Newspaper Page Text
THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTION, NOVEMBER 15, 1881
3
THE INDUSTRIES.
AN ADDRESS BY MR. EDWARD AT
KINSON.
Delivered at the International Cotton Expedition
Grounds, Atlanta. Ga.. Thursday, November 3,
1801— The Mode ol Cultivating Cotton-
Bilk Culture Induatry in the South.
Yesterday scored another grand day in :h .* history
of tho exposition. Grand because of the great re
sult* that it* happening* will result in. and deserv
ing of a foremost place among the important days
because of the noble sentiments that were expressed
iu (he address that mude it. un event of the week.
Mnnt: faeturers' day had been looked
forward to with no small amount of interest; in
fact it was generally conceded that it had it
right in (mini of importance to a position beside
governor's day. Although the day was cool and
a stiff wind mode tilings somewhat disagreeable,
there was a large attendance on the grounds, and at
two o'clock Judges hull was tilled with an audience
of unusual culture and intelligence to hear the ad
dress of the Honorable Edward Atkinson. The
audience was composed of the very best clusa of our
citizens and visitors, and the sensible suggestions
and patriotic utterances found responses in thun
ders of applause. There could scarcely tic a speech
that could receive a heartier echo
lu the hearts of our people than
that which was delivered by -Mr. Atkinson
ye.-terday. He was aided in the speech by having
with him tipou the stage u collection of fabrics, and
some charts, etc., by which he illustrated his ad
dress. A t 2 o'clock he ascended the stage and began
his address in it clear, ijtiiet manner, and for uti
hour mid a half held tile undivided attention of his
audience. Below we present the address In full:
Gentlemen of Atlanta, Friends of the South,
Fellow-Citizens of the Nation: Again you have
asked me to speak to you, again I teel that 1 am
among friends, again I am ussuretl that ho matter
how greatly we may differ on many points reiiiting
both to ttie past or to the future, we are all moved
by the same purpose, wo all seek, now the welfare
•it our common country. From our very differ
ences the truth shall surely he tot* bold, and if in
considering the potentialities of tl e future, wo
must sometime- refer to the past, we know that
each speaks and writes witli the same end in view.
Ifin mytievotion to the principle of liberty I have
ever offended you, forgive me fur ray cause. Jt is
the great and central idea by which this nation
lives, it is in its spirit and moved by its impulsc
tliut the foundation of ibis great exhibition has
been laid. Even you yourselves do not yet know
how deep a hold it lias upon us all. Why, gentle ?
men, 1 nut almost appalled at what I see and by
wliai you have accomplished in less than a single
year since the mention of this undertaking—in
less than six months since the tirst practical mens
ures were taken in 1UN days front the beginning of
the work to the opening day. ] think that we who
arc from the north may well return home and |mn
der a little on what tins means. I hope not and
may not conclude that we had erred, sure that we,
When we helped you lift the burden of slavery from
your shoulders, which had kept you back so long,
in your competition witli us. Suppose we do go
home and mnsteronee more an armed force, three
times your number, and come down here again pi
re-establish slavery. Could we doit? Never! Nev
er! Never!
Gentlemen, it was this principle of liberty which
tins (moulded us. ami you, alike, during all these
years since'til. It was that it might l«- liiiully es
tablished that we and you alike were dominated by
Its behests; it was to it ami not to our forces that
you surrendered; it was by our common ancestors
that it was established; it is to Washington and Jef
ferson—to Hancock and Adams—to Laurens and
1‘utriek Henry—Unit we have all yielded our allegi
ance; it was oy them that this great exhibition was
tirst made |xis*ible—these visible evidences of your
power—these tangible results of your n.crcasin L
prosperity—these promises of human welfare are
all founded on the one principle winch neither von
nor we can conquer, and wbicn we will never sur
render.
Thunk God it is so. Might is in a righteous prin
ciple, and it shall suiely rule this laud because
God reigns.
And now, when north and south united stand
upon this principle of liberty, to us shall alt ad
verse forces yield. 'Hie vested wrongs of other na
tions go down before our pot.cr us we attack them-
not with arms Inn with shiploads oi corn, of cotton,
of meat unit of oil’
To the )HMir of Kngtund we carry abundance from
our land, and the feudal lords of nor soil must jaut
with their possessions from which they can no longer
wring wennh without doing service in return, 't he
tools to him who can use them is the economic gos-
iH‘l of liberty. I-and -is but a trail, and our tree
laud yielding its great return to him who works it,
beer* down the privilege of him und does not work
himself. Wo destroy privilege by making ilun-
proti table.
The standing armies of Europt> cannot much lon
ger oppress nations in the face of the competition of
this country when wo are free from such a blood
tax: and while those nations suffer still, facing
each other witli more than two million men in
A11 commerce among men or nations exists be
cause by means of it men serve each other—nations
exchange, product for product—meu exchange ser
vice ior service. Freedom of contract is the condi
tion under which such mutual service becomes pos
sible—the greater the freedom the more ample the
service.
The Male or nation which possesses the best skill
in the use of machinery "ill gain the greatest
wealth and her people will enjoy the highest
welfare. It has been said that''man is a tool-using
animal" and theearth responds with its abundant
production in exact measure to the skill applied.
Those who can use the trails best render the most
service and gain thegrealest material reward.
But even ihl«principle must he qualified if the
natural resources are not present to be worked up.
citiler bv hand or by machinery, and here istl.a
evidence that you iiossess natural resources in full
est measure.
I have been assured that if you pass from the top of
Roan mountain or of Mount Mitchell, the highest
mountains east of the Rocky mountains, easterly to
the sea. some two or three hundred miles, you will
find all the flora and fauna that exLst between the
st. Lawrence anil the gulf of Mexico.
When I suggested the addition of the railway
exhibit, 1 said that if the railroad corporations
which have been bufluir are now projected in thi*
middlcor mountain section of your land, iimongthe
mountains, <>■ the plateau* and through the Pied
mont district of the east and the blue grass section
of the west—covering in my vision a section nearly
as large as France arid twice us large as < treat Britain
—if these railroads would place here examples of
the products of agriculture.of theforest and of the
mine, of that section, it could not be equaled from
any other equal area of the world’s surface. Tile
collection is here and they have jusfitied me.
Let me here make one practical suggestion. From
a conversation with some of the gentlemen in
charge of these exhibits, especially of mineral and
lumber, I am informed that they may be distrib
uted in the north where they will do the most good
to the south. Send word to the Massachusetts in
stitute of technology, to Harvard university, to the
Boston society of natural history, to the school of
mines of Columbia college. New York, to the Shef-
lield scientific school of Yale college, and other
similar institutions, each to appoint a judge to
make awards and pay the judges by the distribution
which imy be made. I have not included my
friend. Professor Baird, of the .Smithsonian,because
I fear be would be omnivorous ami would swallow
the whole. Make the northern agricultural associ
ations take the same course with regard to the
products of agriculture.
Material prosperity is purely a question of quan
tities;. The only question is, now rapidly can you
(even notdlicludillg the unnumbered hordes of Rus
sia i what areour armies doing?
A few weeks since I was honored with a notice
that the ex-L'onfederaio soldiers' association of Chat
tanooga, organized to welcome the federal associa
tion of tne Army of the Cumberland had
chosen me an honorary member; and when 1
accepted 1 reminded them of the wise words of our
great governor, John A. Andrew, whochurged us ill
Massachusetts te, unite ill "all measures for a vigor
oils prosecution of pence.” In that call was one ol
tile most significant measures of that kind—in your
exhibition is another.
fliul meeting at Chattanooga was turned to sad
ness by our common loss, and those who are now
brothers-in-arms who met to mourn thedeatli of our
president found, as we have foui d, even in their
grief, another bond of union. Oh, my friends,
think of what we have been saved. Look at Ger
many anil France bound, in the fetters of mutual
animosity, camped within ramparts over which
each w atches the other, ready for bloody war.
Think what might have been our condition liad
the Potomac become the Khiuc, dividing tw
jealous and hostile states. If we sustained
a standing army in active service proportionate to
them, ns we should have been forced to, it would
number more than 600,000 men in the north anil
south together. Our whole life would have be
imbued with the malignant ideas that pertain to
war. oor standard of honor would still lie the low
one of men physical courage, which is common to
all. The duel, in place of simply becoming as silty
ns it is unlaw fill and base, would lie maintained
while the very foundation of your industry, and
ours as w ell, would be sapped as they are in Ku
convert the forces of nature to the service of man?
here are vast areas of land—there art* vast mines
f mineral. Only one-seventh part even of the
tvailithlc hind of the nation is under the plow—less
than that proportion in your southern section.
Is the land good? Are the mines rich ? Is the tim
ber abundant? Here in this exhibition is the
testimony of almost boundless capacity for wealth
and. welfare. Are the people poor? Do they call
for capital ?
The capital of the richest state or nation now
xcceds one, two.or.possibly three years production.
Welfare is in the knowledge how to use’ the capital,
not in its mere possession. Unless the school bouse
trci-cdes or goes with the capital it is almost worth-.
ess. The school house is here, the capital is here—
the resources are here, and all that you now have
to do is to go on and prosper, and With each step in
your prosperity, you will add more power to
advance yet further. “To him that hath shall lie
given, and from him tTiai hath not shall be taken
even that which he hath.” You can help him only
who can help himself.
What is this capital? Is it anything but tools?
Surely it is not money in any large measure, fur the
only use of money is to spend. Capital consists of
machinery anil engines, of new and better plows
and hoes—of new mid better gins and presses—of
new and better spindles and looms.
Here they are in endless variety and abundance.
The north sends you here the only capital which
can serve you permanently, and to its contribution
you have added much thst promises well for the
future.
The north and Europe can build your railroads,
but of wlist use will they be unless you can place
upon them, as you are doing, the more abundant
produet which will come from your own use of
these tools.
The absolute condition, which onlyjrendercapital
of any service, are that eye, hand aud brain shall
have been trained together in their use. As I have
said, unless the school house goes with the tools,
the best trails will he wasted. Mills and works will
follow, but cannot lead. The school house must
not only lie one in which books are used, but in
which the foundation of the arts can be taught.
Mechanical and industrial education you need
more than we do. and even our northern schools
must lie reformed; the hand must be instructed as
well as the brain.
On every hand I see evidence that true instruc
tion in some measure has not been wanting here—
the supply comes with the demand, and in the mere
fact that hundreds of exhibitors have come here to
offer-new implements of husbandry of every .kiud
is to tie found the proof of progress.
You yourselves bear testimony that your black
laborers can, many of them, already be
instructed with the use of some of the finest
agricultural implements In that great hall and your
own well-bred farmers testify that witli skillful cul
tivation you can make cotton with these new fools
for three cents a pound.
I find, then, that we have sent you the best exam
ples of northern capital none too soon, and I
find in the examples of southern capital with which
you have supplemented them, the most adequate
testimony that the true method of instruction has
begun, and lias proceeded much farther than we of
the north had supposed.
While it is true Unit there lias never yet been in
any exhibition so adequate a display of cotton ma
chinery us there is here, yet the subjects of greatest
interest to myself and my companions have been
the implements of husbandry and the mocliines,for
treating cotton and cotton seed. There lias been
the greatest need of closer communication between
the cotton grower and the cotton spinner, in order
that the mind of the grower may be disubused of
the idea that dirty cotton is as profitable as clean
and well prepared staple. That this is being learned,
is proven by the existence of such a
machine as Clark’s for treating cotton
in the seed and removing sand and trash
before it is ginned. The sand and trash, which
weighs not over five or ten pounds in a bale, takes
five or ten dollars from its vnlue if not removed.
We learn that the demand for this machine has
extended rapidly, ami We ure disupjminted not to
see more of the same kind.
We watch the extended use of bullets, and every
other machine by which the seed is treated, hoping
that bv their use the elements of the soil may be
saved ami greater economy applied in every branch
of cotton cultivation. Here we find them already
cheap and good. What we need most is uniformity
of staple—be it long or short—and freedom from
trash As we extend our work In fineness and va-
rieiv this requirement becomes urgent. Here we
find the roller gius which will give us a quality that
the best saw gin cannot equal.
We hope to see tho 120,000 tons of cotton-seed
meal and cake now annually exported to Europe
to feed stock there, soon fed to sheep folded on
your fields, that thus you may not only double
your crop of cotton but add a wiiol-clip almost
cheaper press for tanners use, and I know he is
equal tp tne task.
I have not yet seen a smaller press for oil, but
there is not a farm or plantation in the south that
Is too far from an oil mill not to make it profitable
to send the kernel of the seed, after the hull is re
moved. to the miil und to have the meal sent back
for feed—the oil will nioreTlmn pay the cost. If
we could mature cotton in the north, we would
make it for seed alone, even if we could not sell or
use the liber.
I am rejoiced to get so authentic a statement of
the cost of making cotton at as low a rate as that of
Major Jones. 1 once sent out 509 circulars filled
with close questions on this point, but the best an
swer about cost which 1 obtained was from a gen
tleman in Georgia. I asked him what it cost to
make cotton, and he replied: "l will answer you in
yankee fashion. -My neighbor, Mr. , has a boy
of eighteen who is preparing for college and needs
the means to enter, lie took up a little piece of
land, and by working in his leisure hours aud on
Saturdays lie made four bales of cotton; what did
hi* cott-in cost?"
This was one reply. Major Jones has given a more
definite one. Others are beginning to respond.
1 have a practical suggestion to make both to my
northern anil southern friends: No adequate test
cun here be made of the new gins, presses, trash-
cleaners and the like.
The southern planter and farmer has no knowl
edge, ns vet, outside tho tea island district, of the
merits ol a true roller gin. Clark’s cleaner has
just been introduced, and is only known within
narrow limits. There are several other machines
for the same purpose, which are not here at all.
Yet the beginning of improvement and oi profit
is here and the growth will be rapid.
The first thing for the executive committee of the
Cotton manufacturers’ association will be to confer
witli the Arkwright club, of Boston, and with the
Providence and Fall river board of trade, to see if a
competitive trial of cotton gins, trash-cleaners,
presses and the like cannot be organized in Boston
in the New England manufacturers and mechanics'
institute, to be held during their fair next autumn.
Prizes may be offered which will induce planters
and farmers to send their cotton in the seed.
The value of the seed will pay
the freight, or most of it, and
the cotton cun be sold for more than it will bring in
any other way.
I think another committee of northern manufac
turers will be arranged to meet the Mississippi Val
ley cotton planters' association, on the 6th of
December, and a conference can then be had at
which the terms of the cotton competition can be
settled so that the cotton can be planted even with
reference to the competition.
There is room enough and couldn't fail to be
monev enough to enable Boston to play the return
match with Atlanta.
fflNow, I ant going to touch a tender subject—cotton
manufacturing. What is manufacturing? Accord
ing to the hitiu derivation of the word it is to make
something with the hand. It is a singular fact that
cotton fabrics are the only ones which can be actu
ally made by the hand, and from this we may infer
that cotton fabrics are the oldest of any. Oar Aryan
ancestors came from a section of Asia where cotton
is indigenous, and although the linen mummy
cloths of Egypt are the oldest textile fabrics now in
existence, cotton must have been used in pre-his-
toriC tthtes.
You or I can do what our Aryan ancestors may
have done: we can spin a thread with our lingers
from the boll of t ipe cotton; holding it by the mid
die in our teeth we can double and twist it into n
strong cord. We can tie the ends of the warp to a
set of bamboo reeds, even as the Chinese do now;
with a sharp flint implement from another length
of bamboo wo tain make a shuttle, and without
much diflicnltv we can weave a web of cloth. If
we need to card our cotton first, we can use a fish's
jaw as the East Indian women do to this day, in
working the finest fabric ever made. Every other
fiber needs some proportion; woolmnstbecleansed,
llax must be rotted and separated from
woody • fiber, silk must bo reeled
but cotton may be truly manufactured. 1 have
here pictures of the primitive processes. In this
plate, taken from a work upon tho costumes of
India, are pieturesof the most primitive, even pre
historic methods which are still in use in the fabri
cation oi the Dacca muslin known us the “Woven
Wind.” No work of machinery has ever equaled
it. There are some small bits of tlie finest kinds.
These Chinese pictures which Messrs. Russell &
Co., of Canton, most kindly presented to mein order
that I might lend them to your exhibition, areagaiu
the illustration of the method by which the people
of China—the largest body of cotton weaving peo
ple in the world—are now mainly famished with
the fabrics which they wear: over 90 per cent of the
Chinese are clothed in this way. You
can observe the primitive method—tlic clean
ing of the lint from the seed by the
snapping oi a bow, which gave the term
"bowed Georgia.”—a name which still adheres in
Liverpool to upland cotton. Here is the spinning
wheel precisely like that in use among your moan
tains, and here the pre-hist irie loom. There is a
vastly greater number of people in the world who
are to-dav clothed in these hanil-imidc fabrics than
are supplied with goods from our modern machin
erv. We have touched hut the fringe of China, not
ten tier cent of her people. Africa is an unknown
land. Almost all Asia still uses these primitive ma
chines. Even in many countries of Europe the dis
taff is still in use; and right here, in the center of
our own land, are 100,000 or 209,000 people (who
knows how many?) supplied by the spinning wheel
e lurad loom, in- the-whole-ctmrse of the
rope in order that the vested wrongs of ages might * without cost, and we send you front Massachusetts
be maintained. . the wire fence that will keep the dogs away from
From such a dire fate have we Wen saved, and if
in these latter years, before the eontliet came, our
immediate ancestors erred—on the* one side in as
serting powers inconsistent with the principle of
liberty, and on the other in yielding too long to
these adverse claims—until naught but bloody war
could drive away the cloud, let us rejoice that it
has at last been riven and that .wo now stand to-
gether in the bright and glorious sunlight of free
dom.
,”ln liberty and muon, now and forever, one trad
inseparable.”
One of the great poets lias put into immortal
wonis tho spirit to which 1 now appeal. In that
great rate to liberty, Shelley's "Prometheus Un
bound," .he spirit ot the earth speaks:
“And soon
Those uglv human shapes amt visage
Of which i spoke ns having wrought me pain.
Passed Boating through the air. and fading still
Into the winds that scattered then:; and those
From whom they loused seemed mild and lovely
forms.
After some foul disguise had fallen, and all
Were somewhat changed.”
Friends, are we not all somewhat changed?
Have 1 lifted the causes for which 1 speak, above
the range of merely personal issues? if in tnis I
have succeeded, then you yourselves will justify me.
But let us not waste more time ill rhetoric. Facts
are said to speak lonoerthan wonis. Here are some
facts on these grounds—the loudest I ever lis-
lond . . „
toned to: what do they say to us. I wilt tell .
wlml thov sav to me, it is this: the industrial revo
lu lion which I had. as yet. conceived as faintly as I
did the full scope of the work which you have ac
complished, is uol only entered upon, but very far
advanced.
This is now becoming apparent, aud trom thisex
hibl lion your progress will be dated; what you have
already done must always be a marvel. Yet more
remains to do; but vou will doit. While some of
my friends here stilt think me t.w* much of a north
erner. my friends at home still say I am too much
of a southerner: does not that prove that I am not
too much of either, but that 1 am a true citizen of
our common country. Therefore I may sav that
when 1 reviewed the history of the few years which
have elapsed since you were subjected, not only to
a revol tutor in yonr whole me (hod of labor, but yet
more to a revolution in the very fundamental ideas
respecting labor: when I think that not only much
that had been wealth to you.even though fictitious,
was destroyed, but that almost all your real wealth
w as also destroyed; when 1 remember that you came
back to fenceless and almost deserted fields, to Work
with old tools or none; that yonr means of commu
nication were tom up and destroyed: that ydu were
hot only Wilhonteapital but without credit; wheu I
think again that it was as unwise then to resist the
suffrage mainly to black citizens as it would now be
to restrict it exclusively to whites: 1 say. wheu I
think of all these things, my mind is lost in wonder
at the progress made liy white as well as black in
vour great southern land.
Instead of losing faith because you have not done
more, my faith is only made the stronger by what j pressio;
von have done, in "the government oi the people, “ '
i»v the people, for the people." Gentlemen, you
have learned the open secret of prosperity and wel
fare. pour
the sheep. If some I'arts of your cotton country
are too hot for sheep, you need this food for stoeb.
There can be no better feral for-mules than eowpeas
saved green in pits after the method called "ensi
lage." and after the oil is removed the cotton-seed
meal is safe for cattle and hogs if fed with care.
In that raitton field are varieties that make our
mouths water. If we could only get each kiud as
it grows—each separate from the other we could
improve our work and save our labor immensely.
But under the present methods of dealing in cotton,
uniformity of staple Is more and more difficult to
secure. The great plantation crops grown under
uniform conditions have ceased, and there is no
such careful sorting and selection of the farmets's
crops as there ought to be; hence it often happens
that the farmer who has made good cotton gets no
adequate reward, and we suffer for want of uni
formity in the quality of what we use.
The most suggestive exhibit is the crop and state
ment yd Major Jones, of Troup county. Ueorgia.
He gives a definite statement of the cheapness with
which he lias produced liis cotton and he lias had
adequate testimony in the price paid for some of it
bv the Willimantic thread company of the value of
his work. If be call make cotton at 3 cents a pound
and sell it for Hi instead of HI cents, his example is
sure to be followed.
1 wish he aud others would try one more experi-
rnent. and In this copy the common habit ot the
Chinese. Let him sort and pack hiscottou carefully,
draw his own sample from the middle
of the bale—place his card there
earning name and number, then put a duplicate
card* Willi the sample, and sell by that: permitting
no sum pie bale to be cut. aud no abuse of the bale
by rolling in the mud and keeping it in the nun.
Let hint put his cotton in a good warehouse, and
send hi' samples to any one otmy companions, and
he can o uain a higher price than heevergot before,
in cash on delivery at the railroad, if he will meet
these conditions.
We will pay for quality it you will assure it, and
there need not be it tenth part of the loss het.v
the field und the factory that there now is. I re-
ia-at what 1 have said Iwfore.and what every one of
mv companions will confirm.
Vou have depreciated every crop of cotton you
have made at least ten percent by want of care and
attention in ginning, baling, pressing and earing
for the cotton between the field and the factory.
You can save half vonr labor and add ten per cent
to the value of yonr crop if you will use the new
tools and machines here on exhibition and heed the
words which 1 now siteek.
Y«u have begun, and you will go on,because you
cannot afford to stop. Major Jones and his asso
ciates have set the example which all must follow,
sooner or later. . . . . ,
We earnestly call your attention to the Dederick
press, and to the small, compact,clean bale which it
The bale of 125 pounds is the true package, call it
a quarter bale and rate foil r to the bale for statistical
purposes. U can be handled better, earned cheap
er and used more easily. We are not afraid of com
pression. especially when a little cotton is com
pressed at a time.
und the _
transition from these primitive methods to the com
plex machinery of the modem factory, there havt
been lint two original inventions—all other progress
has been but some kind of modification of these
pre-liis.oric methods.
The curd is but the substitute for the fish-bone.
The rollers of Arkwright are still imperfect
Whoever can find a seamless substitute for the
leather cot with which the top roll of the spinning
frame is covered, will add live or ten per cent to
the capacity of every mill, and may make a great
fortune.
The merit of the saw gin is in its capacity rather
than in the quality of its work. Some of the most
valuable kinds oi green seed cotton in that field and
others o! the same kind, which have been sent me,
cannot be ginned on n saw gin. You- are well
aware that there is a great difference in the
tenacity with which the fiber adheres to the
seed, and in those varieties in which
the tenacity is great the* roller gin must be used
—teazle burr—each spiudle of the thousand on a
frame is the same as the single one attached to the
wheel: who invented the loom no man knows.
The saw gi:.; of Eli Whitney and the extension of
the strand by means of rollers attributed to Ark
wright. but really invented by Hyatt, constitute the
two original ' inventions; ami the Ozier
cotton-peeler and other similar kind
are ruined bv the saw-gin, and when mixed in the
same bale orlot with common staple,they injure the
whole for our use. As I have said, we must have
uniformity, but we want these' tine long cotton
midway between sea island and uplimd for a great
variety of use. It is a mistake to hybredize black
and green seed, crossbreed,rather, on selected varie
ty of green seed, and when you have a variety like
the Ozier, keep it separate and ghl on a roller gin.
There are new varieties of roller gius in the exhi
bition. and another of the greatest promise, the Os
good gin, will soon come from Massachusetts. I
confidently expect to see a roller gin developed, if
it does not now exist, that will equal a saw gin in
quantity and beat it in quality.
Now let me call your attention to the funda
mental principle, on which your success in spin
ning and weaving cotton must stand or fall.
It is not a question of wages—no wages can be
measured in less money than the earning of these
Indian women, or these Chinese laborers. Goods
arc made at the lowest cost by those who earn the
highest wages, wherever modern machinery is ap
plied to their fabrication. The wages in yonr
southern factories are much lower than in ours at
the north, but you employ :MJ more hands than we
do to a thousand spindles, with their proper com
plement of looms.
In some of your best mills you work as economi
cally as we do, but isolated mills, scattered at far
distances are at a disadvantage anywhere. So far
as you undertake cotton manufacturing with a view
to anviliing more than a local demand, concentrate
your mills and let all the appliances and subsidiary
emplovmetit grow up around them. I have never
taken the ground that there were any climatic dif
ficulties in many parts of the south. The real dif
ficulty is that the margin of profit is very small on
a very large capital, and unless you can work, in
the long run, on a very small margin you _ cannot
succeed. These times are no criterion: it is “hard
times" that test ability and relative conditions.
Let this be borne in mind; The yarn of which the
standard coarse sheeting or drill is made, No. IS.
weighs three-quarters of a grain to the yard, The
yarn of which a summer lawn is made. No. SO,
weighs one-quarter of a grain »o the yard. Ttose
are substantially the limits of the useful cotton
manufacture. All work above So’s is fancy work.
Our range is therefore within the limit oi half a
grain to the raid of yarn, of which cloth is woven.
A variation of a fraction makes the profit or the loss.
We must use everv precaution ana save at every
point or else we fail. May 1 say that the true prep
aration for success in cotton manufacturing must
be in knowing how to save the fraction of a cent.
We must do this in Sew England or starve. We
have no alternative. Yon cannot spin cotton when
you do not know the difference between a cent and
a nickel.
1 say to you once more, as I have said before, you
have a fieid for profit in which we cannot share, in
the preparation of cotton for the spinner, which
oflers a better opportunity for profit on small invest
ments of capital than any other branch of cotton
manufacturing that you and we can engage in.
1 have often tried to account for thq attraction
which is presented by cotton growing and potion
spinning. The dairy products of the country are
greater in value and‘far more important to the wel-
iure of the people than the cotton in >p; our shoe
factories in Massachusetts employ more persons
at higher wages than our cotton factories. The gen
eral conditions of life are much better in towns
where there are no great factories than in those
which ure tilled with them. A small capital can be
insure, all of them north-of the Potomac,which will
contain nearly a million more spindles when com
pleted; some are built already, others will be built
next season.
At the date of the census we had 10,700,000 spin
dles. The product of about 700,000 was exported
and the expert is increasing, the rest served our
own peple: 250,000 spindles to each million. The
spindles added since June So, 1880, and those now
building or projected for next season must suffice
for tne three years ending June :S0,1883, and al
though the increase is large, I do not think it is
yet excessive. If we do not have a
railway panic or some other temporary
cheek to our prosperity. In the three years named
the normal Increase of our population will be not
far from 4,500,000, to which immigration will add
1.500,000 more—O.twO.OOOin all. The normal increase
of spindles required would, therefore, be 1,500,000,
without counting on new uses for cotton fabrics, or
increase of exports. Such will cost not far from
530,000,000, complete, with their requisite dwellings
and auxiliary buildings, and they will require
about 225,000 bales of cotton in euch year at the
present average. .
That you will share in this increase, is the wish
of every man, but that you cau, as yet, share even
in a measure that will much more than
compensate for the increase of population
in your owu section is not much to be expected,
taking the whole three years into account, but your
prospect will be vastly better in the next three
years, when the normal increase mnst be 2,000,008
spindles.
There is room for us all and no one need fear to
find a market as you increase and improve your
crop and reduce its cost. Why do we study this ex
hibition so carefully outside of all that pertains to
cotton? Because we find in the exhibits of ore,
mineral, timber and products of agriculture other
Ilian cotton, the evidence of such opportunities for
occupation and such an assurance of wealth, that
we are sure we shall find more customers than we
hall ever find competitors among you: and we
only need to look outside the exhibition
and to take note of the activity, the enterprise aud
the prosperity of Atlanta to confirm our judgment.
And, gentlemen, right here let me express the
most cordiul thanks to the citizens of Atlanta and of
the state of Georgia for the abounding hospitality
with which myself und my friends from the north
have been received. When you visit us we will try
to equal your kindness—we can never exceed it.
We are amazed at Atlanta, we foresee 100,000 peo
ple here when we come again to your great cotton
exhibition of 1S91. Shall we then drink your health
in the water of the Chattahoochee and inspect all
your works in which the wheels will be turned and
the boilers will be fed by your abundant supply of
water from that source?
Let me now say a few words upon the subject of
? greatest moment to you and to us. What you have
acked most in the past have been means of inter
communication. Your country has been inhabited
by a sparse and widely scattered population—the
area of your land under cultivation in cot
ton lias never exceeded Liree per cent of the area
of the specific cotton states. Your former system of
labor forbade diversity of occupation aud confined
vou mainly to the pursuit of agriculture, and you
know yourselves better than I do how large a share
of every crop is swallowed up in freight and
charges.
There is nothing in the world so important to
you as the reduction of tlic cost of moving, baling,
pressing and disposing of your cotton. It is of the
utmost importance to us and to you that the cotton
hall pass from the farm to the factory at the very
lowest cost.
What we need most is middling cottton at ten
cents a pound, or less, aud what you need most is
that the biggest part of the ten cents shall go into
the pocket of the man who raises the cotton.
The western wool grower sells his wool for cash
on his own farm, and so can you, if you adopt the
right method.
Why is this prioe so important?
I am informed by gentlemen conversant with the
traffic with China, that when drills can be sold in
Boston or New York at 7 cents a yard, or less, the
market may be vastly extended. At that price we
beat the hand made goods; that is to say, at a little
less than twenty cents a pound. When middling
cotton is nine cents apound in New York drills ean
be profitably made aud sold at 7 cents a yard. If,
then, a wide market is open at that priee the point
at which the grower of cotton should aim would be
to diminish all the intermediate changes between
the farm aud the market. What are those changes?
1st. Y'our costly and wasteful system of ginning
and baling with an old-fashioned country press.
2d. Heavy expense for getting your cotton to a
railroad.
3d. Compressing and factors’charges.
4th. Freights to the principal markets twice
or three times as nigh as those which
prevail between east and west.
What portion of the 10 cent* in New Y'ork do these
charges absorb? A quarter? Yes—a third? Yes,
often. And at every point on the way, in the gin.
in the press,on the wagon aud on the rail, yonr cot
ton is depreciated. The only thing that saves you is
that you possess the only land, yet open to civiliza
tion* which can produce the staple needed.
Egvpt, under English rule, which may be near,
could equal you even at that.
If the northern Italians, who are now moving in
force 120,000 last year, mostly to the Paraguay and
Parana rivers of South America, should take up
cotton growing, they may possess a land fully equal
to your own. 5
No-monopoly can long be sustained bn the face of
th';* forth, and even yon must he prepared for com
petition. '
Let me call vour attention to this matter of Italian
emigration. One hundred and twenty thousand
migrated last year, mostly to South America. The
northern Italians are a frugal and laborious race
accustomed to a hot climate. Italy is poor, whole-
districts arc now devastated by the pellagra—a dis
ease almost as bad as leprosy brought on by an in
sufficient diet. Can you not organize this emigre
tiou and turn it hither? Where ure your railway
managers? Arc they as slow in this as they have
been in bringing the crowd they might bring here?
Had this exhibition been in one of our states every
railroad in the state would have competed
to sec which could _ bring to it -the
greatest number of visitors at _ the lowest
cost, not for your sakes, but for their own. What
railroad line can negleet the instruction of this
great industrial school house? I am amazed that
in a state so full of vigor and energy in all else as
the state of Georgia is, the managers of your rail
road should have been so slow in perceiving where
their greatest interest lies.. ....
Study the successful lines of railroad in the north,
runningeastand west, and in every ease the lines
which carry tho largest amount of freight and the
greatest number of passengers at the lowest charge,
are also the most profitable to their owners.
But we must return to competition in cotton.
Aside from this outside competition, if it is true
that even one man can make cotton at three cents i
pound, then your own crops will go on inereusin;
year by vear. For tills reason, again, you lute
every incentive to reduce the charge between the
cotton grower and the cotton spinner.
Now, gentlemen, perhaps I shall surprise you.
There is, perhaps, no single standard by which the
intelligence and prosperity of a state or nation
mav be measured than bv the proportion which its
miles of railroad bear to its area. True, it is not an
absolute standard; a part of a state like Maine
may be almost unhabitable, or canals may serve a
free nation, like the Netherlands, better than
railroads; or moutain ranges may forbid
rapid construction as in some of our western
territory: yet, after making all allowances,
the standard is a good one; and now I am proud to
show this chart. Mv own native state, old Mas
sachusetts, in spite of her sterile soil, in spite of her
Berkshire mountains and her rocky hills, notwith
standing she could not board herself for a week on
a year’s product of grain, yet possesses the most
adequate railway service of any state in the world.
Mark how the long lines of adequate railway ser
vice follow the footsteps of free conditions or of the
mounted most of the difficulties connected with
the industrial revolution in your southern states.
Is it too much to expect to average a little over 0,000
miles of railroad a year for the next sixteen years?
if this is not over-sanguine, and I think it is not,
for we are building this year nearer 10,000 than
0,000 miles, then we shall accomplish the work.
it looks, as I have said, like a very big job: but I
will make it appear a very little one.
A fair average cost of an average mile of railroad,
is $35,000: that sum of money measures the service
oi every man engaged in it, from the presidents of
the railroads, the iron works, and the mint s, down
through the workers in the rolling mills, iron
mines, and mechanic shops, to the commonest la
borer who digs and delves on the track.
At two dollars a day average for the whole force,
each one hundred miles requires the service of
5,000 men for one year.
In order that we may build 100,000
miles iu sixteen years, a force of laborers must be
continuously employed during that jieriod of 350,-
000 men.
It looks like a large force; but as I have said on
this chart, “while Europe prepares for war, we pre
pare for work.”
if during these sixteen years we should sustain
standing armies equal to the present armies of
France or Germany in active service in proportion
to the average population of the jieriod, our stand
ing army would number 700,000 men.
Can we spare one-half that force to build our
railroads?
Now, consider that with the railroad comes every
other branch of industry which goes to make the
state—the wheelwright, the carriage maker, the
blacksmith, the worker in wood, the worker in
iron, the car builder, the tinsmith—nil the repre
sentatives of the various arts out of which villages
are made, und on the foundation of whose work
towns are built up and cities grow into existence.
Will you take your share in thisgrent work? You
are richer than you know; but you have not yet
found out how to concentrate you
ealth; how to make great aggregates
of capital out of small savings of
aeii workman and workwoman, after the manner
of our savings banks. We are also giving many of
our children a trade so that each ean use his hands
as well as his head. It is by this combination that
we must work if we are to keep our place in com
petition with you. We are eagerly seeking to solve
the question of industrial education: only by this
id by the savings bank can we be saved.
'cave your pennies and learn to use your hands,”
that is our rule. The measure of success, in busi
ness is the amount of work a man ean do for his
neighbor better than he ean do it for himself.
I call your attention to the examples of the work
of the pupils in our school of mechanic arts of the
ichusetts institute of technology, which you
common school; after making all necessary qualifi
cations note the sequence—Massachusetts, England
Belgium, New Jersev, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware
(saved, however, only by her position), Indiana,
'lire, Switzerland, New Y'ork, Iowa,
tised to-dav to lietter advantage in making clothing
than in making cloth. What then is the seeret ? I
think it is this: good cotton and good cotton cloth
are as good as monev anywhere—they need no legal
tender acts to make them pass current. They are
drafts at sight for tea, coffee, sugar, for iron and
steel: whatever we want we ean buy with cotton or
cotton cloth.
We have now a little over 11,000,000 spindles in
the United States, aud 1 have at my oflice a list of
new mills which I either insure now or expect to
New Hampshire
Germany.
I have said that there is no better single standard
than the proportion of railroads to the square mile
of territory of any state, by which to gauge the
condition and prosperity of the people.
I ask vou, gentlemen of Georgia, if you will lag
behind. I ask you, men of the south, what you
will do in this matter? Y'ou say to me. perhaps.
Massachusetts is a small state, close to the seaboard,
and may therefore attribute the excess of her rail
way mileage to that.
But look at Ohio, Illinois, Iowa: consider these
lines which represent the proportionate mileage of
all the great states of the west; shall they lead you
much longer?
Y'ou have the larger part to do oi what we may-
call a very big job, which must be done before this
century is ended. , , .
I have made a computation of the number ot
miles of railroad which must be constructed in sev
eral of vour states in order that you may be served
half as well as Massachusetts new is, in order that
you may have one mile of railroad to each eight
square miles of territory: Georgia will need 4,700
miles; South Carolina 2,300 miles: Virginia 2,900
miles: Kentucky 3,100 miles; aud in order that some
other states may" be served one-fourth as well as
Massachusetts, or oue mile of railroad to sixteen
square miles of territory. North Carolina will
need 1.700miles; Tennessee 1.000miles: Mississippi
1 700 miles; Alabama 1.300 miles. Arkansas 2,300
miles; Louisiana 1,960miles, Texas 14,000 miles.
I have computed Hie whole table of all the states
to see what number of miles of railroad will he re
quired to be added to our present service in order
that all the states and territories may be one-fourth
as well served as Massachusetts now Is; and it will
require for that purpose 117,000 miles in addition to
the 100,000 which we now have.
But we will be content to double our railway-
service : that is to say, to add 100,000 miles in the
next sixteen years. ‘ . ,
I take this period for several reasons: it will be
sixteen years at the end of the present year, since
the civil' war virtually ended. In that period we
have added 00,000 miles out of the 100,000 miles of
railroad which we now have; at the rate of 4,125
miles a year.
In that period we have overcome the curse ot
paper monev; we have restored the specie
standard: we' have paid more than one-third,
nearly one-half of our national debt; we have
greatlv increased our population; we have passed
through the most severe commercial crisis ever
known: and most important of all, we have sur-
Massac
will soon find in the exhibition building. There is
no more suggestive or useful lesson in that whole
building titan the one Hmtis taught by that set of
bits of iron, and steel, aud wood.
You have all the materials iu richest abundance:
you have the minerals, you have the timber, you
have the soil, you have the climate, you have every
thing wiUi which nature ean endow you.
Have you the men capable of grasping the ad
jutages now spread before you? That is the only
question, aud this great exhibition is but the first
syllable of your reply to that question. Y'ou have
them; that we now know if we neverjdid before.
Gentemen, mark the line of the proportionate
miles of railroad in Kansas and in Geor
gia. Almost the first money I ever earn
ed was subscribed to the stock of the
New England Emigrant Aid company, by which
immigration into Kuusas was organized. Joint Car
ter Brown, the greatest cotton manufacturer of
Rhode Island, was president, and Amos A. Law
rence, of most honored name—one of the subscrib
ers to this exhibition—was one of the officers and
most active men.
Lawrence is now the Atlanta of Kansas—its rail
road center—and last year Kansas produced 130,000,-
000 bushels of grain. What did it? The railroad.
Y’ou cau pass Kansas if you will match cotton
against corn. Add yourmore abundant minesiutd
ill your timber, which she lacks. Will you do it?
It is very true that the density of population
should be considered in estimating the proportion
of railroads, as well as area; but do not railroads
tiring imputation? Do they not lead population in
the west? Do they not create diversity of occupa
tion? Why, gentlemen, there is one little plaee in
Ohio which contains only about lti.oui) people
whose; railroad tounange, irrespective of general
merchandise, is double the entire weight of your
whole cotton crop of over 6,000,009 bales. The ores
of iron and coal moved into Y'ouugstown, Ohio, und
the products moved out in 1SS0 weighed over 3.000,-
000 tons.
Gentlemen, the wonder of Hie railroad is never
ceasing—there is a profitable copper mine in Ari
zona at which the ore is smelted with coke,
brought out l'rpm England, and the engines on the
railroad, by which the coke is carried to the mine
are drawn by coal brought from Australia.
I cannot too often repeat the fact that a day’s
wages of a workman in Massachusetts will pay for
moving his year’s supply of flour and meat a thou
sand miles, from Chicago to Boston.
We have about $75,000,000 in vested in cotton mills
in Massachusetts, but the capital of our railroads is
more than n hundred millions; and that reminds
me that tlie deposits in our savings banks of our
working people, of our servants, of our school mis
tresses, of our operatives, of our ministers and doc
tors, of those who are not rich, but who mostly work
for wages to cam their daily bread, is more than
two hundred and twenty-five million dollars—more
than the whole capital of all our cotton mills and
our railroads combined.
I told you last year you needed the savings
Lank more than any other business
institution; tliereis a vast unused
capital* in your southern states in the hordes
of tlie working people waiting for use, but there is
one condition precedent even to the savings bank.
When Mr. Kimball asked me how to provide against
fire in the exhibition, I told him; that after lie had
all his pumps, pipes and hydrants in place, he
must put in some pails and then some buckets and
keep them full of water, and then add some more
pails trad a few buckets; then put in some buckets
aud add some pails, and when he had enough,
double the number.
Now if you would protect yourselves against the
wasteful and consuming fire of poverty and ignor
ance you must set up schools, first some primary,
then some grammar, llii?n some high: then add
some more primary, double the grammars, and
keep up with the high; and when you have
enough begin again and establish some more,
Where are your dairies? Y’ou farmers from the
hills of Georgia, from (he mountains of the Caro
lines and Tennessee; aye, from the North Cumber
land valley, from the French Broad river, even from
thatgreat blue grass country of Kentucky. Where
arc your dairies? Slav I venture to suggest that
there is a more profitable ltegend than that which is
sometimes called "bourbon” and sometimes called
“moonshine.” The cow that yields that liquor
whisks no tail, but docs whisk a key which had bet
ter be turned on the inside.
The editor ot the journal of the American agri
cultural association has kindly furnished me with
some data, which I beg the editors of The Constitu
tion not to omit. It is too long and too full of fig
ures to give you here.
“Referring to our conversation during your call
on Friday last on your way to Atlanta. 1 hope you
will devote a portion of your forthcoming speech at
the exposition, to a discussion of the adaptability of
the blue grass country of Kentucky to dairying, i
consider it desirable that oue who has done so much
by practical suggestion ior the advancement of the
best interests of the south, should give
expression to an idea which if followed out 1 am
sure will do vast good to the people of the
section which you in your article on ‘The Railroad
and the Farmer,’ in the first number of the journal
of this association, and Mr. Plumley in hisadmira-
ble paper on the soil of the blue grass country in
the present number, have done so much towards
setUng forth these features prominently before the
country. Y'ou say in the article mentioned, the
'blue limestone, commonly known as the blue
grass, section of Keneueky covers 10,000 square
miles, or 0,400,000 acres. With a tolerable system of
farming it is callable of producing as large a crop
•aw acre, without manure, as the average of the
high farming in England. The rotten limestone
containing very targe proportions of phosphates and
sending up new elements of fertility every year.’
Prof. Plumley confirms all you say, and adds: The
blue grass itself, is a strong grass, of a deep green"
color, and unmistakably different from all other
grasses—which seems to grow under the shade of a
spreading tree, as other grasses do in the sun.
This gives to the country a charming park-like
character which distinguishes it. Everywhere one
may see pretty woodland pastures dotted with fig
ures and this with the green sward extending right
up to their boles. The pastures, when kept down
“I give you these figures for a two-told purpose:
first to show that tne dairy belt is not a narrow one,
and to iudicate Unit there can not be too much good
butter and cheese made, for the prices of these
articles are to-day as dear or dearer in cora-
parison with the pun-hasing power of our
currency, than they were fifteen years ago,
when the produption was not half what it is at
present. 1 recommend dairying to the farmers of
the blue grass country, because it seems to me that
that section with its soil is better adapted to dairy
ing than any other part of tlie country, and because
the dairying industry is cue of the most profitable,
cleanly and wholesome of any branch of agrieul-*
ture. It will be fouud that in every part of the United
states where dairying is practiced as a specialty
that the fanners are the most prosperous of the
agricultural class. The outlet tor fine butter is
prabtlcally unlimited. Great as our production of
butter is, we export less of it in proportion to tile
amount produced in this country than of any other
agricultural product. Instead of shipping as at
present 30,000.000 or 35,000,000 pounds of butter an-
uually, we ought to be able to supply 100,000,000
pounds to Great Britain alone, and there is an op
portunity to ship twice that amount to the
South American suites, whilst the home demand is
constantly increasing. This is illustrated by the fact
that the demand for butter and cheese in
the west is greater than the supply
thertymd keeps the price almost as high in Chicaop
as on tlie seaboard, whilst the south, a large con
sumer of butter and cheese, is draw ing her supply
largely from the northwestern states. Justus the
quality of butter and cheese have improved—and
they have improved on an average from 25 to 50per
cent for the last ten years—the home consumption
has increased The rich and poor alike to-day; de
mand und obtain a quality of butter that only
those in the best circumstances could afford to pur
chase a few years ago. 1 need only add that the
dairy industry instead of depleting the soil en
riches it. Ana from yours aud Professor Plumlcy’s
description of theblue grass region, I shall not be
surprised if thejbest and largest portion of the but
ter and cheese made in this country is produced on
the 6,000,000 acres in Kentucky, which you men
tioned. or at least within the larger limits to which
you extend the blue grass region.”
I indorse all that Mr. Uoall has written about tho
blue grass, but up here on the hills of Georgia, on
your cheap land—up in these upper mountain val
leys—is the place for the southern dairy.
Why, gentlemen, tlie Swissexport ton million one
pound cans of condensed milk every year, besides
butter and cheese. What do you say to that ? Y’ou
cannot now export milk from this country, because
40 per cent of the weight of each can is the best of
refined sugar, aud Switzerland has sugar free of
duty, but the condensed milk factories cannot yet
supply onr home demand and a draw-back may be
arranged to cover the sugar duty.
There are other potentialities in tlie future of
your southern land, which have as yet been hardly
touched. Tho world has heretofore depended on
wild products, and on barbarous or somi-barba-
rous methods izi respect to very many of the most
necessary articles used.
In our own country, our principal supply of beef
at the present time ramies trom almost wild cattle
which range over the broad plains of tlie west; but
it is clear that other methods must be adopted and
that we can no longer rely upon this rough and
semi-lmrbnrous method. The heavy steers pastur
ed continuously within a limited, although wide,
area, are treading out the grasses. The buffalo
caused no such effect. They ranged freely, passing
from one section to another according to tlie sea
son. It is a well established fact that the great
plains are now fairly, if not fully, stocked; and no
great increase of fraid can be expected from there.
But here, what may be called the civilized
method conies in, just in the nick of time. Y'ou
have in this exhibition the example
of a method of saving green com, called “ensilage,"
packing away green corn stalks, eowpeas, clover,
and other succulent food in deep pits.
1 have examined thi* method as far as it is possi
ble for one not engaged in agriculture to study it:
and it seems to me a clearly established fact that it
will restore the fanning of New England to its
pristine prosperity; that it will make it possible for
us to grow our own cattle cheaper than we can
bring them from anywhere else: and that it is a
revolution in the methods of agriculture of tho
north.
If so, yet more is it another step In the revolution
which is going on in the method of agriculture of
the south. Major Jones proves here what can be
done on the small farm; but he has only begun. 1 f
he will permit me to say so, he is yet an apprentice,
marvelous ns his results seem to be. Let him build
pits, and put those huge corn stalks, eighteen feet
high, chopped in half inch pieces, into Uiem just at
the time when the com is in the silk; let him mix
clover or eowpeas with the mass; let
him then feed liis stock with the food
and save his cotton seed, and depend upon
it, ho will reduce the cost of liis cotton one-half,
even on the three cents a pound at which he has al
ready made it. 1 hear somebody say, whatfolly " ill
that man commit next? Bide your time, gentle
men, this is no bigger folly than to have dared pro
pose exhibition.
But there are other matters of yet paramount im
portance. The oil of the great nation of China is.
mainly made from beans. This I learned some-
years ago, when I was investigating the variety
of cotton whieli grows in north Chinn, in
latitude 42“. of which I then imported some ot..
the seed. This bean* is a very prolific variety;
whether it is known or unknown ill this country
1 have been unable to find out. It produces nearly
a ton oi bean to an acre, and the bean yields more
than ten per cent of its weight in oil. The cake-
serves as food, but is mainly used. as a fertilizer,,
es|ieciolly for sugar cane. • It may be a cowpca tra
der another name. Every plant of this sort is of
the utmost value, us it draws nitrogen from the at
mosphere, and iixes it in a form suitable to fertilize
the soil. 1 thought it worth while to send to China
for a considerable parcel of these beans, and for a
sample of the oil, which Messrs. Russell Co.
kindly contributed through me to the Atlanta cot
ton exhibition. They arc for distribution.
Another subject has not been considered at all.
bv grazing cattle, present the apjtearance of care-
fttlly tended lawns. The vegetation is everywhere
of the most luxuriant quality. So closely in fact
is the face of nature covered with vegetable growth
that a peculiar softness of outline marks the swell
of the hills and the profile of the woods. I
have, ror many years, taken a deep special interest
in tlie dairy Industry, and it has been my jirivi-
lege to see all the best districts of the l uited
States and Great Britain. But I confess never to
have seen a country apparently so well
adapted for dairying as the delightful
description you two gentlemen give of this
locality. As I mentioned to you when here, it is
but u few years since it was believed that the por
tion of this country adapted to dairying was con-
lined to a narrow belt la-ginning in Vermont, run
ning across the center of the state of New York,
taking in a srjall portion of Pennsylvania, the
northern part of Ohio, northern Indiana and south
ern Michigan, the upper portion of Illinois, the
lower portion of Wisconsin, and a narrow strip
in Iowa. That was when pastures were depended
upon for the production of milk, and when Chi
cago imported her butter and cheese from the east,
atid Canada procured her supplies from the state of
New Y'ork. About fifteen years ago Israel Boise, a
former citizen of New Y'ork state, started a creamery
in Illinois, and began feeding eom meal to his cat
tle in tlie winter and making his principal supply
of butter at that season of the year. The system
lie inaugurated has extended until there are now
over 500 butter and cheese factories in the
state of Illinois alone: Iowa about 100 cheese factories
and 400creameries: Minnesota about 1U0 creameries;
Wisconsin about 400 cheese factories and 100 cream
eries: Missouri ubout50chee.se and butter factories;
whilst the [states of Kansas and Nebraskahave seve
ral. The production'of butter and cheese in the
northwestern states in lsso amounted to about
S40,900,0u0. Canada now lias between 500 and GOO
butter and cheese factories together.
The supply of india rubber is gained mainly by
what is called the barbarous methods; and al
though there is as yet no sign of exhaustion In tlie
forests which are treated in such a way as to rap
idly kill the trees, yet it may be only a question of
time when that exhaustion will happen.
There is little doubt that the great swamp of Flor
ida, which has lately been purchased by Mr. Diss-
ton. of Philadelphia, and which is to be-drained,
will prove suitable for the cultivation of the india-
rubber tree.
There is another product which lias until recent
ly been what I have named as barbarous; on which
the health of your people depends more than upon
almost anything else—Peruvian bark, cinchona,
quinine; until within a very recent period, it had
been obtained exclusively from the forests of Peru;
but after long and arduous work, the cultivation
of the tree hies been established by the Dutch iu
Java, and by the English upon the Nilghii hills ill
India. Two reports nave recently been made upon
the success of the English in establishing the culti
vation of the tree anil the manufacture of quinine.
It is not onlv a success as a matter of safety for the
health of the people, but a great commercial suc
cess. I have not seen the works themselves, but
from the reviews which I have read, it would ap
pear that the region in which the tree is success
fully cultivated ui>oii these hills in
India corresponds very closely in the
quality of the soil, in temperature, and in climatic
conditions to the slopes in western North and
South Carolina, and northern Georgia; especially
to what you call the thermal belts.
I had previously supposed that in Peru the cli
mate in which tills tree was found was excessively
humid; but from the latest account of the higher
hills, it would appear that they grow in a dry. brac
ing climate, subject to quite severe cold weather, in
fact, to freezing weather in winter.
It is a matter which ought to have immediate in
vestigation and attention, and I commend it es
pecially to Commissioner Loiing, commissioner of
rrleulture of the United States.
In this exhibition you will also find nnothcr ex
ample of a wild product: the wild silk of north
Chinn, sometimes called Tussah, Pongee or Clteefoo
the latter being the name of the district in which it
is principally found.
The worm which produces this silk, in latitude
42 , in a climate which is very cold in winter,
feeds upon the oak tree.
Tlie silk is full of tannin and cannot be readily
dyed; the goods as sold are <*{ their natural color,
and exceedingly strong and durable.
Captain Arthur, of the British navy, attache of
the legation in this country, lately informed mo
that he thought he had seen the variety of oak on
which this worm feeds, in southwest Virginia, and
as you have in your section three-fourths of all the
known varieties of oak, there is no doubt but what
the silkworm can be naturalized among you. Pro
fessor Riley tells me there is not much to be ex
pected from this, however.
This exhausts the list of the subjects of which I
have any knowledge, or to which I have given any
attention.
I make these suggestions, hoping that they may
oiien to you new visions of the potentialities, both
oi vour laud and of ours—of our common country.
f have done. I thought my speech was written
when I left the north, but there is not much here of
what I prepared there. My inadequate conception
of this exhibition limited my thought. Since I
came r have devoted each fifteen minutes interval
which vou have permitted me between one kind of
hospita’litv and another, to puttingjthese disjointed
scraps together. Pardon the repetitions und the
absence of consecutive method. I thank you for
your kiud attention, and hope I have not wearied
you overmuch. . . . „
Let me say before I close, that while to you is due
a word of praise, which others must render, for 1
have no words equal to the task, for the work you
have done here, the most precious legacy which I
can leave to mv children, and the proudest memo
rial of my life to which they can point hereafter,
will lie the record that J propo.-rai this exhibition,
and even faintly foreshadowed its beneficent in
fluence. " , ,
I have said you need the school house every
where. This is’the greeting whieli New England
sends you now:
Success to your great primary school of industry,
the Atlanta cotton expositson, an object lesson iu
all the arts of peace.
Baros TaccH-NITZ has now issued 2,000 vol
umes of English literature. A Bonn paper compli
ments him on the services he ha* rendered to Ger
man students of English, and on tlie liberality he
has shown to authors, especially to Americans, who
have no copyright treaties.