[1] Strafford's _Letters_, ii. 52.
COTTON, the name of a well-known family of Anglo-Indian administrators,
of whom the following are the most notable.
SIR ARTHUR THOMAS COTTON (1803-1899), English engineer, tenth son of
Henry Calveley Cotton, was born on the 15th of May 1803, and was
educated at Addiscombe. He entered the Madras engineers in 1819, served
in the first Burmese war (1824-26), and in 1828 began his life-work on
the irrigation works of southern India. He constructed works on the
Cauvery, Coleroon, Godavari and Kistna rivers, making anicuts (dams) on
the Coleroon (1836-1838) for the irrigation of the Tanjore, Trichinopoly
and South Arcot districts; and on the Godivari (1847-1852) for the
irrigation of the Godavari district. He also projected the anicut on the
Kistna (Krishna), which was carried out by other officers. Before the
beginning of his work Tanjore and the adjoining districts were
threatened with ruin from lack of water; on its completion they became
the richest part of Madras, and Tanjore returned the largest revenue of
any district in India. He was the founder of the school of Indian
hydraulic engineering, and carried out much of his work in the face of
opposition and discouragement from the Madras government; though, in the
minute of the 15th of May 1858, that government paid an ample tribute to
the genius of Cotton's "master mind." He was knighted in 1861. Sir
Arthur Cotton believed in the possibility of constructing a complete
system of irrigation and navigation canals throughout India, and devoted
the whole of a long life to the partial realization of this project. He
died on the 24th of July 1899.
See Lady Hope, _General Sir Arthur Cotton_ (1900).
SIR HENRY JOHN STEDMAN COTTON (1845- ), Anglo-Indian administrator,
son of J. J. Cotton of the Madras Civil Service, was born on the 13th of
September 1845, and was educated at Magdalen College school and King's
College, London. He entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1867, and held
various appointments of increasing importance until he became chief
secretary to the Bengal government (1891-1896), acting home secretary to
the government of India (1896), and chief commissioner of Assam
(1896-1902). He retired in 1902, and soon became known as the leading
English champion of the Indian nationalists. In 1906 he entered
parliament as Liberal member for East Nottingham. He was the author of
_New India_ (1885; revised 1904-1907).
His brother, JAMES SUTHERLAND COTTON (1847- ), was born in India on
the 17th of July 1847, and was educated at Magdalen College school and
Trinity College, Oxford. For many years he was editor of the _Academy_;
he published various works on Indian subjects, and was the English
editor of the revised edition of the _Imperial Gazetteer of India_
(1908).
COTTON, CHARLES (1630-1687), English poet, the translator of Montaigne,
was born at Beresford in Staffordshire on the 28th of April 1630. His
father, Charles Cotton, was a man of marked ability, and counted among
his friends Ben Jonson, John Selden, Sir Henry Wotton and Izaak Walton.
The son was apparently not sent to the university, but he had as tutor
Ralph Rawson, one of the fellows ejected from Brasenose College, Oxford,
in 1648. Cotton travelled in France and perhaps in Italy, and at the age
of twenty-eight he succeeded to an estate greatly encumbered by lawsuits
during his father's lifetime. The rest of his life was spent chiefly in
country pursuits, but from his _Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque_ (1670)
we know that he held a captain's commission and was ordered to that
country. His friendship with Izaak Walton began about 1655, and the fact
of this intimacy seems a sufficient answer to the charges sometimes
brought against Cotton's character, based chiefly on his coarse
burlesques of Virgil and Lucian. Walton's initials made into a cipher
with his own were placed over the door of his fishing cottage on the
Dove; and to the _Compleat Angler_ he added "Instructions how to angle
for a trout or grayling in a clear stream." He married in 1656 his
cousin Isabella, who was a sister of Colonel Hutchinson. It was for his
wife's sister, Miss Stanhope Hutchinson, that he undertook the
translation of Corneille's _Horace_ (1671). His wife died in 1670 and
five years later he married the dowager countess of Ardglass; she had a
jointure of L1500 a year, but it was secured from his extravagance, and
at his death in 1687 he was insolvent. He was buried in St James's
church, Piccadilly, on the 16th of February 1687. Cotton's reputation as
a burlesque writer may account for the neglect with which the rest of
his poems have been treated. Their excellence was not, however,
overlooked by good critics. Coleridge praises the purity and
unaffectedness of his style in _Biographia Literaria_, and Wordsworth
(_Preface_, 1815) gave a copious quotation from the "Ode to Winter." The
"Retirement" is printed by Walton in the second part of the _Compleat
Angler_. His masterpiece in translation, the _Essays of M. de Montaigne_
(1685-1686, 1693, 1700, &c.), has often been reprinted, and still
maintains its reputation; his other works include _The Scarronides, or
Virgil Travestie_ (1664-1670), a gross burlesque of the first and fourth
books of the Aeneid, which ran through fifteen editions; _Burlesque upon
Burlesque, ... being some of Lucian's Dialogues newly put into English
fustian_ (1675); _The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks_ (1667), from the
French of Guillaume du Vair; _The History of the Life of the Duke
d'Espernon_ (1670), from the French of G. Girard; the _Commentaries_
(1674) of Blaise de Montluc; the _Planter's Manual_ (1675), a practical
book on arboriculture, in which he was an expert; _The Wonders of the
Peake_ (1681); the _Compleat Gamester_ and _The Fair one of Tunis_, both
dated 1674, are also assigned to Cotton.
William Oldys contributed a life of Cotton to Hawkins's edition (1760)
of the _Compleat Angler_. His _Lyrical Poems_ were edited by J. R.
Tutin in 1903, from an unsatisfactory edition of 1689. His translation
of Montaigne was edited in 1892, and in a more elaborate form in 1902,
by W. C. Hazlitt, who omitted or relegated to the notes the passages
in which Cotton interpolates his own matter, and supplied his
omissions.
COTTON, GEORGE EDWARD LYNCH (1813-1866), English educationist and
divine, was born at Chester on the 29th of October 1813. He received his
education at Westminster school, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Here
he joined the Low Church party, and was also the intimate friend of
several disciples of Thomas Arnold, among whom were C. J. Vaughan and W.
J. Conybeare. The influence of Arnold determined the character and
course of his life. He graduated B.A. in 1836, and became an
assistant-master at Rugby. Here he worked devotedly for fifteen years,
inspired with Arnold's spirit, and heartily entering into his plans and
methods. He became master of the fifth form about 1840 and was
singularly successful with the boys. In 1852 he accepted the appointment
of headmaster at Marlborough College, then in a state of almost hopeless
disorganization, and in his six years of rule raised it to a high
position. In 1858 Cotton was offered the see of Calcutta, which, after
much hesitation about quitting Marlborough, he accepted. For its
peculiar duties and responsibilities he was remarkably fitted by the
simplicity and strength of his character, by his large tolerance, and by
the experience which he had gained as teacher and ruler at Rugby and
Marlborough. The government of India had just been transferred from the
East India Company to the crown, and questions of education were eagerly
discussed. Cotton gave himself energetically to the work of establishing
schools for British and Eurasian children, classes which had been
hitherto much neglected. He did much also to improve the position of the
chaplains, and was unwearied in missionary visitation. His sudden death
was widely mourned. On the 6th of October 1866 he had consecrated a
cemetery at Kushtea on the Ganges, and was crossing a plank leading from
the bank to the steamer when he slipped and fell into the river. He was
carried away by the current and never seen again.
A memoir of his life with selections from his journals and
correspondence, edited by his widow, was published in 1871.
COTTON, JOHN (1585-1652), English and American Puritan divine, sometimes
called "The Patriarch of New England," born in Derby, England, on the
4th of December 1585. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,
graduating B.A. in 1603 and M.A. in 1606, and became a fellow in
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then a stronghold of Puritanism, where,
during the next six years, according to his friend and biographer, Rev.
Samuel Whiting, he was "head lecturer and dean, and Catechist," and "a
dilligent tutor to many pupils." In June 1612 he became vicar of the
parish church of St Botolphs in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he remained
for twenty-one years and was extremely popular. Becoming more and more a
Puritan in spirit, he ceased, about 1615, to observe certain ceremonies
prescribed by the legally authorized ritual, and in 1632 action was
begun against him in the High Commission Court. He thereupon escaped,
disguised, to London, lay in concealment there for several months, and,
having been deeply interested from its beginning in the colonization of
New England, he eluded the watch set for him at the various English
ports, and in July 1633 emigrated to the colony of Massachusetts Bay,
arriving at Boston early in September. On the 10th of October he was
chosen "teacher" of the First Church of Boston, of which John Wilson
(1588-1667) was pastor, and here he remained until his death on the 23rd
of December 1652. In the newer, as in the older Boston, his popularity
was almost unbounded, and his influence, both in ecclesiastical and in
civil affairs, was probably greater than that of any other minister in
theocratic New England. According to the contemporary historian, William
Hubbard, "Whatever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an order
of court, if of a civil, or set up as a practice in the church, if of an
ecclesiastical concernment." His influence, too, was generally
beneficent, though it was never used to further the cause of religious
freedom, or of democracy, his theory of government being given in an
oft-quoted passage: "Democracy, I do not conceyve that ever God did
ordeyne as a fitt government eyther for church or commonwealth.... As
for Monarchy and aristocracy they are both for them clearly approved,
and directed in Scripture yet so as (God) referreth the sovereigntie to
himselfe, and setteth up Theocracy in both, as the best form of
government." He naturally took an active part in most, if not all, of
the political and theological controversies of his time, the two
principal of which were those concerning Antinomianism and the expulsion
of Roger Williams. In the former his position was somewhat equivocal--he
first supported and then violently opposed Anne Hutchinson,--in the
latter he approved Williams's expulsion as "righteous in the eyes of
God," and subsequently in a pamphlet discussion with Williams,
particularly in his _Bloudy Tenent, Washed and made White in the Blood
of the Lamb_ (1647), vigorously opposed religious freedom. He was a man
of great learning and was a prolific writer. His writings include: _The
Keyes to the Kingdom of Heaven and the Power thereof_ (1644), _The Way
of the Churches of Christ in New England_ (1645), and _The Way of
Congregational Churches Cleared_ (1648), these works constituting an
invaluable exposition of New England Congregationalism; and _Milk for
Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the
Spirituall Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England, but may be of
like Use for any Children_ (1646), widely used for many years, in New
England, for the religious instruction of children.
See the quaint sketch by Cotton Mather, John Cotton's grandson, in
_Magnalia_ (London, 1702), and a sketch by Cotton's contemporary and
friend, Rev. Samuel Whiting, printed in Alexander Young's _Chronicles
of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay from 1623 to
1636_ (Boston, 1846); also A. W. McClure's _The Life of John Cotton_
(Boston, 1846), a chapter in Arthur B. Ellis's _History of the First
Church in Boston_ (Boston, 1881), and a chapter in Williston Walker's
_Ten New England Leaders_ (New York, 1901). (W. WR.)
COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, Bart. (1571-1631), English antiquary, the
founder of the Cottonian library, born at Denton in Huntingdonshire on
the 22nd of January 1571, was a descendant, as he delighted to boast, of
Robert Bruce. He was educated at Westminster school under William Camden
the antiquary, and at Jesus College, Cambridge. His antiquarian tastes
were early displayed in the collection of ancient records, charters and
other manuscripts, which had been dispersed from the monastic libraries
in the reign of Henry VIII.; and throughout the whole of his life he was
an energetic collector of antiquities from all parts of England and the
continent. His house at Westminster had a garden going down to the river
and occupied part of the site of the present House of Lords. It was the
meeting-place in the last years of Elizabeth's reign of the antiquarian
society founded by Archbishop Parker. In 1600 Cotton visited the north
of England with Camden in search of Pictish and Roman monuments and
inscriptions. His reputation as an expert in heraldry led to his being
asked by Queen Elizabeth to discuss the question of precedence between
the English ambassador and the envoy of Spain, then in treaty at Calais.
He drew up an elaborate paper establishing the precedence of the English
ambassador. On the accession of James I. he was knighted, and in 1608 he
wrote a _Memorial on Abuses in the Navy_, that resulted in a navy
commission, of which he was made a member. He also presented to the king
an historical _Inquiry into the Crown Revenues_, in which he speaks
freely about the expenses of the royal household, and asserts that
tonnage and poundage are only to be levied in war time, and to "proceed
out of good will, not of duty." In this paper he supported the creation
of the order of baronets, each of whom was to pay the crown L1000; and
in 1611 he himself received the title.
Cotton helped John Speed in the compilation of his _History of England_
(1611), and was regarded by contemporaries as the compiler of Camden's
_History of Elizabeth_. It seems more likely that it was executed by
Camden, but that Cotton exercised a general supervision, especially with
regard to the story of Mary queen of Scots. The presentation of his
mother's history was naturally important to James I., and Cotton himself
took a keen interest in the matter. He had had the room in Fotheringay
where Mary was executed transferred to his family seat at Connington.
Meanwhile he was enlarging his collection of documents. In 1614 Arthur
Agarde (q.v.) left his papers to him, and Camden's manuscripts came to
him in 1623. In 1615 Cotton, as the intimate of the earl of Somerset,
whose innocence he always maintained, was placed in confinement on the
charge of being implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; he
confessed that he had acted as intermediary between Sarmiento, the
Spanish ambassador, and Somerset, and had altered the dates of
Somerset's correspondence. He was released after about eight months'
imprisonment without formal trial, and obtained a pardon on payment of
L500. His friendship with Gondomar, Spanish ambassador in England from
1613 to 1621, brought further suspicion, probably undeserved, upon
Cotton, of unduly favouring the Catholic party. From Charles I. and
Buckingham Cotton received no favour; his attitude towards the court had
begun to change, and he became the intimate friend of Sir John Eliot,
Sir Simonds d'Ewes and John Selden. He had entered parliament in 1604 as
member for Huntingdon; in 1624 he sat for Old Sarum; in 1625 for
Thetford; and in 1628 for Castle Rising, Norfolk. In the debate on
supply in 1625 Cotton provided Eliot with full notes defending the
action of the opposition in parliament, and in 1628 the leaders of the
party met at Cotton's house to decide on their policy. In 1626 he gave
advice before the council against debasing the standard of the coinage;
and in January 1628 he was again before the council, urging the summons
of a parliament. His arguments on the latter occasion are contained in
his tract entitled _The Danger in which the Kingdom now standeth and the
Remedy_. In October of the next year he was arrested, together with the
earls of Bedford, Somerset, and Clare, for having circulated, with
ironical purpose, a tract known as the _Proposition to bridle
Parliament_, which had been addressed some fifteen years before by Sir
Robert Dudley to James I., advising him to govern by force; the
circulation of this by Parliamentarians was regarded as intended to
insinuate that Charles's government was arbitrary and unconstitutional.
Cotton denied knowledge of the matter, but the original was discovered
in his house, and the copies had been put in circulation by a young man
who lived after him and was said to be his natural son. Cotton was
himself released the next month; but the proceedings in the star chamber
continued, and, to his intense vexation, his library was sealed up by
the king. He died on the 6th of May 1631, and was buried in Connington
church, Huntingdonshire, where there is a monument to his memory.
Many of Cotton's pamphlets were widely read in manuscript during his
lifetime, but only two of his works were printed, _The Reign of Henry
III_. (1627) and _The Danger in which the Kingdom now Standeth_
(1628). His son, Sir Thomas (1594-1662), added considerably to the
Cottonian library; and Sir John, the fourth baronet, presented it to
the nation in 1700. In 1731 the collection, which had in the interval
been removed to the Strand, and thence to Ashburnham House, was
seriously damaged by fire. In 1753 it was transferred to the British
Museum.
See the article LIBRARIES, and Edwards's _Lives of the Founders of the
British Museum_, vol. i. Several of Cotton's papers have been printed
under the title _Cottoni Posthuma_; others were published by Thomas
Hearne.
COTTON (Fr. _coton_; from Arab, _qutun_), the most important of the
vegetable fibres of the world, consisting of unicellular hairs which
occur attached to the seeds of various species of plants of the genus
_Gossypium_, belonging to the Mallow order (Malvaceae). Each fibre is
formed by the outgrowth of a single epidermal cell of the testa or outer
coat of the seed.
_Botany and Cultivation._--The genus _Gossypium_ includes herbs and
shrubs, which have been cultivated from time immemorial, and are now
found widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions
of both hemispheres. South America, the West Indies, tropical Africa and
Southern Asia are the homes of the various members, but the plants have
been introduced with success into other lands, as is well indicated by
the fact that although no species of _Gossypium_ is native to the United
States of America, that country now produces over two-thirds of the
world's supply of cotton. Under normal conditions in warm climates many
of the species are perennials, but, in the United States for example,
climatic conditions necessitate the plants being renewed annually, and
even in the tropics it is often found advisable to treat them as annuals
to ensure the production of cotton of the best quality, to facilitate
cultural operations, and to keep insect and fungoid pests in check.
Microscopic examination of a specimen of mature cotton shows that the
hairs are flattened and twisted, resembling somewhat in general
appearance an empty and twisted fire hose. This characteristic is of
great economic importance, the natural twist facilitating the operation
of spinning the fibres into thread or yarn. It also distinguishes the
true cotton from the silk cottons or flosses, the fibres of which have
no twist, and do not readily spin into thread, and for this reason,
amongst others, are very considerably less important as textile fibres.
The chief of these silk cottons is kapok, consisting of the hairs borne
on the interior of the pods (but not attached to the seeds) of
_Eriodendron anfractuosum_, the silk cotton tree, a member of the
Bombacaceae, an order very closely allied to the Malvaceae.
_Classification._--Considerable difficulty is encountered in attempting
to draw up a botanical classification of the species of _Gossypium_.
Several are only known in cultivation, and we have but little knowledge
of the wild parent forms from which they have descended. During the
periods the cottons have been cultivated, selection, conscious or
unconscious, has been carried on, resulting in the raising, from the
same stock probably, in different places, of well-marked forms, which,
in the absence of the history of their origin, might be regarded as
different species. Then again, during at least the last four centuries,
cotton plants have been distributed from one country to another, only to
render still more difficult any attempt to establish definitely the
origin of the varieties now grown. Under these circumstances it is not
surprising to find that those who have paid attention to the botany of
the cottons differ greatly in the number of species they recognize.
Linnaeus described five or six species, de Candolle thirteen. Of the two
Italian botanists who in comparatively recent years have monographed the
group, Parlatore (_Le Specie dei cotoni_, 1866) recognizes seven
species, whilst Todaro (_Relazione sulla culta dei cotoni_, 1877-1878)
describes over fifty species: many of these, however, are of but little
economic importance, and, in spite of the difficulties mentioned above,
it is possible for practical purposes to divide the commercially
important plants into five species, placing these in two groups
according to the character of the hairs borne on the seeds. Sir G.
Watt's exhaustive work on _Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the
World_ (1907) is the latest authority on the subject; and his views on
some debated points have been incorporated in the following account.
[Illustration: From Strasburger's _Lehrbuch der Botanik_, by permission
of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 1.--Seed-hairs of the Cotton, _Gossypium herbaceum_. A, Part of
seed-coat with hairs; B_1, insertion and lower part; B_2, middle part;
and B_3, upper part of a hair.]
A seed of "Sea Island cotton" is covered with long hairs only, which are
readily pulled off, leaving the comparatively small black seed quite
clean or with only a slight fuzz at the end, whereas a seed of "Upland"
or ordinary American cotton bears both long and short hairs; the former
are fairly easily detached (less easily, however, than in Sea Island
cotton), whilst the latter adhere very firmly, so that when the long
hairs are pulled off the seed remains completely covered with a short
fuzz. This is also the case with the ordinary Indian and African
cottons. There remains one other important group, the so-called "kidney"
cottons in which there are only long hairs, and the seed easily comes
away clean as with "Sea Island," but, instead of each seed being
separate, the whole group in each of the three compartments of the
capsule is firmly united together in a more or less kidney-shaped mass.
Starting with this as the basis of classification, we can construct the
following key, the remaining principal points of difference being
indicated in their proper places:--
i. Seeds covered with long hairs only, flowers yellow, turning to red.
A. Seeds separate.
Country of origin, Tropical America--(1) _G. barbadense_, L.
B. Seeds of each loculus united.
Country of origin, S. America--(2) _G. brasiliense_, Macf.
ii. Seeds covered with long and short hairs.
A. Flowers yellow or white, turning to red.
a. Leaves 3 to 5 lobed, often large. Flowers white.
Country of origin, Mexico--(3) _G. hirsutum_, L.
b. Leaves 3 to 5, seldom 7 lobed. Small. Flowers yellow.
Country of origin, India--(4) _G. herbaceum_, L.
B. Flowers purple or red. Leaves 3 to 7 lobed.
Place of origin, Old World--(5) _G. arboreum_, L.
1. _G. barbadense_, Linn. This plant, known only in cultivation, is
usually regarded as native to the West Indies. Watt regards it as
closely allied to _G. vitifolium_, and considers the modern stock a
hybrid, and probably not indigenous to the West Indies. He classifies
the modern high-class Sea Island cottons as _G. barbadense_, var.
_maritima_. Whatever may be its true botanical name it is the plant
known in commerce as "Sea Island" cotton, owing to its introduction and
successful cultivation in the Sea Islands and the coastal districts of
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. It yields the most valuable of all
cottons, the hairs being long, fine and silky, and ranging in length
from 3/8 to 2-1/2 in. By careful selection (the methods of which are
described below) in the United States, the quality of the product was
much improved, and on the recent revival of the cotton industry in the
West Indies American "Sea Island" seed was introduced back again to the
original home of the species.
Egyptian cotton is usually regarded as being derived from the same
species. Watt considers many of the Egyptian cottons to be races or
hybrids of _G. peruvianum_, Cav. Egyptian cotton in length of staple is
intermediate between average Sea Island and average Upland. It has,
however, certain characteristics which cause it to be in demand even in
the United States, where during recent years Egyptian cotton has
comprised about 80% of all the "foreign" cottons imported. These special
qualities are its fineness, strength, elasticity and great natural
twist, which combined enable it to make very fine, strong yarns, suited
to the manufacture of the better qualities of hosiery, for mixing with
silk and wool, for making lace, &c. It also mercerizes very well. The
principal varieties of Egyptian cotton are: _Mitafifi_, the best-known
and most extensively grown, hardy and but little affected by climatic
variation. It is usually regarded as the standard Egyptian cotton; the
lint is yellowish brown, the seeds black and almost smooth, usually with
a little tuft of short green hairs at the ends. _Abassi_, a variety
comparatively recently obtained by selection. The lint is pure white,
very fine and silky, but not so strong as Mitafifi cotton. _Yannovitch_,
a variety known since about 1897, yields the finest and most silky lint
of the white Egyptian cottons. _Bamia_, yielding a brown lint, very
similar to Mitafifi, but slightly less valuable. _Ashmouni_, a variety
principally cultivated in Upper Egypt. The lint is brown and generally
resembles Mitafifi but is less valuable.
Other varieties are _Zifiri_, _Hamouli_ and _Gallini_, all of minor
importance.
2. _G. brasiliense_, Macf. (_G. peruvianum_, Engler), or kidney cotton.
Amongst the varieties of cotton which are derived from this species
appear to be Pernambuco, Maranham, Ceara, Aracaty and Maceio cottons.
The fibre is generally white, somewhat harsh and wiry, and especially
adapted for mixing with wool. The staple varies in length from 1 to
about 1-1/2 in.
3. _G. hirsutum_, Linn. Although _G. barbadense_ yields the most
valuable cotton, _G. hirsutum_ is the most important cotton-yielding
plant, being the source of American cotton, i.e. Upland, Georgia, New
Orleans and Texas varieties. The staple varies usually in length between
3/4 and 1-1/4 in. According to Watt there are many hybrids in American
cottons between _G. hirsutum_ and _G. mexicanum_.
4. _G. herbaceum_, Linn. Levant cotton is derived from this species. The
majority of the races of cotton cultivated in India are often referred
to this species, which is closely allied to _G. hirsutum_ and has been
regarded as identical with it. Amongst the cottons of this source are
Hinganghat, Tinnevelly, Dharwar, Broach, Amraoti (Oomras or
Oomrawattee), Kumta, Westerns, Dholera, Verawal, Bengals, Sind and
Bhaunagar. Watt dissents from this view and classes these Indian cottons
as _G. obtusifolium_ and _G. Nanking_ with their varieties. The Indian
cottons are usually of short staple (about 3/4 in.), but are probably
capable of improvement.
5. _G. arboreum_, Linn. This species is often considered as indigenous
to India, but Dr Engler has pointed out that it is found wild in Upper
Guinea, Abyssinia, Senegal, etc. It is the "tree cotton" of India and
Africa, being typically a large shrub or small tree. The fibre is fine
and silky, of about an inch in length. In India it is known as Nurma or
Deo cotton, and is usually stated to be employed for making thread for
the turbans of the priests. Commercially it is of comparatively minor
importance.
The following table, summarized from the _Handbook to the Imperial
Institute Cotton Exhibition_, 1905, giving the length of staple and
value on one date (January 16, 1905), will serve to indicate the
_comparative_ values of some of the principal commercial cottons. The
actual value, of course, fluctuates greatly.
Length of Staple. Value
Inches. Per lb.
Sea Island Cotton-- s. d.
Carolina Sea Island 1.8 1 3
Florida " " 1.8 1 0
Georgia " " 1.7 11-1/4
Barbados " " 2.0 1 3
Egyptian Cottons--
Yannovitch 1.5 9-1/4
Abassi 1.5 8-3/4
Good Brown Egyptian (Mitafifi) 1.2 7-1/2
American Cotton--
Good middling Memphis 1.3 4-2/5
Good middling Texas 1.0 4-1/5
Good middling Upland 1.0 4
Indian Cottons--
Fine Tinnevelly 0.8 4-1/4
Fine Bhaunagar 1.0 3-7/8
Fine Amraoti 1.0 3-7/8
Fine Broach 0.9 3-13/16
Fine Bengal 0.9 3-11/16
Fine ginned Sind 0.8 3-11/16
Good ginned Kumta 1.0 3-1/2
The close relationship between the length of the staple and the market
price will be at once apparent.
_Cultivation._--Cotton is very widely cultivated throughout the world,
being grown on a greater or less scale as a commercial crop in almost
every country included in the broad belt between latitudes 43 deg. N.
and 33 deg. S., or approximately within the isothermal lines of 60 deg.
F.
The cotton plant requires certain conditions for its successful
cultivation; but, given these, it is very little affected by seasonal
vicissitudes. Thus, for example, in the United States the worst season
rarely diminishes the crop by more than about a quarter or one-third;
such a thing as a "half-crop" is unknown. Various climatic factors may
cause temporary checks, but the growing and maturing period is
sufficiently long to allow the plants to overcome these disturbances.
Cotton requires for its development from six to seven months of
favourable weather. It thrives in a warm atmosphere, even in a very hot
one, provided that it is moist and that the transpiration is not in
excess of the supply of water. An idea of the requirements of the plant
will perhaps be afforded by summarizing the conditions which have been
found to give the best results in the United States.
During April (when the seed is usually sown) and May frequent light
showers, which keep the ground sufficiently moist to assist germination
and the growth of the young plants, are desired. Three to four inches of
rain per month is the average. The active growing period is from early
June to about the middle of August. During June and the first fortnight
in July plenty of sunshine is necessary, accompanied by sufficient rain
to promote healthy, but not excessive, growth; the normal rainfall in
the cotton belt for this period is about 4-1/2 in. per month. During the
second portion of July and the first of August a slightly higher
rainfall is beneficial, and even heavy rains do little harm, provided
the subsequent months are dry and warm. The first flowers usually appear
in June, and the bolls ripen from early in August. Picking takes place
normally during September and October, and during these months dry
weather is essential. Flowering and fruiting go on continually, although
in diminishing degree, until the advent of frost, which kills the
flowers and young bolls and so puts an end to the production of cotton
for the season.
In the tropics the essential requirements are very similar, but there
the dry season checks production in much the same way as do the frosts
in temperate climates. In either case an adequate but not excessive
rainfall, increasing from the time of sowing to the period of active
growth, and then decreasing as the bolls ripen, with a dry picking
season, combined with sunny days and warm nights, provide the ideal
conditions for successful cotton cultivation. In regions where climatic
conditions are favourable, cotton grows more or less successfully on
almost all kinds of soil; it can be grown on light sandy soils, loams,
heavy clays and sandy "bottom" lands with varying success. Sandy uplands
produce a short stalk which bears fairly well. Clay and "bottom" lands
produce a large, leafy plant, yielding less lint in proportion. The most
suitable soils are medium grades of loam. The soil should be able to
maintain very uniform conditions of moisture. Sudden variations in the
amount of water supplied are injurious: a sandy soil cannot retain
water; on the other hand a clay soil often maintains too great a supply,
and rank growth with excess of foliage ensues. The best soil for cotton
is thus a deep, well-drained loam, able to afford a uniform supply of
moisture during the growing period. Wind is another important factor, as
cotton does not do well in localities subject to very high winds; and in
exposed situations, otherwise favourable, wind belts have at times to be
provided.
_Cultivation in the United States._--The United States being the most
important cotton-producing country, the methods of cultivation practised
there are first described, notes on methods adopted in other countries
being added only when these differ considerably from American practice.
The culture of cotton must be a clean one. It is not necessarily deep
culture, and during the growing season the cultivation is preferably
very shallow. The result is a great destruction of the humus of the
soil, and great leaching and washing, especially in the light loams of
the hill country of the United States. The main object, therefore, of
the American cotton-planter is to prevent erosion. Wherever the planters
have failed to guard their fields by hillside ploughing and terracing,
these have been extensively denuded of soil, rendering them barren, and
devastating other fields lying at a lower level, which are covered by
the wash. The hillsides have gradually to be terraced with the plough,
upon almost an exact level. On the better farms this is done with a
spirit-level or compass from time to time and hillside ditches put in at
the proper places. In the moist bottom-lands along the rivers it is the
custom to throw the soil up in high beds with the plough, and then to
cultivate them deep. This is the more common method of drainage, but it
is expensive, as it has to be renewed every few years. More intelligent
planters drain their bottom-lands with underground or open drains. In
the case of small plantations the difficulties of adjusting a
right-of-way for outlet ditches have interfered seriously with this
plan. Many planters question the wisdom of deepbreaking and subsoiling.
There can be no question that a deep soil is better for the
cotton-plant; but the expense of obtaining it, the risk of injuring the
soil through leaching, and the danger of bringing poor soil to the
surface, have led many planters to oppose this plan. Sandy soils are
made thereby too dry and leachy, and it is a questionable proceeding to
turn the heavy clays upon the top. Planters are, as a result, divided in
opinion as to the wisdom of subsoiling. Nothing definite can be said
with regard to a rotation of crops upon the cotton plantation. Planters
appreciate generally the value of broad-leaved and narrow-leaved plants
and root crops, but there is an absence of exact knowledge, with the
result that their practices are very varied. It is believed that the
rotation must differ with every variety of soil, with the result that
each planter has his own method, and little can be said in general. A
more careful study of the physical as well as the chemical properties of
a soil must precede intelligent experimentation in rotation. This
knowledge is still lacking with regard to most of the cotton soils. The
only uniform practice is to let the fields "rest" when they have become
exhausted. Nature then restores them very rapidly. The exhaustion of the
soil under cotton culture is chiefly due to the loss of humus, and
nature soon puts this back in the excellent climate of the
cotton-growing belt. Fields considered utterly used up, and allowed to
"rest" for years, when cultivated again have produced better crops than
those which had been under a more or less thoughtful rotation. In spite
of the clean culture, good crops of cotton have been grown on some soils
in the south for more than forty successive years. The fibre takes
almost nothing from the land, and where the seeds are restored to the
soil in some form, even without other fertilizers, the exhaustion of the
soil is very slow. If the burning-up of humus and the leaching of the
soil could be prevented, there is no reason why a cotton soil should not
produce good crops continuously for an indefinite time. Bedding up land
previous to planting is almost universal. The bed forms a warm seed-bed
in the cool weather of early spring, and holds the manure which is
drilled in usually to better advantage. The plants are generally left 2
or 3 in. above the middle of the row, which in four-foot rows gives a
slope of 1 in. to the foot, causing the plough to lean from the plants
in cultivating, and thus to cut fewer roots. The plants are usually cut
out with a hoe from 8 to 14 in. apart. It seems to make little
difference exactly what distance they are, so long as they are not wider
apart on average land than 1 ft. On rich bottom-land they should be more
distant. The seed is dropped from a planter, five or six seeds in a
single line, at regular intervals 10 to 12 in. apart. A narrow deep
furrow is usually run immediately in advance of the planter, to break up
the soil under the seed. The only time the hoe is used is to thin out
the cotton in the row; all the rest of the cultivation is by various
forms of ploughs and so-called cultivators. The question of deep and
shallow culture has been much discussed among planters without any
conclusion applicable to all soils being reached. All grass and weeds
must be kept down, and the crust must be broken after every rain, but
these seem to be the only principles upon which all agree. The most
effective tool against the weeds is a broad sharp "sweep," as it is
called, which takes everything it meets, while going shallower than most
ploughs. Harrows and cultivators are used where there are few weeds, and
the mulching process is the one desired.
The date of cotton-planting varies from March 1 to June 1, according to
situation. Planting begins early in March in Southern Texas, and the
first blooms will appear there about May 15. Planting may be done as
late as April 15 in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and continue
as late as the end of May. The first blooms will appear in this region
about July 15. Picking may begin on July 10 in Southern Texas, and
continue late into the winter, or until the rare frost kills the plants.
It may not begin until September 10 in Piedmont, North Carolina. It is a
peculiarity of the cotton-plant to lose a great many of its blooms and
bolls. When the weather is not favourable at the fruiting stage, the
otherwise hardy cotton plant displays its great weakness in this way. It
sheds its "forms" (as the buds are called), blooms, and even half-grown
bolls in great numbers. It has frequently been noted that even
well-fertilized plants upon good soil will mature only 15 or 20% of the
bolls produced. No means are known so far for preventing this great
waste. Experts are at an entire loss to form a correct idea of the
cause, or to apply any effective remedy.
Cotton-picking is at once the most difficult and most expensive
operation in cotton production. It is paid for at the rate of from 45 to
50 cents per cwt. of seed cotton. The work is light, and is effectually
performed by women and even children, as well as men; but it is tedious
and requires care. The picking season will average 100 days. It is
difficult to get the hands to work until the cotton is fully opened, and
it is hard to induce them to pick over 100 lb. a day, though some
expert hands are found in every cotton plantation who can pick twice as
much. The loss resulting from careless work is very serious. The cotton
falls out easily or is dropped. The careless gathering of dead leaves
and twigs, and the soiling of the cotton by earth or by the natural
colouring matter from the bolls, injure the quality. It has been
commonly thought that the production of cotton in the south is limited
by the amount that can be picked, but this limit is evidently very
remote. The negro population of the towns and villages of the cotton
country is usually available for a considerable share in cotton-picking.
There is in the cotton states a rural population of over 7,000,000, more
or less occupied in cotton-growing, and capable, at the low average of
100 lb. a day, of picking daily nearly 500,000 bales. It is evident,
therefore, that if this number could work through the whole season of
100 days, they could pick three or four times as much cotton as the
largest crop ever made. Great efforts have been made to devise
cotton-picking machines, but, as yet, complete success has not been
attained. Lowne's machine is useful in specially wide-planted fields and
when the ground is sufficiently hard.
_Cotton Ginning._--The crop having been picked, it has to be prepared
for purpose of manufacture. This comprises separating the fibre or lint
from the seeds, the operation being known as "ginning." When this has
been accomplished the weight of the crop is reduced to about one-third,
each 100 lb. of seed cotton as picked yielding after ginning some 33
lb of lint and 66 lb. of cotton seed. The actual amounts differ with
different varieties, conditions of cultivation, methods of ginning, &c.;
a recent estimate in the United States gives 35% of lint for Upland
cotton and 25% for Sea Island cotton as more accurate.
The separation of lint from seed is accomplished in various ways. The
most primitive is hand-picking, the fibre being laboriously pulled from
off each seed, as still practised in parts of Africa. In modern
commercial cotton production ginning machines are always used. Very
simple machines are used in some parts of Africa. The simplest cotton
gin in extensive use is the "churka," used from early times, and still
largely employed in India and China. It consists essentially of two
rollers either both of wood, or one of wood and one of iron, geared to
revolve in contact in opposite directions; the seed cotton is fed to the
rollers, the lint is drawn through, and the seed being unable to pass
between the rollers is rejected. With this primitive machine, worked by
hand, about 5 lb. of lint is the daily output. In the Macarthy roller
gin, the lint, drawn by a roller covered with leather (preferably walrus
hide), is drawn between a metal plate called the "doctor" (fixed
tangentially to the roller and very close to it) and a blade called the
"beater" or knife, which rapidly moves up and down immediately behind,
and parallel to, the fixed plate. The lint is held by the roughness of
the roller, and the blade of the knife or beater readily detaches the
seed from the lint; the seed falls through a grid, while the lint passes
over the roller to the other side of the machine. A hand Macarthy roller
gin worked by two men will clean about 4 to 6 lb. of lint per hour. A
similar, but larger machine, requiring about 1-1/2 horse-power to run it,
will turn out 50 to 60 lb. of Egyptian or 60 to 80 lb. of Sea Island
cleaned cotton per hour. By simple modifications the Macarthy gin can be
used for all kinds of cotton. Various attempts have been made to
substitute a comb for the knife or beater, and one of the latest
productions is the "Universal fibre gin," in which a series of blunt
combs working horizontally replace the solid beater and so-called knife
of the Macarthy gin.
Opposed to the various types of roller gins is the "saw gin," invented
by Eli Whitney, an American, in 1792. This machine, under various
modifications, is employed for ginning the greater portion of the cotton
grown in the Southern States of America. It consists essentially of a
series of circular notched disks, the so-called saws, revolving between
the interstices of an iron bed upon which the cotton is placed: the
teeth of the "saws". catch the lint and pull it off from the seeds, then
a revolving brush removes the detached lint from the saws, and creates
sufficient draught to carry the lint out of the machine to some
distance. Saw gins do considerable damage to the fibre, but for
short-stapled cotton they are largely used, owing to their great
capacity. The average yield of lint per "saw" in the United States, when
working under perfect conditions, is about 6 lb. per hour. Some of the
American ginners are very large indeed, a number (_Bulletin of the
Bureau of the Census on Cotton Production_) being reported as containing
on the average 1156 saws with an average production of 4120 bales of
cotton. Saw gins are not adapted to long-stapled cottons, such as Sea
Island and Egyptian, which are generally ginned by machines of the
Macarthy type.
The machine which will gin the largest quantity in the shortest time is
naturally preferred, unless such injury is occasioned as materially to
diminish the market value of the cotton. This has sometimes been to the
extent of 1d. or 2d. per lb. and even more as regards Sea Island and
other long-stapled cottons. The production, therefore, of the most
perfect and efficient cotton-cleaning machinery is of importance alike
to the planter and manufacturer.
_Baling._--The cotton leaves the ginning machine in a very loose
condition, and has to be compressed into bales for convenience of
transport. Large baling presses are worked by hydraulic power; the
operation needs no special description. Bales from different countries
vary greatly in size, weight and appearance. The American bale has been
described in a standard American book on cotton as "the clumsiest,
dirtiest, most expensive and most wasteful package, in which cotton or
any other commodity of like value is anywhere put up." Suggestions for
its improvement, which if carried out would (it is estimated) result in
a monetary saving of L1,000,000 annually, were made by the Lancashire
Private Cotton Investigation Commission which visited the Southern
States of America in 1906.
The approximate weights of some of the principal bales on the English
market are as follows:--
United States 500 lb.
Indian 400 lb.
Egyptian 700 lb.
Peruvian 200 lb.
Brazilian 200 to 300 lb.
With baling the work of the producer is concluded.
_Cultivation in Egypt._--Climatic conditions in Egypt differ radically
from those in the United States, the rainfall being so small as to be
quite insufficient for the needs of the plant, very little rain indeed
falling in the Nile Delta during the whole growing season of the crop:
yet Egypt is in order the third cotton-producing country of the world,
elaborate irrigation works supplying the crop with the requisite water.
The area devoted to cotton in Egypt is about 1,800,000 acres, and
nine-tenths of it is in the Nile Delta. The delta soil is typically a
heavy, black, alluvial clay, very fertile, but difficult to work;
admixture of sand is beneficial, and the localities where this occurs
yield the best cotton. Formerly in Egypt the cotton was treated as a
perennial, but this practice has been generally abandoned, and fresh
plants are raised from seed each year, as in America; one great
advantage is that more than one crop can thus be obtained each year. The
following rotation is frequently adopted. It should be noted that in
Egypt the year is divided into three seasons--winter, summer and "Nili."
The two first explain themselves; Nili is the season in which the Nile
overflows its banks.
+----------------+---------------+-----------+---------------+
| | Winter. | Summer. | Nili. |
| +---------------+-----------+---------------+
| First year |Clover | Cotton | .. |
| Second year |Beans or wheat | .. |Corn or fallow |
+----------------+---------------+-----------+---------------+
For cotton cultivation the land is ploughed, carefully levelled, and
then thrown up into ridges about 3 ft. apart. Channels formed at right
angles to the cultivation ridges provide for the access of water to the
crop. The seeds, previously soaked, are sown, usually in March, on the
sides of the ridges, and the land watered. After the seedlings appear,
thinning is completed in usually three successive hoeings, the plants
being watered after thinning, and subsequently at intervals of from
twelve to fifteen days, until about the end of August when picking
commences. The total amount of water given is approximately equivalent
to a rainfall of about 35 in. The crop is picked, ginned and baled in
the usual way, the Macarthy style action roller gins being almost
exclusively employed.
_Cotton Seed._--The history of no agricultural product contains more of
interest and instruction for the student of economics than does that of
cotton seed in the United States. The revolution in its treatment is a
real romance of industry. Up till 1870 or thereabouts, cotton seed was
regarded as a positive nuisance upon the American plantation. It was
left to accumulate in vast heaps about ginhouses, to the annoyance of
the farmer and the injury of his premises. Cotton seed in those days was
the object of so much aversion that the planter burned it or threw it
into running streams, as was most convenient. If the seed were allowed
to lie about, it rotted, and hogs and other animals, eating it, often
died. It was very difficult to burn, and when dumped into rivers and
creeks was carried out by flood water to fill the edges of the flats
with a decaying and offensive mass of vegetable matter. Although used in
the early days to a limited extent as a food for milch cows and other
stock, and to a larger extent as a manure, no systematic efforts were
made anywhere in the South to manufacture the seed until the later
'fifties, when the first cotton seed mills were established. It is said
that there were only seven cotton oil mills in the South in 1860. The
cotton-growing industry was interrupted by the Civil War, and the
seed-milling business did not begin again until 1868. After that time
the number of mills rapidly increased. There were 25 in the South in
1870, 50 in 1880, 120 in 1890, and about 500 in 1901, about one-third
being in Texas.
Experience shows that 1000 lb. of seed are produced for every 500 lb
of cotton brought to market. On the basis, therefore, of a cotton crop
of 10,000,000 bales of 500 lb. each, there are produced 5,000,000 tons
of cotton seed. If about 3,000,000 tons only are pressed, there remain
to be utilized on the farm 2,000,000 tons of cotton seed, which, if
manufactured, would produce a total of $100,000,000 from cotton seed. In
contrast with the farmers of the 'sixties, the southern planter of the
20th century appreciates the value of his cotton seed, and farmers, too
remote from the mills to get it pressed, now feed to their stock all the
cotton seed they conveniently can, and use the residue either in compost
or directly as manure. The average of a large number of analyses of
Upland cotton seed gives the following figures for its fertilizing
constituents:--Nitrogen, 3.07%; phosphoric acid, 1.02%; potash, 1.17%;
besides small amounts of lime, magnesia and other valuable but less
important ingredients. Sea Island cotton seed is rather more valuable
than Upland: the corresponding figures for the three principal
constituents being nitrogen 3.51, phosphoric acid 1.69, potash 1.59%.
Using average prices paid for nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash when
bought in large quantities and in good forms, these ingredients, in a
ton of cotton seed, amount to $9.00 worth of fertilizing material.
Compared with the commercial fertilizer which the farmer has to buy,
cotton seed possesses, therefore, a distinct value.
The products of cotton seed have become important elements in the
national industry of the United States. The main product is the refined
oil, which is used for a great number of purposes, such as a substitute
for olive oil, mixed with beef products for preparation of compound
lard, which is estimated to consume one-third of cotton seed oil
produced in the States. The poorer grades are employed in the
manufacture of soap, candles and phonograph records. Miners' lamp oil
consists of the bleached oil mixed with kerosene. Cotton seed cake or
meal (the residue after the oil is extracted) is one of the most
valuable of feeding stuffs, as the following simple comparison between
it and oats and corn will show:--
+-----------------+----------+--------------+-------+-----------+
| | Proteins |Carbohydrates | |Ash or Bone|
|Average Analyses.| or Flesh | or Fuel and | Fats. | Makers. |
| | Formers. |Fat Suppliers.| | |
+-----------------+----------+--------------+-------+-----------+
|Cotton seed meal | 43.26 | 22.31 | 13.45 | 7.02 |
|Corn | 10.5 | 70.0 | 5.5 | 1.02 |
|Oats | 17.0 | 65.0 | 8.0 | 1.2 |
+-----------------+----------+--------------+-------+-----------+
Cotton seed meal, though poor in carbohydrates, the fat- and
energy-supplying ingredients, is exceedingly rich in protein, the nerve-
and muscle-feeding ingredients. But it still contains a large amount of
oil, which forms animal fat and heat, and thus makes up for part of its
deficiency in carbohydrates. The meal, in fact, is so rich in protein
that it is best utilized as a food for animals when mixed with some
coarse fodder, thus furnishing a more evenly-balanced ration. In
comparative valuations of feeding stuffs it has been found that cotton
seed meal exceeds corn meal by 62%, wheat by 67%, and raw cotton seed by
26%. Cotton seed meal, in the absence of sufficient stock to consume it,
is also used extensively as a fertilizer, and for this purpose it is
worth, determining the price on the same basis as used above for the
seed, from $19 to $20 per ton. But it has seldom reached this price,
except in some of the northern states, where it is used for feeding
purposes. A more rational proceeding would be to feed the meal to
animals and apply the resulting manure to the soil. When this is done,
from 80 to 90% of the fertilizing material of the meal is recovered in
the manure, only 10 to 20% being converted by the animal into meat and
milk. The profit derived from the 20% thus removed is a very large one.
These facts indicate that we have here an agricultural product the
market price of which is still far below its value as compared, on the
basis of its chemical composition, either with other feeding stuffs or
with other fertilizers. Though it is probably destined to be used even
more extensively as a fertilizer before the demand for it as a feeding
stuff becomes equal to the supply, practically all the cotton seed meal
of the south will ultimately be used for feeding. One explanation of
this condition of things is that there is still a large surplus of
cotton seed which cannot be manufactured by the mills. Another reason is
found in the absence of cattle in the south to eat it.
With the consideration of cotton seed oil and meal we have not, however,
exhausted its possibilities. Cotton seed hulls constitute about half the
weight of the ginned seed. After the seed of Upland cotton has been
passed through a fine gin, which takes off the short lint or linters
left upon it by the farmer, it is passed through what is called a
sheller, consisting of a revolving cylinder, armed with numerous knives,
which cut the seed in two and force the kernels or meats from the
shells. The shells and kernels are then separated in a winnowing
machine. This removal of the shell makes a great difference in the
oilcake, as the decorticated cake is more nutritious than the
undecorticated. For a long time these shells or hulls, as they are
called, were burned at oil mills for fuel, 2-1/2 tons being held equal
to a cord of wood, and 4-1/3 tons to a ton of coal. The hulls thus
burned produced an ash containing an average of 9% of phosphoric acid
and 24% of potash--a very valuable fertilizer in itself, and one eagerly
sought by growers of tobacco and vegetables. It was not long, however,
before the stock-feeder in the South found that cotton seed hulls were
an excellent substitute for hay. They are used on a very large scale in
the vicinity of oil mills in southern cities like Memphis, New Orleans,
Houston, and Little Rock, from 500 to 5000 cattle being often collected
in a single yard for this purpose. No other feed is required, the only
provision necessary being an adequate supply of water and an occasional
allowance of salt. Many thousands of cattle are fattened annually in
this way at remarkably low cost.
Careful attention is now given to the employment of the seed in new
cotton countries, and oil expression is practised in the West Indies.
Hull is the principal seat of the industry in Great Britain, and
enormous quantities of Indian and Egyptian cotton seed are imported and
worked up.
The following diagram, modified from one by Grimshaw, in accordance
with the results obtained by the better class of modern mills, gives an
interesting _resume_ of the products obtained from a ton of cotton
seed:--
_Products from a Ton of Cotton Seed._
Cotton seed, 2000 pounds.
+------+------------------------+------
| | |
| Linters, 23 pounds. |
| ------------------- |
| |
Meats, 1090 pounds. Hulls, 888 pounds.
--------+-----------+---- +---+------+-----
| | | | |
Cake, 800 pounds. | | | |
---+---------------+ | | |
| | | | |
Meal. | Fibre. | | Bran.
-----------------------------+ -----+----+ | --+--
(Feeding stuff. Fertilizer.)| | | |
-----------------------------+ | | |
| ----------+--------+------+-------
Crude oil, 290 pounds. (High-grade paper.)|(Cattle food.)
-----+-------+-------- -------------------+--------------
| | |
Summer Yellow. |Soap stock. (Fuel.) |
+--------+------------ +--+-------- ---+-------+-------+
|(Winter | Cotton seed | | |
|yellow | stearin.) Soaps. Ashes. |
+--------+----------- ------ --+--- -----+-------
| | (Cattle food)
| | with the meal.
| Salad oil. Fertilizer. |
+------------------- These together,
| Summer white. a very valuable
+-------+----------- manure.
| |
| Lard. |
+-------+
|
| Cottolene (with beef stearin, cooking oil).
+--------------------------------------------
|
| Miners' oil.
+-------------
|
| Soap.
+------
_Pests and Diseases of the Cotton Plant._
_Insect Pests._--It is common knowledge that when any plant is cultivated
on a large scale various diseases and pests frequently appear. In some
cases the pest was already present but of minor importance. As the supply
of its favourite food plant is increased, conditions of life for the pest
are improved, and it accordingly multiplies also, possibly becoming a
serious hindrance to successful cultivation. At other times the pest is
introduced, and under congenial conditions (and possibly in the absence
of some other organism which keeps it in check in its native country)
increases accordingly. Some idea of the enormous damage wrought by the
collective attacks of individually small and weak animals may be gathered
from the fact that a conservative estimate places the loss due to insect
attacks on cotton in the United States at the astounding figure of
$60,000,000 (L12,000,000) annually. Of this total no less than
$40,000,000 (L8,000,000) is credited to a small beetle, the cotton boll
weevil, and to two caterpillars. The best means of combating these
attacks depends on a knowledge of the life-histories and habits of the
pests. The following notes deal only with the practical side of the
question, and as the United States produce some seven-tenths of the
world's cotton crop attention is especially directed to the principal
cotton pests of that country. Those of other regions are only referred to
when sufficiently important to demand separate notice.
The cotton boll weevil (_Anthonomus grandis_), a small grey weevil often
called the Mexican boll weevil, is the most serious pest of cotton in
the United States, where the damage done by it in 1907 was estimated at
about L5,000,000. It steadily increased in destructiveness during the
preceding eight years. Attention was drawn to it in 1862, when it caused
the abandonment of cotton cultivation about Monclova in Mexico. About
1893 it appeared in Texas, and then rapidly spread. It is easily
transported from place to place in seed-cotton, and for this reason the
Egyptian government in 1904 prohibited the importation of American
cotton seed. Not only is the pest carried from place to place, but it
also migrates, and in 1907 it crossed from Louisiana, where it first
appeared in 1905, to Mississippi. That the insect is likely to prove
adaptable is perhaps indicated by the fact that in 1906 it made a
northward advance of about 60 m. in a season with no obvious special
features favouring the pest. Its eastern progress was also rapid. "The
additional territory infested during 1904 aggregates about 15,000,000
sq. m., representing approximately an area devoted to the culture of
cotton of 900,000 acres" (_Year-book, U.S. Dept. Agriculture_, 1904). In
1906 the additional area invaded amounted to 1,500,000 acres (_Ibid._,
1906).
The adult weevils puncture the young flower-buds and deposit eggs; and
as the grubs from the eggs develop, the bud drops. They also lay eggs
later in the year in the young bolls. These do not drop, but as the
grubs develop the cotton is ruined and the bolls usually become
discoloured and crack, their contents being rendered useless.
No certain remedy is known for the destruction on a commercial scale of
the boll weevil, but every effort has been made in the United States to
check the advance of the insect, to ascertain and encourage its natural
enemies, and to propagate races of cotton which resist its attacks.
Special interest attaches to the investigations made by Mr O. F. Cook,
of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, in Guatemala. The Indians in part of
Guatemala raise cotton, although the boll weevil is abundant.
Examination showed that although the weevil attacked the young buds
these did not drop off, but that a special growth of tissue inside the
bud frequently killed the grub. Also, inside the young bolls which had
been pierced a similar proliferation or growth of the tissue was set up,
which enveloped and killed the pest. Probably by unconscious selection
of surviving plants through long ages this type has been evolved in
Guatemala, and experiments have been made to develop weevil-resistant
races in the United States. Mr Cook also found that the boll weevil was
attacked, killed and eaten by an ant-like creature, the "kelep."
Attempts have been made to introduce this into the infested area in
Texas; but owing to the winter proving fatal to the "kelep" its
usefulness may be restricted to tropical and subtropical regions.
The cotton boll worm (_Chloridea obsoleta_, also known as _Heliothis
armiger_) is a caterpillar. The parent moth lays eggs, from which the
young "worms" hatch out. They bore holes and penetrate into flower-buds
and young bolls, causing them to drop. Fortunately the "worms" prefer
maize to cotton, and the inter-planting at proper times of maize, to be
cut down and destroyed when well infested, is a method commonly employed
to keep down this pest. Paris green kills it in its young stages before
it has entered the buds or bolls. The boll worm is most destructive in
the south-western states, where the damage done is said to vary from 2
to 60% of the crop. Taking a low average of 4%, the annual loss due to
the pest is estimated at about L2,500,000, and it occupies second place
amongst the serious cotton pests of the U.S.A. The boll worm is widely
spread through the tropical and temperate zones. It may occur in a
country without being a pest to cotton, e.g. in India it attacks various
plants but not cotton. It has not yet been reported as a cotton pest in
the West Indies.
The Egyptian boll worm (_Earias insulana_) is the most important insect
pest in Egypt and occurs also in other parts of Africa. Indian boll
worms include the same species, and the closely related _Earias fabia_,
which also occurs in Egypt.
The cotton worm (_Aletia argillacea_)--also called cotton caterpillar,
cotton army worm, cotton-leaf worm--is also one stage in the
life-history of a moth. It is a voracious creature, and unchecked will
often totally destroy a crop. In former years the annual damage done by
it in the United States was assessed at L4,000,000 to L6,000,000.
Dusting with Paris green is, however, an efficient remedy _if promptly
applied at the outset of the attack_. The annual damage was in 1906
reduced to L1,000,000 to L2,000,000, and this on a larger area devoted
to cotton than in the case of the estimate given above. It is the most
serious pest of cotton in the West Indies. The Egyptian cotton worm is
_Prodenia littoralis_.
The caterpillars ("cut worms") of various species of _Agrotis_ and other
moths occur in all parts of the world and attack young cotton. They can
be killed by spreading about cabbage leaves, &c., poisoned with Paris
green.
Locusts, green-fly, leaf-bugs, blister mites, and various other pests
also damage cotton, in a similar way to that in which they injure other
crops.
The "cotton stainers," various species of _Dysdercus_, are widely
distributed, occurring for example in America, the West Indies, Africa,
India, &c. The larvae suck the sap from the young bolls and seeds,
causing shrivelling and reduction in quantity of fibre. They are called
"stainers" because their excrement is yellow and stains the fibre; also
if crushed during the process of ginning they give the cotton a reddish
coloration. The Egyptian cotton seed bug or cotton stainer belongs to
another genus, being _Oxycarenus hyalinipennis_. Other species of this
genus occur on the west coast of Africa. They do considerable damage to
cotton seed.
_Fungoid Diseases._--"Wilt disease," or "frenching," perhaps the most
important of the fungoid disease of cotton in the United States, is due
to _Neocosmospora vasinfecta_. Young plants a few inches high are
usually attacked; the leaves, beginning with the lower ones, turn
yellow, and afterwards become brown and drop. The plants remain very
dwarf and generally unhealthy, or die. The roots also are affected, and
instead of growing considerably in length, branch repeatedly and give
rise to little tufts of rootlets. There is no method known of curing
this disease, and all that can be done is to take every precaution to
eradicate it, by pulling up and burning diseased plants, isolating the
infected area by means of trenches, and avoiding growing cotton, or an
allied plant such as the ochro (_Hibiscus esculentus_), in the field.
Fortunately the careful work of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
of planters such as Mr E. L. Rivers of James Island, South Carolina, has
resulted in the production of disease-resistant races. In one instance
Mr Rivers found one healthy plant in a badly affected field. The seed
was saved and gave rise to a row of plants all of which grew healthily
in an infected field, whereas 95% of ordinary Sea Island cotton plants
from seed from a non-infected field planted alongside as a control were
killed. The resistance was well maintained in succeeding generations,
and races so raised form a practical means of combating this serious
disease.
In "Root rot," as the name implies, the roots are attacked, the fungus
being a species of _Ozonium_, which envelops the roots in a white
covering of mould or mycelium. The roots are prevented from fulfilling
their function of taking up water and salts from the soil; the leaves
accordingly droop, and the whole plant wilts and in bad attacks dies. It
has yearly proved a more serious danger in Texas and other parts of the
south-west of the United States, and the damage due to it in Texas
during 1905 was estimated at about L750,000. No remedy is known for the
disease, and cotton should not be planted on infected land for at least
three or four years.
"Boll rot," or "Anthracnose," is a disease which may at times be
sufficiently serious to destroy from 10 to 50% of the crop. The fungus
which causes it (_Colletotrichum gossypii_) is closely related to one of
the fungi attacking sugar-cane in various parts of the world. Small
red-brown spots appear on the bolls, gradually enlarge, and develop into
irregular black and grey patches. The damage may be only slight, or the
entire boll may ripen prematurely and become dry and dead.
Many other diseases occur, but the above are sufficient to indicate some
of the principal ones in the most important cotton countries of the
world.
_Improvement of Cotton by Seed Selection._
In the cotton belt of the United States it would be possible to put a
still greater acreage under this crop, but the tendency is rather
towards what is known as "diversified" or mixed farming than to making
cotton the sole important crop. Cotton, however, is in increasing
demand, and the problem for the American cotton planter is to obtain a
better yield of cotton from the same area,--by "better yield" meaning an
increase not only in quantity but also in quality of lint. This ideal is
before the cotton grower in all parts of the world, but practical steps
are not always taken to realize it. Some of the United States planters
are alert to take advantage of the application of science to industry,
and in many cases even to render active assistance, and very successful
results have been attained by the co-operation of the United States
Department of Agriculture and planters. With the improvement of cotton
the name of Mr Herbert J. Webber is prominently associated, and a full
discussion of methods and results will be found in his various papers in
the _Year-books_ of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The principle on
which the work is based is that plants have their individualities and
tend to transmit them to their progeny. Accordingly a selection of
particular plants to breed from, because they possess certain desirable
characteristics, is as rational as the selection of particular animals
for breeding purposes in order to maintain the character of a herd of
cattle or of a flock of sheep.
Inspection of a field of cotton shows that different plants vary as
regards productiveness, length, and character of the lint, period of
ripening, power of resistance to various pests and of withstanding
drought. A simple method of increasing the yield is that practised with
success by some growers in the States. Pickers are trained to recognize
the best plants, "that is, those most productive, earliest in ripening,
and having the largest, best formed and most numerous bolls." These
pickers go carefully over the field, usually just before the second
picking, and gather ripe cotton from the best plants only; this selected
seed cotton is ginned separately, and the seed used for sowing the next
year's crop.
A more elaborate method of selection is practised by some of the Sea
Island cotton planters in the Sea Islands, famous for the quality of
their cotton. A field is gone over carefully, and perhaps some 50 of the
best plants selected; a second examination in the field reduces these
perhaps to one half, and each plant is numbered. The cotton from each is
collected and kept separately, and at the end of the season carefully
examined and weighed, and a final selection is then made which reduces
the number to perhaps five; the cotton from each of these plants is
ginned separately and the seed preserved for sowing. The simplest
possible case in which only one plant is finally selected is illustrated
in the diagram.
1st. Year 2nd. Year 3rd. Year 4th. Year 5th. Year
+------+ +-------+ +-------+
Select (1) --->| 500 | --->|5 Acres| --->|General|
Plant |Plants| | | | Crop |
+------+ +-------+ +-------+
|
|
\/ +-------+ +-------+ +-------+
Select Plant (1) ----->| 500 | --->|5 Acres| --->|General|
| Plants| | | | Crop |
+-------+ +-------+ +-------+
|
|
\/ +-------+ +-------+
Select Plant (1) ------>| 500 | --->|5 Acres|
| Plants| | |
+-------+ +-------+
|
|
\/ +-------+
Select Plant (1) ------>| 500 |
| Plants|
+-------+
|
|
\/
Select Plant (1)
After Webber, _Year-book, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture_, 1902.
Improvement of Cotton by Seed Selection.
From the seeds of the selected plant of the 1st year about 500 plants
can be raised in the next year. One plant is selected again from these
500, and the general crop of seed is used to sow about five acres for
the 3rd year, from which seed is obtained for the general crop in the
4th year. One special plant is selected each year from the 500 raised
from the previous season's test plant, and in four years' time the
progeny of this plant constitutes the "general crop." The practice may
be modified according to the size of estate by selecting more than one
plant each year, but the principle remains unaltered. This method is in
actual use by growers of Sea Island cotton in America and in the islands
off the coast of S. Carolina; the greatest care is taken to enhance the
quality of the lint, which has been gradually improved in length,
fineness and silkiness. Mr Webber, in summing up, says, "When Sea Island
cotton was first introduced into the United States from the West Indies,
it was a perennial plant, unsuited to the duration of the season of the
latitude of the Sea Islands of S. Carolina; but, through the selection
of seed from early maturing individual plants, the cotton has been
rendered much earlier, until now it is thoroughly adapted to the
existing conditions. The fibre has increased in length from about 1-3/4
to 2-1/2 in., and the plants have at the same time been increased in
productiveness. The custom of carefully selecting the seed has grown
with the industry and may be said to be inseparable from it. It is only
by such careful and continuous selection that the staple of these
high-bred strains can be kept up to its present superiority, and if for
any reason the selection is interrupted there is a general and rapid
decline in quality."
When selection is being made for several characters at the same time,
and also in hybridization experiments, where it is important to have
full records of the characters of individual plants and their progeny,
"score cards," such as are used in judging stock, with a scale of
points, are used.
The improvements desired in cotton vary to some degree in different
countries, according to the present character of the plants, climatic
conditions, the chief pests, special market requirements, and other
circumstances. Amongst the more important desiderata are:--