldiers raise cotton, and their wives spin it and knit it into stockings.”

A publication in London in 1762 says: “What cotton and silk both the Carolinas send us is excellent and calls aloud for encouragement of its cultivation in a place well adapted to raise both.”

Captain Robinson, an Englishman who visited the coast of Florida in 1754, says the “cotton-tree was growing in that country.” The Florida territory then extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. That it was cultivated in East Florida about ten years after this is evidenced by William Stork, who says, “I am informed of a gentleman living upon the St. John’s that the lands on that river below Piccolata are in general good, and that there is growing there now (1765) good wheat, Indian corn, indigo, and cotton.”

Cotton early attracted the attention of the French colonists in Louisiana. In the year 1752, Michel, in a report to the French minister on the condition of the country, gave interesting details of the cultivation of cotton and the difficulty found in separating the wool from the seed.

In 1758 white Siam seed was introduced into Louisiana. Du Prate says, “This East India annual plant has been found to be much better and whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies, which is of the Turkey kind.”

Letters from Paris to Governor Roman state that there is among the French archives at Paris, Department of Marine and Colonies, a most curious and instructive report on cotton in 1760. It was found to be a very profitable crop in Louisiana, for in the year 1768 the French planters, in a memoir to their Government, complained that the parent Government had turned them over to the Spaniards just “at the time when a new mine had been discovered; when the culture of cotton, improved by experience, promises the planter a recompense of his toils, and furnishes persons engaged in fitting out vessels with the cargoes to load them.”

In 1762 Captain Bossu, of the French marines, said: “Cotton of this country (Louisiana) is of the species called the ‘white cotton of Siam.’ It is neither so fine nor so long as the silk cotton, but it is, however, very white and very fine.”

In 1775 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina recommended the cultivation of cotton, and in the same year a similar enactment was passed by the Virginia Assembly, which declared that “all persons having proper land ought to cultivate and raise a quantity of hemp, flax, and cotton, not only for the use of their own families, but to spare to others on moderate terms.” This legislation no doubt was suggested on account of the changed relations of the colonies with Great Britain.

Charles W. Dabney begins here. Robert B. Handy begins here. Denison Olmsted begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

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