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APPENDIX

COTTON GROWING AT NATAL.

Ample encouragement for growing cotton at Natal may be found in the fact that whereas eight bales imported in a vessel at Liverpool in 1784, were seized by the Custom House, under the impression that the plant could not be grown in America, (two million of pounds only were imported from America in 1791,) 626,650,412 lbs. were imported into England alone, from that country, in 1845, which at its average price of 45d. per lb. amounts to £12,076,075 12 11, sterling.

To mark Natal's future progress we record her Export in 1846, at the small quantity of 1740 lbs. ; 5821 lbs. in 1847, and in 1848 at 13,931 lbs.

Why should not England's Colonies supply England's manufacturers? Let Natal be energetic and she may in time supply a great proportion of this great demand, and thus in exchange procure from England all that she requires, and a circulating medium besides, in short, become a wealth-producing country. The manufacturers of England must in self defence give every encouragement to Natal Cotton growing, in order to be rendered somewhat less dependent than they are at present: and on the other side, the extent of the English Market for the Colonists is without limit.

Growth and preparation of Cotton.-Nine kinds of cotton have been grown in Natal, proving thereby the adaptation of the soil for the growth of this order of plants. The coast-line is the most suited for its cultivation, the seaair, or the deposit of saline dew on the plant favoring its growth as much as the sandy nature of the soil. At Natal, cotton consequently should be planted facing the sea, having an eastern and south-eastern aspect. The N.W. winds are supposed to be trying to the plant. It is certainly the most parching wind. Every kind of cotton may be produced; and those who are inclined to take some extra pains, will probably find the Sea Island Cotton will answer best: and those who are inlined to cultivate that which is the most hardy, and requires the least trouble in cleaning, will grow the most common cotton now in the Colony probably produced from Egyptian seed. The additional difficulty of cleaning Sea Island Cotton, is the principal reason for supposing that it will not answer so well as the most common cotton. The machines lately invented, however, may obviate much of the difficulty found in cleaning this the most valuable of cottons; and every effort should be made to bring it to market, the price being double.

Cotton may be sown in Natal from August to October, and although cotton has been grown at Maritzburg, fifty miles from the coast, the best cotton lands will certainly be found within fifteen miles from the sea. Cotton lands require ploughing, and if crops, and continuous good crops, are required, subsoil ploughing should be resorted to. If good seed can be had from Liverpool, there will be no harm in Emigrants bringing different kinds; but the colony will now supply any quantity of the common quality. In order to keep the ground clear of weed, and for facility of gathering, as well as economy of ground, the seed should be planted in rows at least five feet asunder (six feet probably

better,) and in holes three feet apart. They should be dibbled in (and if the ground is subsoil ploughed,) twelve inches deep, half a dozen seeds in each hole. If all come up, thin them out leaving a couple of the strongest. If fibres adhere to the seed, and the color of both be a little green, it is very doubtful if the seed will germinate, the seed should come out clean. In America the cotton plant is an annual, in Natal it is a perennial; I have seen them nine years old. Cleaning the ground should not be omitted. If weeds take up the nourishment between the rows, the plants will not thrive so well. The ground between should in short be turned over every year. It has been suggested that mealies might be planted between the cotton; but at any rate, it should I think be only for the first year. In such cases both are liable to be neglected, or the gathering of one may interfere with the other. Mealies are also temptatious to cattle, which would do the cotton also no good. Pruning has been proved advantageous, producing more pods. The strength of the Natal cotton harvest is from January to the end of March. It is then that a farmer would wish for a large family to send his children into the plantation. The more the merrier. But if he has none, he can still employ the colored women and children of the country. These go through the grounds gathering the cotton from every open husk, leaving those unopen for another gathering. Unless gathered perfectly matured there is difficulty in separating the cotton from the seed; and moisture then being in the seed and fibre, the cotton is liable to become mouldy and consequently weak in fibre. When gathered it is placed in open sheds and soon becomes perfectly dry. It is then fit for cleaning, the long staple cotton being separated from the seed by a roller gin; the short stapled on the old system by the saw gin. Those among the emigrants who intend going largely into this article, should make themselves acquainted with the last improvements in the construction of machinery for this purpose; and perhaps they could not do better than apply to the Secre tary of the Commercial Association, Manchester, on the subject. In making this reference to him, I trust that Gentleman will excuse my doing so, the object being a public one, and no person likely to be able to advise so correctly.

A gin or cotton cleaning machine has lately been invented, which costs about £3: and I hope, shortly after arrival in the colony, most of these emigrants will keep one of their own.

In 1847, there were consumed in England, 898,500 bales; in 1848, there were consumed 1,154,900 bales, in 1849, just 2,000,000 bales.

No limit can be assigned to our wants if we are to continue to retain the exclusive supply of cotton manufactures to our own population and to our colonies.

Land fresh brought into cultivation in the United States will yield on an average, only from 250 to 300 lbs. of clean cotton. In the Old States the produce is not so much. An able bodied labourer there, although a slave and without the stimulus which inspires an Englishman, is sufficient for eight acres of land, if assisted in the lighter work by the young and the aged people who belong to their families. The whole will at the same time be able to cultivate from five to eight acres of provision ground.

In America there are about two millions of slave people engaged in the cultivation of cotton. In England there may be about the same number of people engaged in working it up into different kinds of fabrics.

I have already mentioned that the cotton plant prefers the vicinity of the sea, particularly in dry countries, and the interior districts of naturally damp climates. So that it may be supposed that it is not merely temperature by which the quality of cotton is affected, but a peculiar combination of heat, light,

and moisture: and although Geogia has hitherto been supposed to combine these advantages in greatest proportion, Natal will probably vie with that district: it has an extensive coast; the heat is equal to Georgia; frosts are unknown, except in the mountains; the atmosphere is bright and brilliant: the soil is peculiarly suited, being a light sand, which cotton prefers, and kept in a perpetual state of moisture by a subsoil of clay.

The cotton plant, which is an annual elsewhere, becomes perennial in Natal, whereby much labor is saved and a greater yield obtained.

In London, Natal uplands cotton has been sold at from 5 to 7d. per lb., and cotton grown from the Sea Island seed 1s. 34d. per lb.

TOBACCO.

Among the actual products of Natal, next to cotton, none is more worthy the increased attention of the colonists than tobacco. It is not an anticipation or belief of the suitability of the soil and climate, upon which the assertion is made, but from the fact that the plant is already extensively grown, though not much cultivated or artificially improved. It is already, and has for years been, an article bought and sold in the colony.

I have not only seen good tobacco grown from Havanna seed in Natal, but good segars made from it. If the Natalians encourage the manufacturer, who is settled near Pietermaritzburg, some thousands pounds of hard cash may be kept in the colony. Good snuff is made by the Zoolus.

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The term Petun" is supposed to have been the original name for Tobacco. When the plant was first introduced in Spain, the word "Tobacco' was applied to it, and it was generally supposed to have been from the island of Tobago; but this was erroneous: it was discovered in Tobaco, a province of Yucatan, whence it was first carried into Spain. Soon after, Sir Walter Raleigh made it known in England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it was used in smoking by ladies of quality. The stern Queen herself is said to to have countenanced it by her masculine example; and the author of "Biographia Britannica" states that It soon became of such vogue at her court, that some of the great ladies, as well as the noblemen therein, would not scruple to blow a pipe sociably !”

But the object of this paper is not to relate the progress of tobacco in Europe, nor to condemn its use, but to endeavour to direct the attention of the Cape agriculturists to its culture on a large scale throughout the colony. Except in clayey soils, or in situations greatly exposed to the influence of the south-east winds, tobacco may be grown in any part of South Africa ; and bearing in mind this fact, and considering the hundreds of thousands of acres of land there are in the settlement adapted to its production, it really seems almost incredible that the colony pays at the present day a large sum annually for the importation of this article from Rio de Janeiro, North America, &c. If the colony can produce 360,000 lbs., it is quite incontestible that it can produce 3,600,000 lbs., or indeed an unlimited quantity. Is it not then a reproach to us, I ask, to continue to purchase an article from foreigners, with which experience has demonstrated that we can furnish ourselves; and not only furnish ourselves, but supply our neighbours ?

We all know what prodigious results have crowned the perseverance of the Cape Colonists in the raising of wool, of which they last year exported nearly £700,000 worth.-England imports 32 million lbs. of cotton from America. Let this suffice.

That no one may plead want of information on the subject, we now give the "Directions for Raising Tobacco," which appeared in the Cape Directory for 1831. The document is worthy of most attentive perusal. It is written in a purely practical style, by an experienced man; and it contains hardly a

superfluous word. We will merely add, in conclusion, that as the low price of wine has the effect of throwing vineyards out of cultivation, it is not improbable that the soil might be more readily transferred to the culture of tobacco than of any other article, as it appears that “a square yard of bed, if made with care, will grow and support 50,000 plants of tobacco."

DIRECTIONS FOR RAISING TOBACCO.

Upon a small spot of good land, well dug and cleaned, put a quantity of bushes; burn them and rake the ashes equally over it: mix the seed with a handful of fine sand, and sprinkle it over the bed: do not rake it in, but let a man walk over it with naked feet; protect the bed with bushes from the cold winds; and if the weather proves dry, water it occasionally.

The seed may be sown in the month of June, and not later than July; when they have five leaves they may be transplanted; or when the plants are about four inches high.

The land must be ploughed or dug with spades, and made as light as possible. Whatever land suits wheat will do for tobacco. If the land is poor it should be well manured; and if you have not manure enough for the whole field, put a good shovel full into each hill. When your ground is ready, and your plants of a proper growth, take the first op portunity of rain, and draw out all the plants that are fit; plant them three feet apart every way; the field should be previously marked out оооо in this mannerand every hill should be turned over with оооо the hoe, to make the ground as light as possible: a servant should then drop one plant at each hill, while others are putting them in the ground, which should be done in a gentle manner, that the leaves may not be bruised; the field should always be kept free from weeds, and should the weather prove dry, before the plants begin to grow, they should be watered; as the plant advances pick off the dead leaves, near the bottom, and when about two feet high, pinch off the top of every plant with the nails of the finger and thumb. To prevent seeding you must now carefully pinch off every sucker, which will every day make its appearance, and reduce the number of leaves of each stalk to twelve, by pulling off the lower leaves; when the edges and points of the leaves begin to turn a little yellow, the tobacco is ripe, and should be cut off close to the ground; this must be done when the weather is fine, and there is no dew upon the plant; as soon as cut it should be immediately carried into the house upon sticks about five feet long, and hung up; your house must be entirely close, and no air suffered to penetrate: upon this care depends all your success. The house should always be dry.

When the stalks begin to turn brownish, and the leaves are yellow, take the advantage of a cloudy and wet day, and take the plants off the sticks, put them carefully into a bin or large shed, with heavy weights upon them, and let them so remain for twelve days; then take them out, strip off the leaves (throwing the stalks away) and place them again in the same bin with heavy pressure, and let them remain thirty days, observing always that the air must never be admitted. You are then to take out your tobacco, and tie the leaves in bundles of sixty, and it is then ready for the market; but never expose it to the air, and in all these little operations a cloudy or wet day is absolutely

necessary.

Always let a few good plants remain upon the ground for seed; the tobacco will grow up after cutting, and produce abundance of seed; but this seed is by no means so good as that of the first growth.

Where water can be used, two crops of tobacco may be made in one year; the first crop always succeeds without artficial irrigation; but the second crop cannot succeed without it.

No sort of shaded situation will do for tobacco.

Twenty men, with the assistance of a few children to pull off the suckers and other light work, ought to make twenty hogsheads of tobacco of 1,000lbs. each. The packages might be most conveniently made in ox-hides of 500 lbs. each. A square yard of bed, if made with care, will grow and support 50,000 plants.

The plants are sometimes destroyed by the grub soon after transplanting, but spare plants are always ready in the bed to replace them. The caterpillar and other insects, so troublesome and destructive in America, are unknown in this country, at least I never saw them in the Swellendam district; the locust will sometimes do mischief, when it visits the country, which I believe does not happen more than once in three or four years.

The only enemy tobacco has in this country is the south-east wind, but there are many millions of acres that are wholly beyond its reach. The land cannot be too much worked. In Virginia, however, they have never time to plough more than twice; the crop ripens in three months, and thus interferes not with the corn harvest. In a former note I observed that all ground fit for wheat would also grow tobacco. This observation will not hold in this country, as I find upon inquiry that all the wheat land of this colony is clay: tobacco will not do well in clay ground-a light sandy loam is the best soil. The horse hoe will save immensity of labour, but the hand hoe will be necessary to clean the plants once or twice in the season, where the horse hoe cannot reach; a dexterous hand will, however, complete the work with the horse hoe. In Virginia, tobacco is planted in the same ground every other year, provided it can be well manured. New land always makes the finest tobacco. Upon the whole I am convinced that the finest quality of American tobacco can be raised in this colony with much less trouble, and with more certainty of a good crop, than in America.

[The following remarks on the cultivation of tobacco in America are the production of a well-informed man, and may be introduced here with advantage, as the practical reader will now have an opportunity of comparing the method of culture practised in America with that recommended for adoption in this colony, in the above treatise.]

ON THE CULTURE OF TOBACCO IN VIRGINIA.

Fifty pounds weight, or two bushels of tobacco seed would be sufficient to plant the whole state of Virginia; some say a surface equal in extent to the United states. The seed is never gathered, indeed is not ready till the fall of the year; and no planter keeps on hand more than is requisite for his own

use.

Respecting the culture of tobacco, I shall communicate the process adopted throughout Virginia, premising that success depends upon the soil, situation, climate, and season. New ground, virgin soil, produces the best description; plant-beds, for the reception of seed, are prepared in the fall, in rather a moist situation, of pure vegetable mould, minutely pulverised, entirely freed from weeds; having the surface completely scorched by burning brushwood, or shavings of wood upon it. The seed is sown much after the manner of cabbage-seed, about as thickly and as deeply, and raked in; this is done during the month of February. Early in May, according to the season, or during that month, the plants are removed to the field, and are placed out on hills,

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