Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/565

COTTON. The number of spindles in Europe and the United States, September 30, 1900, and the consumption of cotton for the season of 1898-99, are as follows:

. A great many estimates have been published as to the cost of production of a crop of cotton. None of these are accurate or of value, as so many factors must be considered, such as different soils, methods of cultivation, season, etc. According to Hammond, the cost of producing Sea Island cotton in 1880 ranged in South Carolina from 15 to 21 cents a pound; in Georgia, 50 cents per pound of lint. The cost of producing upland cotton varied within wide limits. In North Carolina in 1880 it ranged from 6.2 cents in the Piedmont region to 7.3 cents in the Pine levels. In 1892 the range was from 3.5 to 6.6 cents. The cost in South Carolina in 1880 ranged from 6.91 to 8 cents; in 1892 it was 6.6 cents for the Pine Hills region; in 1893, from 5 to 14 cents dependent upon the nature of the soil. In Georgia the crop of 1880 was estimated at from 3 to 6 cents for the Pine Hills region and 8 to 10 cents in other regions; the crop of 1892 averaged 7.5 cents per pound; that of 1893, 6.75 cents. In Alabama, in 1880, the crop cost from 3 to 8 cents per pound; in 1892, from 4.5 to 7.75 cents; and in 1893 it averaged 8 cents. In Mississippi the cost varied from 4 to 11 cents in 1880, and from 4 to 8.4 cents in 1893, dependent upon the producing region. In Louisiana the cost varied in 1880 between 6.8 and 7.4 cents, and in 1893 between 4.9 and 7 cents. In Arkansas in 1880 the range was from 6.2 to 7 cents per pound; in 1893 from 4 to 7 cents. In 1880 the Texas crop cost from 3 to 9 cents per pound, with averages of from 4.5 to 6.5 cents in the

principal producing regions. In Tennessee the cost of the 1880 crop was from 3.5 to 10 cents per pound, that of 1893 averaged 7 cents. The average production for the United States in 1900 was about 200 pounds per acre.

. The process of transforming cotton from its raw condition after picking into the thread or cloth that is such an essential of daily life is one which involves many different operations. It must first be cleaned to remove sand, dust, and other foreign substances. It then contains about two-thirds of its weight in seeds, which must be removed.

Cotton-Ginning.—Before Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin, the removal of the seeds by hand was so difficult a task that very little cotton was raised. It would take one person two years to turn out an average bale of cotton, three to fifteen of which are produced by one machine in one day. Before the Civil War the gins were run chiefly by mule-power, which, when operated in connection with slave labor, was cheaper than steam. Whitney's cotton-gin, known as the saw gin, may be briefly described as a series of circular saws with fine teeth, revolving with an arc of their circumference projecting through a guide into a receptacle for seed cotton. These saws tear the lint from the seed and carry it through the guide. It is removed from the saws by a brush and carried to a condenser. Great care must be exercised not to injure the cotton (1) by having the saws too close to the bars of the grate, so as to rub; (2) by having them revolve too fast; or (3) by having the teeth too sharp. See Brooks, Cotton (New York, 1898). The roller gin is growing in favor among cotton-producers, especially for the long-staple or Sea Island cotton, and in the United States and Egypt all long-staple cotton is ginned in this way. It removes the seed with only one-fifth the rapidity of the saw gin, but it does not injure the fibre. In a primitive form it has been used in Egypt and India for many centuries. It consists of two rollers, revolving in opposite directions, between which the cotton is passed and the smooth, hard seeds thrown off. Both the saw gin and roller gin have been much modified and their effectiveness increased by successive improvements.

In Bulletin No. 58, on Cotton-Ginning, Twelfth United States Census, Daniel C. Roper divides