The years in the following table therefore represent the year of marketing the crop ripened the year preceding :

COTTON CROP OF THE UNITED STATES FOR 50 YEARS. YEARS ENDING SEPTEMBER 1.

From the Commercial and Financial Chronicle.

The cotton belt of the United States, or the area in which cotton is cultivated, may be seen in the following table :

ACREAGE IN COTTON

Of the Ten Cotton-growing States, as Reported by the U. S. Department of Agriculture-1871 to 1877.

Total acres. 7,557,579 8,482,905 9,509,524 8,499,335 11,934,379 11,560,250 12,007,605

621,428

609,000 584,640

571,222

955,050 945,500

917,135

1,611,702

1,515,000

1,530,150

152,501

185,395

165,000

166,650

1,732,250

1,732,250

1,766,895

2,016,326

1,976,000

2,055,040

1,415,730 1,260,000 1,335,600

1,483.500

1,483,500 1,706,025

1,189,650

780,000

It will be seen that Mississippi and Alabama cultivated the largest area of the cotton crop; Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas coming next, while the smallest amount is grown in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida. The yield of cotton per acre varies from 100 pounds to 250 pounds; the heaviest recorded production per acre for a series of years being in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. Half a bale of cotton to the acre is regarded as a good yield.

The culture of cotton is arduous, and the result of the crop proverbially uncertain. The tender plant which peculiarly loves the sun is at the mercy of the seasons, and a wet summer or an early frost may diminish the product by one fourth or one third. The young plant, too, has numerous insect enemies, and is liable to diminution by irregular or inefficient culture. Tall native grass and weeds, with which the luxurious Southern soil teems, continually obstruct its growth. The planting of the seed begins in Texas in February, but later as we come north; not closing until after the first of May in North Carolina and Tennessee. The cotton seed, resembling a bea.. in its early growth, shoots up two green leaves, striking a tap-root down into the earth, and growing in a few days two or three inches high. More leaves soon appear, and in about three weeks a process of plowing and chopping out the superfluous plants begins, leaving only three or four plants in a bunch, the bunches being from twelve to twenty-four inches apart. The plowing is twice repeated, followed by the hoe, cutting out all the grass, and all the plants but one in a hill. What is called the stand of cotton is of the utmost consequence, a poor stand insuring a short crop. Bringing to a stand, and cutting out all the plants except one, gives additional growth, vigor, and productiveness to the remaining plants. The cotton bloom, white in the morning and red in the evening, comes usually in June, the flower dropping off after three days, leaving a small boll, which enfolds the cotton wool, that finally bursts its shell and is ready for picking from the bush, all the way from September to December, according to the latitude, the season, or the time of planting. The boll is about the shape and size of a guinea egg. The cotton is picked by the fingers by laborers equipped with large sacks of coarse cotton, loosely suspended from the shoulders, each hand picking 150 to 200 pounds a day.

After picking comes ginning, or the separation of the fibre from the seed by the cotton gin. This consists of a revolving apron and circular saws run at high speed to cut the fibre from the seed. The seed falls to the ground, and the cotton is blown from the gin into the picking room. To every 500 pound bale of cotton there are found about 900 pounds of seed, about one fourth of which is retained for planting, and the rest sold for making oil. The cotton is next baled in a cotton press, which compresses the white fibre into the narrowest possible space, when it is firmly hooped in oblong bales, each of which is sewed up in bagging, and weighs from 400 to 500 pounds. The culture of cotton, while declining in some other producing regions, is constantly on the increase in the United States. This is shown in the fact that while the thirteen years before the civil war, 1849-61, produced 40,994,419 bales, the thirteen years since the war, 1866-78, have produced no less than 45,627,847 bales, and this, too, notwithstanding the complete revolution in the labor element in the cotton States.

The price of cotton from 1825 to 1877 inclusive is shown on another page, by a table of the lowest and highest prices of cach year, which will be found much more satisfactory and less misleading than the averages for the year commonly given. The price from 1862 to 1877, being in United States currency, may be reduced to gold value by the table of the average price of gold in each year, commencing with the paper money issues of 1862.

It will be seen that the uncertainties of the crop are only equalled by the fluctuations in its price. We give an interesting table of the

COST OF PRODUCTION AND PRICE OBTAINED FOR THE COTTON CROP OF 1876 (MARKETED IN 1877),

As estimated by the Department of Agriculture from the reports of its correspondents. The prices quoted are those obtained at the nearest home markets (not the ports). Grade not stated, but probably average strict good ordinary.

If the above figures are correct, it follows that the cotton crop of two years ago paid to the planters of the ten producing States, at an average profit of six tenths of a cent per pound, the large profit of twelve million dollars, nearly. The total value of the crop at place of shipment is but a fraction less than $200,000,000 per annum.

Great Britain is the largest customer for American cotton, our exports to that country averaging about 2,000,000 bales per annum, for the last ten years, out of the average crop of 4,000,000 bales. Of the remaining half of the crop, an average of nearly 1,000,000 bales is exported to the continent of Europe, while over 1,300,000 bales are consumed by the cotton mills of the United States. The statistics of cotton goods manufactured in the United States are unfortunately not accessible at a later date than the year 1875, there having been no authentic returns. The following table for the year ending July 1, 1875, is from the New York Commercial and Financial Chronicle:

COTTON GOODS MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES. NOTE. The table is in thousands, of pounds or yards-i. e., 000's omitted, to save space. Adding them, we have as many millions as the table exhibits thousands.

The subjoined table distributes the manufacture by States, and shows the relative number of bales of cotton used, the number of mills and spindles, etc., engaged in the manufacture.

Grand Total. 875 9,539,364 27.60 47.60 60.46 576,742,753 1,242,080

The statistics of our cotton exports, and of the imports and exports of cotton manufactures into and from the United States, for a series of years, are given elsewhere, in the full tables of imports and exports.

The statistics of the European consumption of cotton may be seen in the following table, which is to be regarded merely as an estimate, exact statistics not being attainable.

[From W. B. Dana's "Cotton from Seed to Loom," N. Y., 1878.]

Of the British consumption of cotton, the United States supplies 63 per cent; of the consumption of the Continent, 45 per cent; and of the European consumption generally, 56 per cent.

SILK MANUFACTURES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Detailed Statement of the Quantities and Values of Silk Goods manufactured in the United States during the Calendar Years 1873 to 1877, inclusive.

[From the Annual Reports of the Silk Association of America.]

NOTE.-The above descriptions of silk, after being advanced to the state of manufacture in which their values are as above stated, are sold for use in subsequent manufactures in which they form the warp or the woof of other fabrics. The completed fabrics are included in the following statement with their values respectively.

Summary of Electors, or Those having the Right of Suffrage in

Voters

Voters.

Voters.

31,483,700

2,211,470 21,495,531129,293 | 1,217,135 295,420 3,360,018 230,773 | 5,411,016, 2,866,956

NOTE.-The political complexion of the present House of Commons stands as follows: Conservative, 350; Liberal, 299. Conservative majority, 51.