Part 9 (1/2)
The cotton-plant requires warmth, moisture, and a long season. It also thrives best near the sea. It grows better, on the whole, in subtropical rather than in tropical regions, and the difference is due probably to the longer days and higher temperature of the subtropical lat.i.tudes. In the United States the northern limit is approximately the thirty-eighth parallel. The seeds are planted, as a rule, during the first three weeks of April and the first two of May. The plants bloom about the middle of June; the boll or pod matures during July, and bursts about the first of August. The picking begins in August.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COTTON IN THE UNITED STATES]
The yield and the quality of the textile depend not only on conditions of the soil, but on locality. In the river flood-plains of the southern United States the yield is about two bales per acre; on the bluff lands it is but little more than one, unless unusual care is taken in the preparation of the land. The islands off the Carolina coast produce a very fine long-staple variety, commercially known as _sea island cotton_. A district in China produces a good fibre of brownish color known as _nankeen_, named for the city of Nanking, whence formerly it was exported. The valley of Piura River, Peru, produces varieties of long-staple cotton that in quality closely resemble silk.
The fibre of ordinary American cotton is about seven-eighths of an inch long; it is made into the fabrics commercially known as ”domestics” and ”prints,” or calico. If the fibre averages a little longer than the common grades it is reserved for canvas. Ordinary Peruvian cotton has a fibre nearly two inches long; it is used in the manufacture of hosiery and balbriggan underwear, and also to adulterate wool. The long-staple cotton of the Piura Valley is bought by British manufacturers at a high price, and used in the webbing of rubber tires and hose. Egyptian cotton is very fine and is used mainly in the manufacture of thread and the finer grades of balbriggan underwear. Sea island fibre is nearly two inches long and is used almost wholly in the making of thread and lace.
The introduction of cotton cultivation resulted in very far-reaching consequences both from a political as well as an economic stand-point.
The invention of the steam-engine by Watt gave England an enormous mechanical power. To utilize this the cotton industry was wrested from Hindustan; the mills were concentrated in Manchester and Lancas.h.i.+re; the cotton-fields were transferred to the United States.
As a result, the plains of Hindustan were strewn with the bodies of starved weavers and spinners, but a great industry grew into existence in England. The invention of spinning machinery by Arkwright, Crompton, and Hargreaves, and the gradual improvement of the power-loom, greatly reduced the cost of making the cloth and, at the same time, enormously increased the demand for it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COTTON PRODUCTION]
In the United States the consequences were far more serious. The invention of the engine or ”gin” for separating the lint from the seed made cotton cultivation highly profitable.[31] The negro slaves, who had been scattered throughout the colonies and the States that succeeded them, were soon drawn to the cotton-growing States to supply the needed field-labor; and, indeed, white workmen could not stand the hot, moist climate of the cotton-fields.
The cotton-mills grew up in the Northern manufacturing States. The Northern manufacturer needed a tariff on imported goods to protect him from European compet.i.tion; the Southern cotton-planter who purchased much of his supplies abroad was hurt by the tariff. After about sixty years of strained relations between the two sections there occurred the Civil War which wiped out nearly one million lives, and rolled up a debt, direct and indirect, of nearly six billions of dollars.
The world's cotton-crop aggregates from twelve million to fifteen million bales yearly, of which the United States produces, as a rule, a little more than three-fourths. Egypt is rapidly taking an important place among cotton-producing countries, and, with the completion of the various irrigating ca.n.a.ls, will very soon rank next to the United States. India ranks about third; China and Korea produce about the same quant.i.ty. There are a few cotton-cloth mills in these states, but in j.a.pan the manufacture is increasing, the mills being equipped with the best of modern machinery. Brazil has a small product, and Russia in Asia needs transportation facilities only to increase largely its growing output.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COTTON]
The cotton-crop of the United States is quite evenly distributed; one-third is manufactured at home; one-third is purchased by Great Britain; and the remaining third goes mainly to western Europe. In the past few years China has become a constantly increasing purchaser of American cotton. New Orleans, Galveston, Savannah, and New York are the chief ports of s.h.i.+pment. The imported Egyptian and Peruvian cotton is landed mainly at New York. Most of the cotton manufacture is carried on in the New England States, but there is a very rapid extension of cotton manufacture in the South.
=Wool.=--The wool of commerce is a term applied to the fleece of the common sheep, to that of certain species of goat, and to that of the camel and its kind. There is no hard-and-fast distinction between hair and wool,[32] but, in general, wool fibres have rough edges, much resembling overlapping scales which interlock with one another; hair, as a rule, has a hard, smooth surface. If a ma.s.s of loose wool be spread out and beaten, or if it be pressed between rollers, the fibres interlock so closely that there results a thick, strong cloth which has been made without either spinning or weaving.
This property, known as ”felting,” gives to wool a great part of its value, and is its chief distinction from hair. Some kinds of hair, however, have a slight felting property, and if sufficiently fine may be spun and woven. The hair of the common goat is worthless for this purpose, but that of the Cashmere and Angora species have the properties of wool. The hair of the Bactrian camel, and also that of the llama, alpaca, and vicuna is soft and fine, possessing felting qualities that make it very superior as a textile.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WOOL PRODUCING REGIONS]
The quality of wool varies greatly according to the conditions of soil, climate, and the character of the food of the animal. In commerce, however, the fleeces are commonly graded as ”long-staple,”
”short-staple,” ”merino,” and ”coa.r.s.e.”
In long-staple wools the fibres are from four to eight inches long; they are more easily separated by a process much like combing, and are therefore called ”combing” wools. The cotswold, cheviot, and most of the wools of the British Isles are of this kind; indeed, in fairly moist lowland regions such as Canada and the United States, there is a tendency toward the development of a long-staple product. The English long-staple wools are largely made into worsted cloth, the Scotch cheviot into tweeds, and the French into the best dress cloth.
If the fibres are materially less than four inches in length, the product is cla.s.sed as a short-staple or ”carding” wool. By far the greater part of the wool of the United States, Canada, and Europe is of this cla.s.s. It is disposed of according to its fineness or fitness for special purposes, the greater part being made into cloths for the medium grades of men's clothing.
The finest and softest wool as a rule is grown in arid, plateau regions, and of this kind of staple the merino is an example. The fibres are fine as silk, and the goods made from them are softer. The Mission wool of California is the product of merino sheep, and, indeed, the conditions of climate in southern California and Australia are such as to produce the best merino wool. The famous Electoral wool of Saxony is a merino, the sheep having been introduced into that country from Spain about three hundred years ago. The merino wools, as a rule, are used in the most highly finished dress and fancy goods.
The coa.r.s.e-staple wools are very largely used for American carpets, coa.r.s.e blankets, and certain kinds of heavy outer clothing. The Russian Donskoi wool, some of the Argentine fleeces, such as the Cordoban, and many of those grown in wet lowlands are very coa.r.s.e and harsh. The quality is due more to climatic conditions and food than to the species of sheep; indeed, sheep that in other regions produce a fine wool, when introduced to this locality, after a few generations produce coa.r.s.e wool.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHEEP FEEDING ON ALFALFA]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHEEP RANGE, UTAH]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHEEP IN FEEDING YARD
THE WOOL-GROWING INDUSTRY]
The rug wools grown in Persia, Turkestan, Turkey in Asia, and the Caucasus Mountains are also characteristic. They vary in fineness, and because they do not readily felt they are the best in the world for rug stock. The ”pile” or surface of the rug remains elastic and stands upright even after a hundred years of wear. This quality is due mainly to conditions of climate and soil.