COTTON it the produce of the gossy , plum, a plant about the size of a currant • bush, a native of the torrid zone, though It is produced in parts of Turkey, so far as 44 or 45 degrees from the equator. The finest cotton is known by the name of cat's-claw, from its singular appearance when it breaks the pod. This kind was accidentally discovered at the island of Bourbon, and was supposed to have been introduced among some seed sent from . South America to the Mauritius. The soil should be extremely well prepared, and of the best quality, for the reception of cotton seed,which is uusually sown in Nove mber or Deeember,ati er the periodi cal rains in tropical climates, and ripens in May or June, when the numerous pods, which are about the size of large goose berries, break, and display their downy contents, These are picked, and after the husks have been disengaged, the cotton is put to a small mill, consisting of two bright steel rollers, each about an inch in diameter, set parallel within the distance of about the twentieth part of an inch. These rollers move different ways, and draw the cotton through between them, while the seeds are forced out of the re spective little balls ofdown in which they are enclosed, and drop into a bag. The generality of cotton is white ; but some is of anankeen colour, and is invaluable in the manufacture of that article, as it fades very little, even with long use and frequent washing. The elasticity of cot; ton is inconceivable ! It may be pressed into a fiftieth part of the space into which the strongest packers can reduce: it by personal exertion : large screws are erect eel at many sea-ports where cotton is shipped, for the purpose of bringing the bales into the smallest compass, so as td save freight. -*Cotton can only be im ported as a raw material, in which form it comes to us from the Levant, the Weat Indies, South America, and the East In dies. In the last quarter there are some
kinds indigenous, but some are exotics. The name is obviously derived from the Arabic appellation kuter, which leads us to suppose the cultivation may have ori ginated in Arabia. The amazing export of cotton fabrics•from our settlements in the East created for some time a neces sity for the manufacturer to import the raw material, and in a few instances the thread, from the country where cotton is cultivated to an immense extent, and where a very fine sort is produced, far superior to what the Les ant or the West Indies furnish. Of late years, however; the great demand for this material has excited a strong spirit of enterprize, and enabled the British colonies to raise nearly as much as the looms of the country, and the demand of the mother country, gene; rally require. It is a highly dangerous cargo, being very subject to take fire if at all damp when packed, or if the small est spark should reach it ; in either case it will burn very slowly for weeks but when the hold is opened and air supplied, bursts forth with inconceivable fury. There is a species of silky down produced in pods, (similar to those of the cotton plant) on a very large tree, called the seemul. It is only fit to fill beds. Speci mens of it have passed through various hands; but this kind of cotton is so pe culiarly glossy, and the fibre is so short, that it could neither be nor spun. When mixed with rabbit's fiir, &c. to make hats, it always separated. It also failed in paper-making ; otherwise its abundance and cheapness would have rendered it highly valuable.