LETTERS
ON TIE
CULTURE AND.MANUFACTURE, 
OF 
OC0TTON, 
I' -'
NEW YORK:
PRINTED BY GEO. W. WOOD, 15 SPRUCE-STREET.
18~~~~~~~~~~~1. ~ ~ -r








LETTERS
ON THE
CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE
OF
COTTON:
21hkrtsO  ta  Fetmnan   / B it,  (Eq
Editor of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine.
AND PUBLISHED IN THE NUMBERS OF THAT JOURNAL FOR FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1850,
IN REPLY TO THE
COMMUNICATIONS OF A. A. LAWRENCE, ESQ.,
Originally published in the Merchants' Magazine for Dec. 1849 and January, 1850.
BY CHARLES T. JAMES,
CIVIL ENGINEER, OF PROVIDENCE, R. I.
NEW YORK:
PRINTED BY GEO. W. WOOD, 15 SPRUCE-STREET.
1850.








CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE
OF
COTTO N.
To FREEMAN HUNT, ESQ., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc.
THE readers of the "Merchants' Magazine" will recollect that in the
number for November, 1849, an article was published in relation to the culture and manufacture of cotton at the South, furnished by me. That article
has had the effect to call forth considerable discussion in the columns of the
newspaper press, and, finally, a review from the pen of AMOS A. LAWRENCE,
Esq., of Boston, which appeared in the December (1849) number of the
Merchants' Magazine, and that of January, 1850, under the head of " The
Condition and Prospects of American Cotton Manufactures, in 1849," and
to which the following remarks are intended as a reply. Before proceeding,
however, to discuss the subject in question, the writer would beg leave to
make two or three preliminary observations.  1st. The caption of Mr. Lawrence's review, as he pleases to term it, is a sort of ruse, intended, no doubt,
to lead the reader away from the true question. My article was not based
on the cotton manufactures of America for 1849, nor for any other particular year. It was an abridgement of a pamphlet published at the request of
others, and extensively circulated at the South and South-West, based on
the general condition of the cotton manufacture in America and Great Britain, for a series of years, and the "prospect" as to what might be done at
manufacturing in the South. Of course, in treating the subject, respect was
had to the advantages the South possessed over the North for the prosecution
of the business. Of all this, in his animadversions on my estimates of cost
profits, &c., Mr. Lawrence takes not the slightest notice, but represents me
as stating, as my prices of cotton, the value in the New York market. He
may consider such conduct gentlemanly: I consider nothing gentlemanly
that is unfair-and Mr. Lawrence must have known that he entirely misrepresented me.
In the second place, I consider Mr. Lawrence totally incompetent to discuss such a subject; and it is his name alone that gives his opinions respecting it any weight. This I pledge myself to prove to the letter, before I have
done with him. He is neither a mechanic nor a practical manufacturer
and is probably not much better qualified to make up a correct judgment on
the subject in question, than he would be to command a ship of war. In
the third place, his pretended review is entitled to no sort of respect, because,




4                 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
as I will show, it is false in many of its statements, and a portion of them
will be proved so by his own figures, and the statistics from which he professes to derive his facts. From beginning to end it is illusive and deceptive;
whether ignorantly so on his part, or for the purpose of counteracting my efforts, and to discourage southern competition with northern manufacturers,
he best knows-and respecting which the candid reader is left, to judge. On
the whole, it is a sort of production for which a common school-boy would
richly merit a rap on the knuckles, had he studied the simple rudiments of
arithmetic, and learned the difference between a cotton spindle and a power
loom.
We will commence our review of the review, by noticing, first, one of his
pretended corrections. Evidently struck with horror at the startling apparition of southern competition with northern manufacturers, in reference to
the proposition to manufacture all our cotton at home, Mr. Lawrence, with
apparent perfect confidence, exclaims-" From what source can labor and
skill be derived, to set in operation an amount of machinery so vast as is
here contemplated? And from what quarter is to proceed the capital required for the enterprise?"  Are not these very sage queries to be started by
a financier, a political economist, and a manufacturer?  Forty years since, in
New England, it would not have sounded strange to hear such inquiries;
seventy or eighty years since, in Great Britain. But in both countries they
have been satisfactorily solved, and now sound perfectly absurd and ridiculous.  With the exception of comparatively small beginnings, what has created the manufacturing capital, and called skill and labor into operation, but
manufactories themselves?  Can Mr. Lawrence tell? And why should not
the South do the same, especially with the enormously increased facilities
Europe and America now afford, and her advantage of furnishing the cottonmill with raw material from its proprietor's own field, at the market value of
one and a half cent, to two cents per pound less than it costs the manufacturer at Lowell, and at least three cents per pound less than is paid for it in
Great Britain? Thus far, in Europe and America, Mr. Lawrence's problem
has found no difficulty of solution; and still the looms and spindles increase
by thousands, and the capital increases by millions-maugre all pretended
apprehensions of the paucity of labor, skill, and money-as, witness the new
city of Lawrence, and the mammoth establishment in progress at IIadley
Falls, to say nothing of other smaller ones going up in various places. If
Mr. Lawrence and his fiiends are so extremely fearful of a lack of labor,
skill, and capital, they should be less earnest than their actions would seem
to indicate, to transfer the manufacture of cotton goods from Great Britain
to NVew England.  They should cease to erect their large manufactories, and
petition Congress for a bounty on British imports, instead of a high protective
duty.  This might quiet their fears for a time.
But the above queries, as far as they are intended to mean anything, are
thrown out to mystify the reader, and, if possible, to intimidate the people of
the South; and thus to discourage them  from  the attempt to improve the
advantages they possess for a successful competition with the North.  He
knows, and so does every manufacturer, that they have not even the semblance of fact. By the statement that manufacturing is a " legitimate" business for the South, and must extend there, he would seem inclined to give
the southern people encouragement to go on; but this is a seeming, only, for
throughout he uses every effort in his power to neutralize their energies, and
to cast obstructions in their way.  What is the character of his fears as re



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                 5
spects labor, skill, and capital? Does his sympathetic soul take the alarm a?
Is he very much distressed with fearful anxiety, lest "our friends of the
South " should ruin themselves by the prosecution of a branch of business
which has made Great Britain the banker of the world, and left New England but a short distance in the rear?
His tender soul certainly deserves commisseration, and it is hoped he will
carefully bottle up his tears, as a memento of fraternal piety, to be handed
down, as a sacred relic, to future posterity. But it may be that the gentleman's sympathies go with " our friends at" Lowell.  It would not be wonderful, seeing he is one of the brotherhood. They may possibly extend themselves to the new city of Lawrence, and to other regions of the North and
East. Who knows  Doubtless he must commisserate the poverty and sufferings of such men as the Lawrences, the Appletons, and a host of others,
who have found the manufacturing business such a losing affair, that they
have not probably made more than fifty or a hundred thousand dollars each
by it per annum, for some time past. Poor souls! Their doughty champion
is probably fearful that the southern people, should they go largely into the
business, may reduce those small incomes to still lower figures, and thus bring
the poverty-stricken souls to absolute destitution! It is hoped his fears may
not be realized to such an awful extent!
But as a business-man, does not Mr. Lawrence know that capital will al-.
ways seek profitable investment? That a lucrative business will command
it at first, and will continue to create its own means afterwards? Does he
not know that labor, like every other commodity, will seek the best market,
that skill will do the same, and that a lucrative business can afford good prices,
and will command both?  He may have known a particular branch of business to suffer embarrassment for a time, from their scarcity, but he never
knew, and never will know, any lucrative business to fail entirely, or to suffer
very material permanent injury, from the want of capital, labor, and skill.
From the present state of the world, and the vast amount of wealth already
accumulated, and being accumulated, and the rapid increase of population,
especially in this country, the South has nothing to fear in these respects.
Let the people there multiply cotton spindles as fast as New England has
done, and is doing, and they will not be under the necessity of suffering a
defeat in the enterprise from the want of labor, skill, and capital. The history of seventy years past will fully confirm this.
The people whom  Mr. Lawrence so affectionately terms "our southern
friends," and of whose interests he appears to be so extremely careful, must
feel themselves highly flattered by the picture of them which he draws; and
they must be very happily, not to say strangely, constituted, if, as he represents them, they are "satisfied," as he says they are, with the state of things
he has detailed.  He says the planters of the South receive and are satisfied
with a lower rate of interest than the British manufacturers, or even than
our own; an assertion, by-the-by, which Mr. Lawrence himself attempts to
disprove on the very next page! Yet it is true that they do receive a lower
rate of interest than the British or American manufacturer either; but that
they are " satisfied" with it, is not true. This we shall show. He goes on
to say-" Though there are many rich men in the large cotton-growing
States, the number of moneyed men is very small. The planters are generally in debt, more or less, either from having extended their business beyond
their means, or from the habit of anticipating their incomes, by borrowing of
their cotton factors, the banks, or by credit at the stores."  This picture is




6                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
correct in most of its details; and, if true of the four "great cotton-growing
States" which Mr. Lawrence particularizes, what must it be of the otherssuch as North and South Carolina, Tennessee, &c.? And what is the cause
of this state of things? Mr. Lawrence insists that there is not an over-prOduction of cotton. If there were not, then the supply and demand would
keep pace with each other. The planter would be, as he seldom is, one party
in the establishment of a price, which would have relation to the cost of production, and some respect to a fair profit on the business. But it is not so.
There has been nearly all the time, for ten years, a large redundant stock on
hand. The planter has been compelled to sell for the prices offered him.
And those prices have yielded him returns so small, that he has been compelled to keep in debt, and to anticipate his income. The cotton planter, as
a general rule, lives in a much more frugal manner than the northern manufacturer, or even than the agent and chief officers of his establishment. Why,
then, is he not rich? Why is he not a moneyed man? Why is he always
in debt? Simply, and for no other reason than, though a few very large
operators on the very best lands make money, yet by far the greater portion
are able, with the most prudent management, to do but little more than
"make both ends of the year meet."  This is no fiction. It is a picture
drawn from personal observation and long acquaintance, and not sketched
from fancy, in Mr. Lawrence's counting-room or study. And, as to the large
amount of lands remaining unsold in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Arkansas, for want of capital, this story is pure fiction, and carries incontrovertible evidence of its fallacy on its own face. If those lands were wanted
for the purpose of cotton culture, were of proper character for that purpose,
and could be worked to a profit, how long does Mr. Lawrence suppose they
would remain unsold in market for want of capital? Any smart, active, and
prudent man, at the South, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket, may
obtain nearly as many acres of these lands; and even if he has no money,
he can obtain them on credit.  Why, then, are they not taken up?  For
two or three simple reasons, which cotton planters know, and well understand.
1st. But a small proportion of them  are adapted to the growth of cotton,
even if more cotton lands were wanted.  2d. Because there is already more
land appropriated to the growth of cotton than the demand for the article warrants.  3d. As the consequence, a farther extension of the business would run
it down still lower, and inevitably prove a losing operation to all concerned.
These only, and not the want of capital and population, are the reasons why
the above-named lands remain unsold. If the culture of cotton had returned
profits and created capital in an equal ratio with those of its manufacture,
the cotton-growing States would, at this moment, have all the necessary capital and population to carry out new enterprises, as well as New England.
But they have not, and the reason is,.that their business is not equally productive. In fact, as the history of ages fully attests, no people, purely agricultural, can make profits equal to those realized by manufacturers, nor create
wealth as rapidly.
As to the cost of cultivating cotton, I have but few words to say, but those
will be sufficient. The estimates given by me are not my own. They are
from planters who own and cultivate the best cotton plantations on the Mississippi; and taking theirs at the highest estimate, and others at the lowest,
as to quantity the average will be smaller even than that I have given;
while it is well known that the smaller crop per acre on the medium and poorer
plantations, as in all other agricultural operations, is produced at a higher




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.               7
cost per pound than on the best. My average estimate, therefore, allows to
the cotton planter a greater return than the facts would warrant.
Mr. Lawrence undertakes to disprove my position that there is an overproduction of cotton. Let us see how well he succeeds. He says, the
quantity produced in 1845 has not been equalled since, till 1849; and what
does this prove, even though, as he says, manufactories have much increased,
both in Great Britain and the United States. In 1843 they might possibly
have produced cotton enough to supply the factories for seven years, with
all their increase, and raised none for the succeeding five years. What then 2
Would not this have been an overproduction? Yes: the planters might
have suspended operations for seven years, and would not the quantity of
1843 been an overproduction of the very worst kind? Would it not have
been a ruinous affair to the planter to have had such a stock on hand, diminishing only in the ratio of the annual consumption? And yet, according
to Mr. Lawrence's logic, this would not have been an overproduction, because
it was all purchased and consumed in the course of seven years! And how
would prices have ranged? Let us now look at the markets during those
six years, from 1843 to 1848, inclusive. In 1843, the amount raised in this
country was 2,378,875 bales. On the 31st day of December, 1843, there
remained on hand, in the British market, 785,950 bales, including that from
India, &c. In 1844, the American crop amounted to 2,030,409 bales.
Here was a falling off in the crop; but the entire stock on hand, as above,
December 31st, had increased to 903,110 bales; an increase of 117,160
bales, the over production of 1843 and 1844; and, in 1845, by means of a
still more redundant crop of 2,394,508 bales, the stock on hand December
31st, reached 1,065,270 bales. From that period to 1848, inclusive, the
stock on hand December 31st, of that year, had only diminished to 496,050
bales. Every year of this period, therefore, the planter had to go into the
market with his cotton, with that market already supplied with a quantity
varying from one-fifth to nearly one-half his entire crop. During the first
three years of this period the quantity of American cotton alone on hand in
the British market, exceeded the entire consumption in the United States, by
66',771 bales; and, during the last three years, it fell short of that quantity,
by 567,876 bales. Thus, during the six years, the quantity of American
cotton on hand in the British market, on an average, somewhat exceeded the
entire consumption in the United States. Thus, up to the close of 1848,
the European and American manufacturers combined, with all their increase
of spindles and looms, had not relieved the American planters of the redundant production of the previous six years; for there was then on hand
496,050 bales, of which 272,230 were American, besides those in continental
Europe and the United States. But Mr. Lawrence admits that there was an
over-production of 616,000 bales in 1843, which has not been entirely disposed of till 1849; yet he considers this as no overproduction at all. But,
to my obtuse intellect, it appears to me that this must be something worse to
the planter than a regular overproduction of 100,000 bales a year, for six
years. He has had it to compete with in the market all the time, less
100,000 bales per annum, to press down prices, besides having so much property lying dead.
Another hap-hazard statement of Mr. Lawrence is, that, in addition to
the amount stated by me as being received by the planter for his cotton,
there should be added $20,000,000 for " corn, potatoes, pork, &c.," sent to
market. The cotton planters would rejoice, no doubt, to hear such a piece




8                 (Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
of intelligence as this, provided they could believe it true, and Mr. Lawrence
would just inform them where they should call for the money. They will
find it in coined moonshine, on deposit in the invisible vaults of that gentleman's air-built castle. It never had any other existence, as every cotton
planter well knows. The estimated cost of the culture of cotton, contained
in my article, included the cost of raising cotton only, and which embraced
the cost of other products either to be purchased, or raised on the plantation,
such as provisions, &C., necessary to the labors and laborers of the cottonfield. If Mr. Lawrence can find any "corn, pork, potatoes," &c., to abstract
from these, without starving the laborers, he must be a keen economist. For
one, I have not yet learned the art of feeding people at home with "corn,
pork, and potatoes," and sending said " corn, pork, and potatoes " to market,
too. But, if he will cast his eye back a few pages, to the article of Professor
C. F. McCay, in the same number of the Magazine which contains the celebrated veracious review before us, he will see that gentleman intimates a state
of things something different from this snug little $20,000,00 for corn,
pork, potatoes, &c. The Professor says, when speaking of the cotton planters, with the view to keeping up prices in market: " Let them continue their
endeavors to divert their labor to other pursuits; let their extra capital be
devoted to the building of railroads, mills, and factories; let them extend the
cultivation of sugar, wheat, and corn; let them raise at home their own
pork, mules, and horses; let them encourage domestic manufactures of all
kinds." It would seem that Professor McCay, though located among the
cotton-growers, and, as his article shows, a person of extensive observation
and much intelligence, had a mighty notion, as we Yankees say, that the
planters make too much cotton for the market, and too little corn, pork, &c.,
for themselves. He had evidently not yet had an inkling of the aforesaid
imaginary $20,000,000, and probably never will have, unless the perusal of
Mr. Lawrence's review should cause him to dream of them.
Another serious "error," real or supposed, Mr. Lawrence has discovered
and rebuked. He says that, in making my comparisons, the price of cotton
is put at six cents, when it should have been put at the present rate of twelve
or thirteen cents. To this I reply, in the first place, when my article was
written, no such price for cotton was known here, as he names, and, whatever he may think on the subject, or would have done, it would not have
been quite fair or honorable, in my view, to make a price in anticipation, to
accommodate him, and to aid him in making out a case.  The prices named
by me, are quite as high as the average for the last ten years. In the second
place, neither of the prices named by me was stated, or intended to be stated, at any time, for " twenty days," or twenty hours, as the prices in the
"New York market," as he seems to wish his readers to believe.  Had he
read my article with one eye half open, he would have seen, and probably
did see it. My estimate, based on actual results-results which I pledge to
make good in my next-was intended, as the facts fully show, to apply to a
southern mill, with the cotton at the plantation value.  My real estimate, or
rather the estimate of the cotton planter, was six cents per pound returned to
him; but, to have it full high enough, in the estimate made in detail by me,
it was put down at seven cents. So much for the honest fairness of the review, (?) and for the truth of what I have here stated, the reader is referred
to my article. But to show still farther the sophistry, or something worse,
of the review, its author admits the prices of cotton must fall, during the
coming season, or the prices of cloth rise, or both. And yet, even under




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.               9
this conviction, he finds fault with nme for not having adopted almost the highest price of cotton for ten years as its average value, when that price was unknown, which has even now prevailed but for two or three months, and which
he confesses can continue but a short time, without a rise in the price of
cloth; and for not adopting a low price of cloth, which he confesses has not
been the average for more than nine months past! I must have been either
a fool or a knave, to make such a statement, and yet such is the statement
the author of the review seems to think I ought to have made! Still, I
care not what price cotton may bear, for the course of trade will, in the long
run, regulate the prices of cloth accordingly. Though fluctuations do, and
will, occur, as in all other branches of business, manufacturing in New England will, as it ever has done, pay a handsome profit; and the southern
manufacturer, all other things being equal, can make a profit as much greater
as all the difference between the cost of cotton in the cotton-fields, and its
cost at Lowell; and this will be $20,000 per annum at least, on the quantity
consumed in my "first class mill," in the manufacture of sheetings No. 14.
On this subject, however, my next article will treat in full.
Again: I am called to account for the comparison of the labors of 57,000
persons in the New England cotton-mills, in 1839, with those of the laborers
in the cotton-fields in the South, or rather, the products of.their labor, and in
which I am accused of a tremendous error. And why this accusation? How
is this mighty error detected and exposed? We shall see. He says, though
the value of the cotton was put down at six cents per pound, the planter received thirteen cents for it that same year. And what does he suppose I
have been about, for more than twenty years, that I should not know the
prices of cotton as well as he, and especially with the same statistics at hand
firom which his own information is, or rather should be, derived? Would it
have been fair or honorable in me, in attempting to make out, for the information and at the request of others, a statement of what might be expected
as the results of manufacturing operations, under the best system, to point
them to old mills running at a loss, and cotton, eleven years since, at "fourteen cents a pound in the southern market," when new mills can be erected
at a reduction of cost of more than 25 per cent, and turn off more and better product by 25 per cent, and when, notwithstanding the high price of cotton in 1839, and a portion of 1849, its average value in that same market
has not exceeded eight cents, nor returned to the planter more than six?
Such might have suited Mr. Lawrence's notion of honesty, and been appropriate to his object; but not so with me. My object, in that comparison,
was the general relative amount of capital and value of product —not in the
year 1839 in particular, but for a series of years; and hence, without saying
anything of prices in that year, either of cotton or cloths, a fair average for
eleven years was made of the price of cotton, and the price of cloth taken at
the low standard of 1849. Whether my course, or that pointed out by my
reviewer, be the fair and honorable one, is left to persons of candor to judge.
But I deny the statement that planters, in 1839, received thirteen cents per
pound for their cotton. During that year, Georgia bowed cotton averaged
but six and three-quarters pence per pound in the Liverpool market, (see
Waterson's Cyclopmedia of Commerce, Art. Cotton,) and the average price of
this cotton was higher than that of any other description of American cotton,
the small quantity of Sea Island excepted. Taking, therefore, all descriptions
of American cotton together, Sea Island excepted, the average price for the
year, in the Liverpool market, did not exceed thirteen cents per pound.




10               Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
The duty alone was more than one cent per pound, to which add, for
freight, commissions, insurance, drayage, &c., one and a half cent, and
you leave the everage price in the American market ten and a half
cents, instead of fourteen, with a return to the planter not exceeding nine
and a half cents, instead of thirteen. So much for the assumed facts to
correct my supposed error. During the entire period, up to this time, the
price in the American market has fallen short of an average of eight cents;
and when I average the planter's return at six, I have the authority of his
own estimate, as well as that of the best informed editors of New Orleans,
Savannah, &c., who, in stating the value of the crops, state them at six cents
per pound.
Let the foregoing statements be tested by recurrence to official data, and
then let judgment be made up between Mr. Lawrence and me. Will he now
please to recollect, that in making my estimates for southern mills, his atten.
tion is cited for the cost of cotton, not to Lowell, nor to the New York market, but to the cotton plantation. Whatever other silly notion he may attribute to me, he certainly cannot suppose me quite mad enough to think
that the cotton planter would send his cotton to New York, for the pleasure
of going there to purchase it at an advance of 30 per cent in price, to send
back again with an additional cost of 30 per cent more, to supply his own
spindles and looms. Suppose, now, one of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills,"
with a capital of $360,000, (and some of them have less than that,) to manufacture, into sheetings No. 14, 1,800,000 lbs. of cotton per annum, as my
"first class mill" will, and to make a dividend of 8 per cent, with cotton at
the Lowell cost. Is it not a plain case, that could the cotton be had at the
plantation price, if only one cent per pound less than its cost at Lowell, the
difference would be $18,000, or 5 per cent on the capital of $360,000? Add
that to the average 8 per cent dividend, and you make it 13 per cent. If
the Lowell manufacturer could realize such an advantage by having cotton
grown in Massachusetts, instead of Alabama, why should not the southern
manufacturer realize it, with the cotton-field almost within hailing distance
of his own mill?
Again: my statement is disputed, that the value of the annual product
of the British mills about equals the amountof capital employed; and, in
order to correct me, the review states that the amount set down by me is
only the value of mills and machinery, and there is employed, besides, a
floating capital of $110,000,000. On this point it is unknown to me whence
Mr. Lawrence derives his information, but probably from the same, or a similar source, from which came the veracious statement that the planters, in
1839, received thirteen cents per pound for their cotton, and it is very probably deserving of about the same degree of credit. Baines says that, in
1833, the value of product from the British mills was ~31,338,693; and
"the capital employed," about ~34,000,000. Waterons, in 1840, taking
Baines' statement as a guide, says that, though manufactures had very much
increased, yet, by reason of quicker returns, &c., capital had not undergone a
corresponding increase. Here is nothing said about "fixed " and "floating "
capital-the expression is, "capital employed," and which common sense
would dictate to mean the entire capital. This, however, be it as it may, is
a matter of little importance to the subject; for, if the British mill cannot
be made to equal the amount of its entire capital, "fixed " and "floating,"
with its annual product, I am fully prepared to show, and to prove, and
promise to do it in my closing number, to Mr. Lawrence's satisfaction, that an




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                11
American mill can do it. Ile may bear this in mind, and call me to account,
if I fail to fulfill the promise to the letter.
My calculation was to meet my reviewer in this number, on the subject
of the cost of steam-mills; amount of capital necessary, quantity of product,
cost, &c.; but, as he has devoted his second number, in a great measure, to
those items, I shall pass over, for the present, what he has said of them in
his first, until my second number, that they may all come before the reader
in their proper order, and that the fallacy of his visionary dreamnings may be
the more readily exposed. Let us now advert to his groans of agony over
the hapless fate of the poverty-stricken manufacturers of Lowell, and elsewhere. The present high prices of cotton, and low prices of goods, seem to
have afflicted him with nightmare. The cry of thirteen cents per pound,'
and six cents per yard, seem to stalk before him like frightful goblins, from
which he has no means of escape. But, if he could only hear the sound of
his own voice, he might derive consolation from the accents of his own lips.
Hear him. The price of cotton, he says, must fall, or the price of goods
rise, and perhaps both, the coming season. Did you ever! —as Aunt Charity
would say; and yet this same Mr. Lawrence, the gentleman who has said
this, is troubled almost to death about the high prices of cotton, and is somewhat testy with me because I have not based my calculations on them, as
though they had been the average ruling prices for the ten years past,
and were certain to be for half a century to come. My respects to the gentleman-I am not subject to nightmare.
That some mills are now running at small profits, and others at a loss, is
a fact as well known to me as to him. I will also whisper in his ear another
fact equally true. There are some mills which always have run, and always
will run, as long as they run at all, at a small profit; and there are others,
which, making little or nothing in the best of times, must lose money when
the times are close and pinching. But all this is no more the fault of the
manufacturing business, than it is the fault of wind and sails, that a common
mud-scow will not cleave the bosom of the sea with the same velocity as the
clipper-built pilot-boat.  But, in order to show that even the best of cottonmills make little or nothing, Mr. Lawrence gives his readers a list of some
twenty-four of what he terms "first-class mills," which, according to their
declared dividends, as copied from their books, have earned, on an average,
for eleven years past, but little more than 8 per cent per annum on their
aggregate capital.  There may be some difference of opinion as to what constitutes a first-class mill, and some doubts whether declared dividends always
represent the amount of profits.  If a first-class mill means one that will
turn off the greatest amount of product, of the best quality, with the smallest
capital, and the lowest cost, he has not one in his list, as shall be proved,
beyond the reach of doubt, in my next number.  And then as to dividendswhat criterion do they afford, by which to judge of the amount of profits?
None at all. A company may wield a capital of $300,000, and owe onehalf of it. They may earn $150,000 in one year, or 50 per cent on the
capital; and, instead of declaring a dividend, take the profits to pay the
debts. There are a great many companies, one of them  as wealthy and as
successful as any in New England, which latter was established in 1808, and
the others since, which have never declared a dividend; but all have made
money.  And how with the "first-class" Lowell companies?  Have they divided all their profits? Or have they reserved a great proportion of them
from year to year, to bring up a nominal capital to a real one, and to build




12               Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
new and extensive cotton-mills, as most of them have done? Mr. Lawrence
has given us no light from the books, on this point. One compapy, to be
sure, he tells us, has made a stock dividend this year of 25 per cent, which
amounts to $500,000. This money has been expended in the erection of a
new cotton-mill. This amount, and more, was on hand last year; but, had
Mr. Lawrence's statement been made out then, we should have heard nothing
of it. Is it not true, that vast amounts of profits from Lowell mills have
thus been reserved and invested, even within ten or five years past, for which
not even stock dividends have been declared?  If so, what reliance can be
placed on Mr. Lawrence's columns of declared dividends, as to the amount
of profits? Who can tell by them whether the profits have averaged 8 per
cent, 18, 28, or 50? Some of these mills are reported, in 1849, with two
thousand more spindles than in 1845, and so on, up to twelve thousand
more; yet they represent no increase of capital stock. How is this, if the
business has been so extended by means of new subscriptions? In that case,
would not the capital stock have been increased in the same ratio? There
is some hocus-pocus about it, which we leave Mr. Lawrence to explain by
reference to the " books of the company." If he cannot explain it, there
are others who can.
In this number, the attention of the reader will be invited to but one more
paragraph contained in the review, and that near the commencement of the
first part, as the calculations which the affected shrewdness of its writer, before alluded to, will be treated of in full hereafter. In that paragraph, he
says:-" To carry out the plan of withholding cotton," (from the European
market,) " it will be necessary to obtain the passage of a law imposing an
export duty. Without this, it would be impossible to prevent it from going
abroad, as soon as the withdrawal of a portion had produced its effect of
raising the price in Europe." Of all the laughable propositions ever made
by a wise man, no one ever exceeded this in absurdity-no, not even that
laid down by some other modern Solomon, the extraction of gold from gingerbread. One would think that the southern planter, as a free American citizen, had the right to withhold his cotton from the European market, if he
should think proper so to do, without an export duty. The planter, when
he found he could make more money by working up his cotton, than by
sending it abroad, would require no prohibitory duty but his own interest to
induce him to keep it at home. The Yankee farmer requires no prohibition
to induce him to refrain from sending to market the hay necessary to feed
his own cattle, and the grain to fatten his own pork. And, as to the southern
planter, much of a simpleton, and as easily gulled, as Mr. Lawrence appears
to think him, he knows rather too much to send abroad the cotton required
for his own cotton spindles, duty or no duty. But Mr. Lawrence intimates
that the effect of the withdrawal of a part from the European market would
be to raise prices in that market, and hence induce the exportation of the
article. What wonderful sagacity! Would it not have suggested itself to
the merest tyro in mercantile affairs, that, if the European spinner should
bid up a high price for cotton, the rise in this country would be proportionate. Where the benefit to result to the.planter from sending abroad, when
he w ould realize for it, at his own door, as much as it would return him
from a foreign market, while he would, by retaining it at home, either directly or indirectly, participate in the benefits to be derived from its manufacture?
A ain: in what way can a British manufacturer compete, now, with the




Culture and lManufacture of Cotton.               13
manufacturer of New England? By the manufacture of fabrics requiring
much labor, and little stock. The higher the price of cotton, then, the less
able will he be to keep up the'competition. Were cotton thirty cents per
pound, instead of ten, in the southern market, now, insurance and commissions would be 200 per cent higher; and the same would be true of' insurance and commissions on the transportation and sale of his goods. These
would become a heavy entry on the wrong side of his ledger, and with which
he could not compete with the southern manufacturer, whose cotton would,
in such a case, come at from three to four cents a pound less than it could be
obtained for by the British spinner. Indeed, at the average plantation value
of cotton for the last ten years, and with "first class " steam  " mills," the
descriptions of cotton goods manufactured in this country could be turned off
as cheaply as in Manchester, England, and probably at lower rates, and defy
all British competition in the markets of the world, unless prevented by foreign prohibitory duties; and the southern people would make a much more
handsome profit by means of the operation, than by sending their cotton to
Europe. Increase manufactories as fast as we please, and Mr. Lawrence
need entertain no distressing apprehensions as to a deficiency in. the supply
of cotton for them.  "Our southern friends," having once fairly embarked in
the enterprise, and fully tested its advantages, will not, for the mere purpose
of atcommodating the British manufacturer, send him  the stock required
for their own mills, maugre all attempts to frighten them out of their property with the stale old sing-song, now republished by Mr. Lawrence for the
nine hundred and ninety-ninth time, of low dividends and sunken stocks.
Having now said all that is necessary in this number, we will dismiss the
subject for the present, with a promise to the reader that in the March number of the Magazine, all the estimates called in question by Mr. Lawrence
shall be confirmed, all his objections answered, and all his fallacies exposed;
including that heterogeneous and contradictory tissue of false and deceptive
statements which almost entirely make up his closing number.
LETTER II.
To FREEMAN HUNT, ESQ., Editor of the Jlerchants' Mfiagazine, etc.:
HAVING little time or space to spare for circumlocution, permit me, in continuation of my rejoinder to Mr. Lawrence, to come directly to the point, in a plain
and straight-forward manner. In his last number he promises, in the outset,
to " give some more facts," to confirm the conclusions already reached.  If
he had said "some more fallacious statements, to give color to conclusions
already jumped at," he would have come much nearer to the statement of a
fact than he has in almost any other statement he has made. Let us proceed to examine "some morefacts" of his, and ascertain how far they will
stand the test of truth.
Mr. Lawrence says that he does not admit steam-mills into the " first class,"
because "they have a radical defect;" hence, it is presumed, he selected
twenty-six water-mills as the fitting representatives of that order, because




14               Culture and.Mianufacture of Cotton.
he supposed them to have No " radical defect." One would suppose that a
" first class cotton-mill" should contain the best machinery, under the most
perfect arrangement, with the most perfect combinations, and capable of turning off the greatest amount of product per spindle in a given time, of the
best'quality, and at the lowest cost. That this perfection and capability can
be created within the walls of one building as well as of another, without
respect to the species of power to be applied, every man of common sense
and discernment will at once see and admit. Mr. Lawrence's "radical defect," then, must exist in reference to steam-power, instead of water-power;
and if we can show that steam-mills will and do make more goods per spindle than water mills, in a given time, of better quality, at less cost, and hence
at a greater profit, we shall show, by the same process, that what he is
pleased to call " a radical defect," that excludes them from his list of " first
class mills," is truly an improvement that exalts them above that class. For
the decision of this question, I rest on facts to be given by and by, and am
ready to abide the result. For his show of facts, Mr. Lawrence has selected
four steam-mills, which I shall name in the following order: —The Portsmouth Mill, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Globe Mill, James Mill, and Bartlett Mills, Newburyport, and Naumkeagf Mill, Salem, Massachusetts.'
Of the Portsmouth Mill, the gentleman says it "was erected in 1845-6,
after a course of lectures delivered in that town by General James.". By
the omission of any explanatory word, and without even a note of punctuation in the sentence, the writer has left it fairly to be inferred, under the
circumstances, that not only the "lectures" were "delivered by General
James," but also that the mill was built by him. The only comment I shall
offer on this statement, is, that I neither built nor planned the Portsmouth
Mill, have had nothing to do with it, and never saw it. The Portsmouth
people were told by me, what were and still are, my views of the benefits to
be derived from the operations of cotton-mills in seaport places. Very true,
the business of the Portsmouth Mill has heretofore proved a failure. The
Naumkeng Mill, built at the same period, has made handsome profits. Why
has not the Portsmouth Mill? Because, unlike the Naumkeag, it has been
appropriated to a branch of the manufacturing business new in this country,
of which there was much to learn. The same difficulty occurred with the
first attempt to manufacture mousseline de laines, at Manchester, New Hampshire, and the losses were so great, that the capital stock of the company
came down to more than 75 per cent below par. Yet the enterprising proprietors of the Portsmouth Mill, instead of being chuckled at for their losses,
in the vein of Mr. Lawrence, are worthy of different treatment.  It is gratifying to know that this company has entered into arrangements with the celebrated J. DUNNEL, Esq., for printing their lawns, and, under their present
management, are doing a good business.
The business of the Globe Mill may or may not have proved a failure. If
it has, so has that of many water-mills, in their infancy, in all respects as
good as Mr. Lawrence's "first class mills."  That is no proof of " a radical
defect in steam mills." The failure of that mill to do a profitable business
is owing to no such cause, nor is it in the least attributable to me. True,
the mill was built according to my plans, though not under my immediate and
sole supervision. I was employed merely as an engineer; and the mill was never
run a single week by me, nor under my direction, nor in accordance with my
advice. in consequence of the rejection of my counsel in the matter, and
the determined opposition to all my efforts, satisfied that I could exert no




Culture and Manufacture of C'otton.                15
influence for the benefit of the company, I left it to its fate. The fate which
Mr. Lawrence says overtook it, was predicted by me at the time, in aletter to
the president and directors. That a profit might have been made by them
is, however certain; for, before cutting my connection with the mill, I offered
to take it to run on my own account, at a handsome rent, and to give a satisfactory guaranty for the fulfilment of the contract on my part. My offer was
rejected, and if the company has lost money by the mill, that is their fault.
The James Mill. This mill, Mr. Lawrence says, is " sometimes held up as
a model for all steam-mills." We will challange him to point out its equal
among his " first class " water-" mills." He says —" It was put in operation
in 1843;" and partially, it was so; but was not completed and in full operation, till the middle of October, 1845. And still, during the whole time,
from its first start in 1843, to the date of Mr. Lawrence's article, he admits
small dividends, regularly, amounting, in all, to 28 per cent. One would
think this was pretty well, under the circumstances. But what are the facts
with regard to this mill. The plan on which it was first projected, included only
from 5,000 to 6,000 spindles; and estimates were made accordingly. From
time to time, as new subscriptions were tendered, the plan was enlarged, until, in
1845, as above stated, it was completed and put in full operation, with about
17,000 spindles. Notwithstanding the gentleman's outcry about the excess of
the cost of this mill over the estimates, yet it is well known that its new stock, to
the amount of $50,000, sold at auction in State street, Boston, at a handsome
per centage above par. In the case of this mill, as in that of others, dividends do not tell the story about earnings. Since the mill went into operation, a new and expensive reservoir has been constructed, and real estate purchased, paid for from the earnings; and, from the same source, an addition
has been made to its cash capital. For the future, it is very probable, Mr.
Lawrence may be satisfied with the amount of profits.
" To show the uncertainty with which estimates are made," Mr. Lawrence
goes on to state a variety of such, made, as he says, respecting the cost
of the James Mill. Untrue as most, or all of them are, it is only necessary
here to point out the jesuitical course pursued by him, to reach a false conclusion at last, and to leave a false impression on the minds of his readers.
Recollect-the gentleman had already said that the James Mill had 17,000
spindles; but, in detailing what he calls the estimates, he only comes up to
11,000 which were to cost $189,000, but which were found to have cost over
$250,000. Now, the truth is, the entire mill, with nearly 17,000 spindles, in
complete operation, cost something short of $245,000; or more than $5,000
less than he has put down for 11,000. What dependence can be placed on
any statement from such a source? The dividends amount to 30 per cent,
instead of 28, as stated by Mr. Lawrence.
In saying that neither the James nor Naumkeag Mills had paid simple interest to its stockholders, Mr. Lawrence, in a note, says the Bartlett Mills,
built before the others named, " have been more successful," though they
cost $334,000, instead of $265,000, which is the first estimate. Have any
of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills" been more successful than the Bartlett,
from their commencement? This question he did not choose to decide, because, forsooth, "steam-mills have a radical defect," which excludes them
from his " first class."  By the way-Bartlett Mill No. 1 was erected before
I saw it, and before I had anything to do with it, or with the company; and
I was employed merely as an engineer, to fill it with machinery, and put it in
operation, and, as agent, to run it. Mill No. 2 was planned, constructed,




16               Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
and started by me, and run under my directions for a length of time. Lest
the gentleman should go off in a paroxism, in contemplation of the frightful excess of $69,000 in this case over the estimate, as he says, I'would console him with two " more facts" in connection with it. One is, that a good
deal more was added to the expenditure on the buildings, &c., than had been
contemplated, at the instance of William Bartlett, Esq., a very large stockholder, and who refused to have anything to do with the business unless he
could be gratified in that respect. The other is, that there are 2,000 spindles more in the mills than the original designs and estimates included. Mr.
Lawrence, if he did not know these facts, might have learned them, but he
seems not to have cared much about collecting " more facts," unless they were
such as would help to "confirm the conclusions" which he had " already
reached."
The Naumkeag Mill is another of Mr. Lawrence's subjects of animadversion, which he says was built at a cost very wide of its estimate, and which,
though a "' very fine mill," has not paid the stockholders simple interest (6
per cent) on the investment. Notwithstanding all this assurance, Mr. Lawrence is altogether wrong in the matter. The same process that will prove
this, will also fully show that the Portsmouth and Globe steam-mills, built
at the same time with the Naumkeag, might have been made profitable establishments. le says the Naumkeag Mill contains 24,000 spindles. But
he ought to have known that it contains something over 31,000 spindles.
Were it true, as he says, that the mill cost $680,000, with its appurtenances,
then, with 24,000 spindles, its cost would have been $28- per spindle. But,
containing, as it does, 31,000 spindles and upward, the cost per spindle
would be reduced to a fraction less than $22. This is not a very trifling error, inasmuch as it would make a difference of more than $60,000 in the
cost of a steam-mill of 1.0,000 spindles. But Mr. Lawrence does not seem to
have an eye to scan these small items. The Naumkeag Mill, with its appurtenances, did not, however, cost $680,000.  I am sorry to be under the necessity of so frequently contradicting Mr. Lawrence; but a writer who values
his self-complacency, to say nothing of his credit, should be somewhat careful how he deals with truth.
On the 19th of January, 1848, when the mill had been completed and
put into full operation, and the bills, contracts, &c., gathered in, the annual
report was made to the president and directors of the company, and in which
were specified the various items of cost, and their amount. The footings of
the amount was $621,199 —~-o; being about $60,000 less than Mr. Lawrence's statement.  Again: in the above amount of $621,199'~!A  is included
valuable real estate connected with that on which the mill is situated, but
constituting no part of its appurtenances, and in no respect necessary to it.
The president and directors appointed an intelligent committee, who, after
due deliberation, fixed on this redundant property the value of $56,483 33.
This valuation has since been reaffirmed. Deduct this from the full amount
as above, and you leave, as the actual cost of the Naumkeag Mill, with its
appurtenances, $564,715,-l7-7  instead of $680,000, as Mr. Lawrence has it,
and making a difference against his facts, of no less than $115,000! But
he speaks of the excess of cost, in this case, over the estimates. On this
point, to satisfy the gentleman, if possible, I will here present a brief extract
or two from the above-named report.  The report says:"In a work of such magnitude, and when so much remained to be done, it
will hardly be considered matter of surprise that an exact estimate should




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                17
not have been formed, and especially as one is liable to under estimate outlays, in his anxiety not to surpass the limits he prescribes to himself."' The
excess ofcost over the estimate was, as stated in the report,' 12 per cent;"
but this excess included the above amount of $56,483_-3-, the value of the
property owned by the company, and not an appurtenance to the mi 1.
Again: the report says-" since that report (January, 1847) was made, sundry expenses have occurred, not then anticipated, and most of them heavy.
For instance, the company has caused to be erected a large store-house for
cotton, capable of containing a full stock for a year. All the tools and fixtures of a machine-shop have been purchased, including a steam-engine. Additional reservoirs for water have been formed, and a force-pump, hydrants,
and a large quantity of iron pipes furnished, for the extinguishment of fires.
A hydraulic press has been constructed, many valuable improvements made
in the machinery, &c. The cost of all these has been heavy, and did not
enter into the former estimate, though now included in the present statement
of the actual cost," &c. After this report had been accepted, it was printed
by the direction of the president, and widely circulated.
This mill is the largest in the world, in which the entire process of converting cotton into cloth is carried on under one roof. The undertaking
was a gigantic one, and in much of its machinery there was combined, novelty in construction, combination and arrangement. Under such circumstances it will be deemed hardly surprising to any one but Mr. Lawrence that an
exact original estimate should not have been made.  Hle speaks, however,
of the original subscriptions having been swallowed up and new ones called
for, &c., as though the mill and its appurtenances as first contemplated,
were as they now  are in reality; but, with his usual candor, he somehow
forgets to state that a much smaller mill was originally contemplated, and
that increased subscriptions were called for in consequence of its increased
size. But that others more directly interested in this work than he is, are
much better satisfied; I give in proof, below, a letter from the President of
the Company, HON. DAVID PINGREE, of Salem, Massachusetts.  Perhaps
Mr. Lawience may know something about such a gentleman.
SALEM, January 17, 1850.
GEN. CHARLES T. JAMES.
DEAR SIR: —Your esteemed favor of yesterday is received. And in reply, I
can say that the Naumkeag Mill has come up to all you promised, both as to the
quantity of production, and the cheapness of manufacturing. I have preserved
the statement you gave me as to the cost of manufacturing; and the cost, for the
last six months, has been less, and the production more, than your estimate. And
the stockholders are satisfied that you gave them as good a mill as can be found
in the United States, if not the best. Anything farther you wish to know as to
the mill, it will give me pleasure to communicate, as I have no wish to detract
from the merits which so deservedly belong to you.
Yours truly,
DAVID PINGREE.
On the above letter I have no other comment to make than to say, what Mr.
Lawrence well knows that its writer is one of the heaviest stockholders in the
"Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company," and occupies a place in the first
rank as a gentleman and a man of business. Mr. Lawrence says, however, that
the Naumkeaz Mill has not paid to the stockholders six per cent on their
investments, and that no considerable amount of their stock can be sold in
market, except at a per centage below par, equal to the amount of dividends
2




18               Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
paid.  What has that to do with the earnings of the mill?  Of course the
stock would hardly be expected to be up to par, as long as about one-half
its earnings go to make up its capital; and such is the case.  Yet few, indeed, of the stocks of his twenty-six "first class mills," some of them, as
he says, with $200,000 of surplus cash capital on hand, and all of them
with some, will sell even as well as that. According to his story, the stock
of the Naumkeag Mill cannot be more than twelve per cent below par,
while most of those of his first class mills are twelve per cent below, and
even more than that; and some of them twenty, twenty-five, and so on up
to forty per cent.  Yet the Naumkeag Company reserve profits to add
$200,000 to cash capital, while in those first class establishments, all of
them, he says, there is some surplus cash capital, and in some of them
$200,000.  Suppose the Naumkeag Company had $200,000 surplus, how
long would it take to bring the stock up to twelve per cent above par, instead of its remaining at twelve per cent below, as he says? But, does the
Naumkeag Mill earn no more than six per cent per annum  on the investments? Unfortunately again for Mr. Lawrence the truth is antagonist to
his factsj as the following official exhibit will fully show:"' The net earnings for the year past, after paying upwards of $28,000 for interest, repairs, and new machinery, have amounted to $82,390-not one dollar
has been charged to " construction" account for the year's operations. A dividend of four per cent has been declared for the past six months, and a surplus
reserved fund is left, amounting to $48,500. The last year's dividend has been
eight per cent.
The dividends amounted to $56,000; which, being added to $48,500, the
amount of profits reserved, makes up the sum of $104,500 as the net earnings of the year.  Thus Mr. Lawrence will perceive that, instead of less than
simple interest, six per cent, the Naumnkeag Mill, last year, earned but a
fraction less than fifteen per cent over and above all costs and expenses.
Again, this mill was not completed and put in full operation till the 1st of
January, 1848; yet, even in 1847, while it was yet in progress, the portions
of machinery put in operation from time to time earned enough over cost
and expenses, to pay interest at six per cent on all assessments paid in. In
1848 the earnings of the mill were equal to those of 1849; and the capital
on which the profits have been made, includes more than $56,000 for property already named of no service whatever to the mill. Thus, instead of
less than six per cent on the investments, as Mr. Lawrence says, the Naumkeag Mill has netted, at least, double the average per cent of the twenty-six
"first class mills." So much again for the accuracy of Mr. Lawrence's
facts; and yet, in 1847, besides great loss by delays in obtaining machinery,
&c., the company suffered a loss of $10,000 by the decline in the price of
cotton. This statement the gentleman can compare with his own and make
his own comments.  He confines his remarks on steam-mills, to the Portsmouth Mill and five others with which I have been in some way connected.
He shall now be enlightened in relation to a few others.
Between the commencement of the year 1843, and the close of 1845,
two mills were erected at Gloucester, N. J., under the direction of some of
the best talent in Massachusetts for the business. These were steam-mills,
and are known by the name of" Washington Mills," Nos. 1 & 2.
These mills were equal to the average of the twenty-six "first class mills,"
and to the average of the mills now running in Newv England; but thei
proprietors became dissatisfied with them, and in 1848 they contracted with




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                  19
me to overhaul, repair, and re-arrange mill No. 1. The work having been
completed, the mill was again started with the same engine and machinery
it contained before; and the following statements from the books will show
the results. The first statement includes the work of the mill for six months,
ending April 30th, 1847, prior to the changes effected in it, and is as
follows:Cloth manufactured, 186,490 pounds, or 1,006,430 yards.
Cost of manufacturing, $63,645 32.
Cost per pound, 34 13-100 cents. Cost per yard, 6 32-100 cents.
The goods were shirtings and print cloths, No. 30.
The, second statement embraces the work of the same mill for six months,
ending April 30th, 1849, after the alterations, &c., and is as follows:Cloth manufactured, 282,775 pounds, or 1,645,430 yards.
Cost of manufacturing, $72,240 20.
Cost per pound, 25 54-100 cents, or 4 39-100 per yard.
The goods were shirtings and print cloths, No. 36.
It will be seen that the difference, or saving, per yard, in favor of the latter six months over the former, was 1-SL-3 cent per yard; making, in the cost
of manufacturing, the entire quantity of 1,645,440 yards, the difference of
$31,756 -- in favor of the latter six months, or at the rate of $63,513 --  per
annum. From this amount, however, is to be deducted $10,000, as the difference
in the cost of cotton manufactured in the mill in 1847 and 1849, leaving the
actual difference in the practical working of the mill, in favor of the latter
year, $53,513.-5-8J. This difference more than remunerated the proprietors
for the entire outlay for the alterations. The fineness of the yarn was increased 20 per cent from No. 30 to No. 36. One-eighth was added to the
number of spindles, and the number of looms was reduced so as to equalize
the machinery. Thus, not only has the cost been reduced in the manufacture of the goods, but a much more valuable article produced. I have said
this mill was, before the changes effected in it, as good as the average of Mr.
Lawrence's " first class mills." Their dividends, he says, averaged a fiaction
less than 9 per cent last year. The above mill has a capital of $250,000.
He may take the above statements respecting it, and make his own calculations.  True, to make the mill what it now is, something more than $40,000
has been expended. But that is not my fault. A mill as good, in all respects, as that now is, and of the same capacity, can be built for the sum
which that cost at first.  Since the Washington Company, to which the
above mill belongs, has realized the great advantages resulting from the
change, the president and directors have put their other mill into my hands,
which has now nearly undergone a similar change, and is nearly ready to
start anew.  Thus Mr. Lawrence will see that, if he and his friends cannot
be satisfied with any of my representations, there are those who are satisfied
with my doings. We will now take up my statement in the November number, as to the actual results of the working of a cotton-mill of 10,000 spindles, for a year. I will copy this statement, with a correction of the error of
$10,000 in the footing:Cotton (1,800,000 lbs.) at 7 cents..................................    126,000
Cost of steam-power............................................     4,500
" carding.................................................    13,266
" spinning................................................      14,734
" dressing and starch........................................   9,036
weaving, including all expenses.........................    26,596




20                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
Cost of repairs, wear and tear, machinists, &c........................  17,002
" general expenses, officers' salaries, transportation, &c...........    20,642
" interest on capital of $250,000...............................'   15,000
Making a total of......................................  $247,048
Against this total, we have 4,500,000 yards of cloth, (No. 14 sheetings,) at
7i cents per yard............................................    26.250
And we find a balance, in favor of manufacturing, of........    $79,202
Mr. Lawrence doubts the occurrence of such results, and calls for the name
of the mill. I am quite happy to be able to gratify the gentleman, and will
give him a few "more facts to confirm the conclusions already reached." In
the first place, however, let me premise, it was not stated by me that this
mill was "in New England," nor that he knew anything about it.  In the
next place, as already stated, the price of the cotton was assumed, not as the
price at that mill, but as a high average country price at the southern mill.
The quantity of cloth manufactured, and the price per yard it sold at, were
greater than stated by me, and the expense and cost of manufacturing less,
or at least they have been so since that statement was first made out, as I am
ready to prove beyond doubt. Thus shall my statement be made good, and
even enlarged.
If Mr. Lawrence will shut out from  his view, for a moment, the vision of
Lowell, Lawrence, &c., and take a peep with me into the city of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, he shall there find what he demands.  In that city, a company
erected, under my supervision, and in strict accordance with my plans, in
1844-5, a steam  cotton-mill, called the " Conestoga Steam-Mill No. 1;"
and so well were the proprietors satisfied with the doings of this mill, that
they employed me to construct the second, which has recently been put in
operation. I am now engaged on the third, which will be ready to go into
operation in July next.  These mills will contain 25,000 spindles, and the
company has a capital stock of $500,000.  They are designed for the manufacture of sheetings No. 14, fine sheetings and shirtings, drillings, tickings,
cotton flannels, chambrays, &c.  These are the first cotton-mills erected in
that vicinity, and nearly all the help has been obtained there, and instructed
in the mills, in the routine of the labors of operatives. From the first start
of mill No. 1., the company has regularly made semi-annual dividends of 5
per cent, or 10 per cent per annum; and the dividend, for the last six
months, was made on mills No. 1 and No. 2, though the latter had then
scarcely gone into full operation. It is to the " Conestoga Mill No. 1 " that
I now wish to call attention, that being the mill on the doings of which,
up to June, 1849, the foregoing statement of quantity, cost, &c., was founded.
Mr. Lawrence now has the "name" of the mill.
First, as to the quantity of cloth. My statement was 4,500,000 yards
per annum, for 10,000 spindles. The quantity Mr. Lawrence doubts. David
Longnecker, Esq., has, at my request, kindly furnished me with data from
the books of the company, respecting quantity, cost, &c., for the six months
ending December 31st, 1849.  He is treasurer of the company, and I hold
myself responsible for the accuracy of his statements.  " Conestoga Mill No.
1 " has 6,236 spindles. During the six months above alluded to, it turned
off 1,422,0643 yards, which would make 2,844,129k yards per annum. At
that rate, it will be readily seen, 10,000 spindles would turn off 4,560,690 yards,
or an excess of 60,690 yards more than stated by me. This will certainly more
than sustain my statement as to quantity. The quantity of cotton named by me




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.              21
was 1,800,000 lbs., at the rate (for the southern mill) of 7 cents per pound.
But the cloth would fall short of that weight, by reason of waste, about 9
per cent. The cloth, therefore, would weigh but 1,666,666 lbs. This would
bring the cotton up to 71o5 6 cents per pound of cloth. My statement would
make all cost and expenses, cotton excepted, 7-P-96J cents per pound of cloth;
and with the cotton, 14 lft cents. I am fully authorized by Mr. Longnecker
to say that the cost of manufacturing, cotton excepted, has been less than in
my statement. The cloth is, as stated by me, or implied in my statement,
21-70- yards to the pound of cotton, including waste. Thus am I fully sustained, and more, with respect to the cost and expenses. And now, for the
price of the cloth in market. Mr. Lawrence complained that I set the price
as high as 74 cents per yard, because, as he said, the same kind of goods
were selling, when he wrote, or had been, at only 5-1910 — cents per yard. To
gratify the gentleman, I have, from Mr. Longnecker, the assurance that, for
six months ending December 31, 1849, the Conestoga sheetings had averaged, as the proceeds of sales, a FRACTION OVER EIGHT CENTS PER YARD, and
that, before any advantage could of course be taken of the recent rise in
market. At present, all those goods are sold at 93 to 10 cents. Thus,
again, am I more than sustained in respect to price and amount of proceeds.
Will Mr. Lawrence have the goodness to take the trouble to make out a calculation on the basis of the above items furnished by Mr. Longnecker, and
satisfy himself, and inform the public, how much per pound the Conestoga
Company can afford to pay for cotton, and how much a southern mill can
make by its manufacture, even were it to cost 8 cents per pound, instead of
7? For the truth of all the above, Mr. Lawrence may, should he think
proper, visit and examine the Conestoga Steam-Mill, and appeal to the treasurer of the company. Farther than this, I pledge myself to exhibit to that
gentleman, if he will accompany me to Lancaster, a mill (Conestoga No. 2)
that will do better, as to product, by FIFTEEN PER CENT, than what is stated
above of mill No. 1. Is he satisfied? But still he may continue to harp on the
present high price of cotton, and insist that, under present circumstances, no
mill which has its cotton to purchase can make money. Let him take comfort. His own prediction is, in one respect, rapidly being accomplished, for
the market value of goods is fast advancing, and a short period will probably
suffice to bring them up to fair comparative rates. Such, at least, is the
present prospect. As yet, but little new cotton has been manufactured, and
the disposal of all the goods made from the old stock, must effect a great
change.
OFFICE OF THE CONESTOGA STEAM MILLS,
LANCASTER, PENN., February 4, 1850.
GEN. C. T. JAMES.
DEAR SIR: —Yours of the 26th ult. is received, and, in reply we have to say,
that the statements made by you to the committee of the stockholders, prior to
the erection of the mills, have been verified. The product of the cloth in quantity has exceeded your promises; and the quality, our best expectations.
We are respectfully, yours, &c.,
C. HAGER, President.
DAVID LONGNECKER, /lgent.
A steam cotton-mill was built by me in 1845, for Messrs. Kennedy, Childs,
& Co., Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It contains 5,910 spindles, and the results
of its operations have been similar to those of the Conestoga Mill No. 1,
already referred to. In a letter from the above-named gentlemen to me,
dated January 22d, 1850, they say:-" Your highest estimate never exceeded




22                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
our product. So far as the working of our mill is concerned, we take pleasure in saying that it comes up fully to our anticipations, and gives Entire satisfaction. And we are not aware that you have made any statement in reference thereto, which practical results and experience have not fully sustained."
Testimonials like the foregoing might be multiplied, but these are deemed
sufficient.  Somehow it happens-perhaps Mr. Lawrence's philosophy is competent to account for it-my time is too fully occupied to allow me a moment of leisure, notwithstanding all his frightful stories about excess of cost,
over estimates, bad business, small dividends, actual losses, &c. Persons
who negotiate with me for building mills, are always referred by me to those
who have already employed my services in that line, and, after all due inquiry, they return, and contract with me, even at higher rates than others
demand. Those who employ me once, fail not to do so again, when similar
services are required.  How is this? Perhaps Mr. Lawrence can determine.
It is, or is not, because the steam-mills built by me, notwithstanding the suppositions "radical defect" of Mr. Lawrence, are superior to his "first class
mills." Let us now proceed to speak of the quality of the goods manufactured by the steam-mills constructed by me, in order to learn something of
the class to which they actually belong. As one proof of the superiority of
these goods over others, a fact well known to'almost every one, and as well
known to Mr. Lawrence as to any other one, they, as a general thing, command higher prices in market. It is thus that a discriminating public has
with common consent, awarded to them a character, of which Mr. Lawrence
and his compeers cannot deprive them. He will not deny this fact, or if he
should have the hardihood to do it, I appeal to the markets themselves. Besides this, there are some other facts which go to substantiate my claims to
this character.
At the exhibition of the " CHARITABLE MECHANIC ASSOCIATION," at Boston, in September, 1839, the committee made the following report on goods
from the " Wessacumcon (now Bartlett) Steam-Mills, Newburyport:" —
"This is an establishment lately erected upon the principle of the best Manchester Mills, the first of any importance that has been started *in the United
States, and must soon lead to correct estimates of the advantages of steam over
water power. The goods here exhibited are of a very superior order, remarkably even and closely wove; and altogether of a better fabric than has ever been
before produced in this country. They are in all respects equal to any British
fabric of the kind that the committee has ever seen." The award was a SILVER
MEDAL. The Boot Mills, of Mr. Lawrence's "first class," were competitors,
and their goods were spoken of as having sufficient proof of their good qualities,
&c. The award was a DIPLOMA.
At the next exhibition of the above association, in September, 1841,
bleached and brown sheetings were again entered from the Bartlett Mill No.
2. Of them the committee say:" These goods possess great beauty and excellence. The spinning and weaving are very perfect.  In firmness and evenness of fabric, and appearance in all
respects, they surpass any cottons of American Manufacture that the committee
have ever examined; and they have seldom, if ever, seen them excelled by the
most beautiful specimens of British production." The award was a GOLD
MEDAL.
The next exhibition of this association took place at Boston, in September,
1844. At this exhibition, eleven pieces of cotton goods, some brown and
some bleached, were entered from the Bartlett Mills. The committee pro



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                23
nounced them "fair specimens of the goods constantly manufactured by this
company," and awarded them  a SILVER MEDAL. Specimens of brown and
bleached goods were entered from the James Steam-Mill, Newburyport. The
committee say of them:"The brown goods were very superior, and the best the committee have ever
examined; smooth, substantial, and well manufactured; made from No 40 yarn,
130 picks to the inch. The bleached goods were of the same fabric, &c. A
better quality of yarn, either in point of smoothness or strength, cannot be manufactured. As a whole, the committee do not hesitate to pronounce these to be
the best goods for fineness of texture, service, and appearance, manufactured in
this country."  The award was a GOLD MEDAL.
The next exhibition of this association, and the last which has taken place,
was in September, 1847. Brown and bleached goods were again entered
from the James Mill.  Of them the committee say:" The samples submitted to our inspection, embrace goods of different degrees of fineness, and all the useful widths. All are well made; and some specimens excell all others in perfection of manufacture, &c. They award to this
lot of cottons, a superiority to any submitted to their notice; and feel it cause
for gratulation, that, in this department, they are unrivalled."  A gold medal
having been awarded the James Mill, in 1844, the committee now awarded a
DIPLOMA.
At the same exhibition were presented goods from the Naumkeag SteamMill, Salem, Massachusetts.  Of these the committee say:
" These cottons differ from those of most other manufactories, and combine
more good qualities, for general consumption, than any others. Being made of
good stock, and superior yarn, and being very weighty, (for the fineness,) they
cannot but commend themselves to every good house-wife, and will speedily acquire the reputation they deserve."  The award was a SILVER MEDAL.
From the above extracts it will be perceived that some one or more of the
steam-mills built by me at Salem and Newburyport, and operated under, or
in accordance with my direction or my views, have been competitors for premiums at each exhibition of the Massachusetts Mechanic Charitable Institution, since 1839, inclusive.
" IN EVERY INSTANCE their goods have been honored with the declaration of
the committee, that they were SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHERS within their knowledge,
and with the HIGHEST PREMIUMS. This should certainly be admitted as pretty
strong and valid proof of the superiority of the mills themselves. But this is not
all. The challenge from these steam-mills, to the trial of the question of superiority, has not been limited to Boston. It has been carried into the great commercial emporium of the Union. From 1839 to 1847, inclusive, one or more of
them has been found as competitor with others, each year, at the Fairs of the
AMERICAN INSTITUTE."
And, on every occasion, the goods from some one of these mills have been
pronounced the BEST OF THEIR KIND, and borne off the prize. During that
period, there have been awarded to these mills, from the AMERICAN INSTITUTE,
in addition to those awarded at Boston, three GOLD MEDALS, three SILVERI
MEDALS, and three DIPLOMAS. The Conestoga Steam-Mill Company, at Lancaster, already named, also received a SILVER MEDAL from the same institute,
in 1848, for the best heavy sheetings, having been awarded a GOLD MEDAL
for a similar article, in 1847, by the "FRANKLIN INSTITUTE," Philadelphia.
The following is from the Franklin Institute: —
" The heavy brown sheetings from the Conestoga Steam-Mills are, in the
opinion of the committee, the very perfection of that order of goods. They pos



24                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
sess the elements of great durability, with an evenness and beauty of fabric. and
finish altogether unapproached. We recommend a first premium."- A GOLD
MEDAL.
Such is the testimony given by well-informed committees, from year to
year, as to the quality of our steam-mill goods; and even in the article of
cotton duck, the Rockport Steam-Mill, erected by me, produced an article,
and still produces it, pronounced in the American Institute, in 1848, superior
to all others of the kind.  The award was a SILVER MEDAL. These facts,
added to that before stated, that the steam-mill goods alluded to sell at higher
prices in market than goods from the water-mills, certainly show that they
are superior, in respect to the quality of their productions.
With regard to estimates of cost for steam-mills, I shall not bandy words
with Mr. Lawrence.  There is a shorter and more satisfactory way to come
to the point, without the necessity of wearying the reader with the dry details of items.  He says that a steam-mill with 10,000 spindles, with storehouse and tenements, will cost about $270,000, and require a floating capital
of $130,000; making an aggregate capital of $400,000.  The gentleman is
probably aware that I have built a considerable number of steam-mills, and
have some five or six others now in hand, in various stages of progression.
He may probably therefore be willing to accord to me nearly as much knowoldge, with respect to their cost, as he possesses himself. Of late I have
built, and prefer to build, by contract; furnishing a mill of a certain capacity,
for so much money, and warranting it to do a certain amount of work, and
am satisfied with my compensation.
In making estimates of the cost of cotton-mills, especially of steam-mills,
the capital necessary to be employed, the cost of manufacturing, and the profits to be realized, it will not answer to draw on the past. More especially
is this remark true in its application to the South, where mills to carry on the
business to any great extent, are yet to come into existence.  Mr. Lawrence
gives his testimony to the rapid improvement in machinery, &c., and it may
here be added, with quite as much truth, that improvement in facilities for
the manufacture of the machinery itself, has advanced with equally rapid
strides. When, therefore, he sets down the cost of a steam-mill with 10,000
spindles at $270,000, with its storehouse and tenements, if he takes present
prices for his guide, he is wide of the truth. But as to tenements-they
constitute, properly speaking, no part of manufracturing capital.  Mill-owners
may, if they please, like other persons, erect dwellings to rent. On watercourses, where there are neither cities, towns, or villages, to furnish them, it
becomes, perhaps, necessary.  But, even in that case, their cost is no portion
of manufacturing capital.  They are rented. The rents are paid from the
earnings of the operatives, and the cost of cotton, and the cost of its manufacture, is neither enhanced nor diminished by it. It is merely so much capital, that might otherwise be employed in manufacturing, diverted to another
object. It curtails the means of the manufacturer to prosecute his business
-granted; and on that point I have always and strenuously insisted.
One of the advantages to be gained by the use of steam-power, as uniformly stated by me, is, that with it, cotton-mills may be placed where you
want them; if you please, in cities, towns, and villages, where there are already plenty.of dwellings and boarding-houses for operatives, and where, if
necessary, owners of real estate are ever ready to increase them. There the
amount they cost will not be diverted from manufacturing purposes.  For the
foregoing reasons, the cost of tenements are never taken into my estimates.




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.               25
That I am fully borne out in this view, almost universal usage, in this country
at least, will abundantly show. The Naumkeag Company, at Salem, chose to
have boarding-houses.  They erected them.  There are six steam-mills at
Newburyport, one at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, three or four at Providence, three at Newport, two at Bristol, and one at Warren, Rhode Island,
three at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and so on; and yet it is believed there are
neither boarding-houses nor tenements for operatives, owned or needed by
either of the companies to any extent. In estimating the cost and capital
for steam-mills, therefore, I make no account of them.
That, taking the cost of some of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills " as
guides, a steam-mill, with 10,000 spindles, tenements, &c., would cost near
$270,000, is quite likely; but steam-mills can be built at much smaller cost
at this time than they could have been a few years since, and at a cost much
less than that of water-mills now. Take, for example, the Atlantic Mill, at
Lawrence. I know the cost of that mill, and will come under bonds, with
satisfactory guaranties, to build a steam-mill of the same capacity, with the
same number of spindles, for two-thirds of the money which that mill cost.
The steam-mill shall be furnished with everything complete, put in order for
successful operation, and warranted to turn of, in a given time, more goods,
of better quality, and at smaller cost, cotton only excepted.  On the same
conditions, I will take for a guide, as to size, number of spindles, and description of goods, the Prescott Mill, the last mill erected at Lowell for coarse
goods. These offers are made in good faith, and I pledge my honor to redeem the promise, whenever called on to do so. With respect to the mill
of 10,000 spindles, with the capital set down by me at $250,000, and respecting which Mr. Lawrence seems so thoroughly skeptical, permit me to
say-I am ready to contract with Mr. Lawrence, or any other person or company, to construct such a mill, to furnish it with everything complete, in a
convenient location to prevent extraordinary expenditure, to put it in order
for successful operation, and warrant it to produce the result I have stated, as to
quantity, fineness, quality, and cost of production, cotton excepted, with the
capital already named. As respects, therefore, any estimates, real or imaginary, made by Mr. Lawrence, myself, or any one else, heretofore, their
correctness or incorrectness is a matter of no moment, as respects the question
at issue. I hold myself bound to carry out, when called on to do so, the
statement made by me, and confirmed by data from the books of the Conestoga Steam Cotton Mill No. 1-this statement being, of course, always
subject to variation, as to profits, with the variations in the relative values of
cloth and cotton.
On looking back to the commencement of the cotton manufacturing business in New England, and tracing its progress up to the present period,
we shall find that our manufacturers have had difficulties to contend with,
which the people of the South will not have to overcome. The business, at
that period, was in its infancy, even in England. The machinery introduced
here was very imperfect in form, finish, and operation. From that time to
this, there has been kept up a continual race of improvement, which has rendered the expenditure of vast sums of money necessary to those who have
kept up with the times; while those who have refused to do so, have either
broken themselves down by a spurious economy, or, at best, ploded on with
little profit. The southern people will enter the field with all these improvements ready made to their hands; and, what is also of vast importance to
them, the new and improved machinery can, at this day, be had at smaller




26               Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
cost than could have been that of former days, even but a few years since.
Take, also, into account, the advantage of more than 20 per cent,-on an average, which the manufacturers of the South will have over those of the
North, in the cost of cotton at Lowell, and no good reason can be assigned
why the former should not find the business more profitable than the latter.
The difference in cost of cotton alone will pay more than 6 per cent per annum on the capital employed, even if that difference were but one cent per
pound. If the southern people cannot, under such circumstances, manufacture their cotton at a very handsome profit, certainly no other people can live
by the business. We will now pay some attention to Mr. Lawrence's remarks on the comparative cost of steam and water-power.
From the facts already stated, it is very evident that the comparative cost
of motive-power to drive the machinery of a cotton-mill is a question of no
importance in this discussion, as relates to my estimates and statements. My
proposition is, the manufacture of a, certain number of yards of cloth, of a
certain description, in a year, at a certain cost per yard. I have shown, by
incontrovertible data, that the quantity named by me has been exceeded,
and the goods manufactured at a cost per yard even less than I stated. The
cost of manufacturing embraced the cost of steam-power. I will now state,
and challenge the trial, that in the whole number of Mr. Lawrence's twentysix first class mills, there is not one which can turn off as many yards per
spindle, in a given time, of cloth of the same description and quality, as the
Conestoga Mill No. 1, nor at a cost as low. They are water-mills; and I
claim, and I have the right to claim, as will be by me shown, that a portion
of the saving in cost by the Conestoga Mill is made by the use of steampower. But we will not rest on this view of the case, and, to do away with
all cavil on the subject, will go into a comparative estimate of the cost of the
two motive-powers, giving facts in evidence.
To make out a case, Mr. Lawrence has obtained of Mr. James B. Francis,
a letter, in which are contained some remarks on the cost of water and steampower in Scotland. It is somewhat singular that the gentleman should have
to cross the Atlantic to find out the difference between the cost of water.
power at Lowell, and steam-power at Salem, and respecting which he has, it
appears, learned nothing by means of his Scottish tour. He makes a comparison, it is true, and sets down figures, showing the difference between the
cost of water at Greenock, and what he assumes as the cost of water-power
at Lowell; but when he comes to speak of steam-power in America, all the
light he deigns to give us on the subject is-" Taking into the account that
coal in any part of Massachusetts costs at least three times as much as at
Greenock, it will be readily seen that the cost of steam-power in Massachusetts
is enormously greater than the rates paid at Lowell." This is a very summary and convenient mode by which to dispose of an argument, to be sure,
but neither a very logical nor convincing one. What has Greenock to do
with the business? And why did not either Mr. Francis or Mr. Lawrence
give us some data on which this conclusion is founded? Why, Mr. Lawrence
cannot find a water-mill and a steam-mill situated side by side in this country, to compare with each other, and so he sends a friend to Scotland, in order to make a comparison of the cost of water-power in that country, and
places only a trifling distance apart, some thirty-five hundred miles, only,
and, without a single inquiry about the actual cost of steam-power here or
there, arrives at once at what he supposes "readily seen," that, because
"coal costs three times as much in Massachusetts as at Greenock," steam
power must be enormously dearer than water-power at Lowell! As good




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                 27
old Dominie Sampson would have said, " P-r-o-di-gi-ous!"  Mr. Francis or
Mr. Lawrence either, might have left home after dinner, made a pleasant
trip to Salem, obtained exact data relative to the cost of steam-power at the
Naumkeag Mill, and returned home to supper.  The comparison of these,
with the true rates of water-power at Lowell, would have been of some use,
but these would not have squared with Mr. Lawrence's conclusions. I will
now say my estimates of the cost of steam-power have often been putlished. If he doubted its correctness, why did he not seek for the facts, instead of treating it in this loose manner? He could have had them, on
application to the proper quarter. But now let us turn our attention, once
more, to figures, and, in doing this, Mr. Lawrence shall have the aid of Mr.
Francis.
The Naumkeag Mill has 31,000 spindles, and all the necessary machinery.
It uses an effective 400 horses-power. For that, and to heat the mill, clothroom, offices, &c., and for all purposes, the consumption of coal averages six
tons per day, or 1,860 tons per annum —
310 days, at $5 per ton..........................................    $9,300
For first and second engineer, fireman and oil, $5 per day..........  1,550
Making the sum of.......................................  $10,850
Per annum; or $27 12- per annum for each horse-power, heating mill, &c.,
as above.
Mr. Francis' statement makes the annual cost of water-power for the Massachusetts Mills, rated at592 horses power..............................................   $7,741 44
To heat the four mills, offices, &c., will cost at least.................    4,000 00
The difference in cost between the foundations for steam-mills, on a good
site, selected for the purpose, and those of the four mills of the Massachusetts Company on the bank of the river, would be at least
$40,000, the interest on which would be..........................    2,400 00
Add to these the transportation of 8 tons per day, from Boston to
Lowell, of cotton, oil, starch, anthracite coal, &c., at $1 25 per ton....    3,100 00
And you have the sum of...............................  $17,241 44
As the cost of water-power for the Massachusetts Mills at Lowell, including
its unavoidable contingencies. This $29 12 per horse-power per annum, is
$2 per horse-power more than the cost of steam-power at Salem.
Again: though I do not doubt the statement of Mr. Francis relative to
the cost of water-power for the Massachusetts Mills, I have a question or
two to ask. Is it intended to be understood that the rate he has named is
the Lowell rate for water-power, and the established rate? What the power
may have cost one company at Lowell has nothing to do with the question.
Has not Mr. Francis stated the rate for the Massachusetts Mills at nearly 333
per cent less than the established rate at Lowell? Can water-power now be
purchased there for less than $5 per spindle, all contingencies taken into the
account? If any one thinks so, let him try it. I would here remark, no
account has been made, in the above comparative statement, of the cost of a
steam-engine. I offset that against the cost of water-wheels, wheel-pits, &c.,
though the engine would cost much less at first, and be kept in repair at as
little expense.
Mr. Lawrence appears to think it somewhat singular that if steam-power
is as cheap as water-power, people have been so slow to adopt it.  He may
recollect, perhaps, it is only about twenty years since, or a little more, that a
committee of the New York Legislature, among whom was even the celebra



28                Culture and ilfanufacture of Cotton.
ted De Witt Clinton, thought the man crazy, who proposed to run a locomotive eight miles per hour on a railroad track. Very few persons have
troubled themselves to make inquiries, and to press them through to practical results, relative to the comparative merits of steam and water-power.
Those who have done so, as a general thing, have taken as their guides the
work of steam-engines in operation ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, when
the duty performed by a given amount of fuel was not one-half what it is
now. Besides, thousands of persons have been frightened out of the idea of
steam-power, by the continual outcry of persons who, like Mr. Lawrence, have
had a special interest in securing the predominance of water-power.  That
time has nearly passed. People are daily becoming convinced, as the rapid
multiplication of steam cotton-mills filly proves; and the time is not far distant when people will laugh at the absurdity of any one who shall express a
doubt of the superiority of steam over water. At Cannelton, Indianna, in
particular, where operations are already commenced, with the best coal in
the Union, or at least equal to any in America or Europe, at ninety cents per
ton, water-power would not be an object worth naming, even could it be had
gratis. The entire motive-power required to drive the Cannelton Mill, of
10,000 spindles, together with the fuel for heating the mill, &c., will not cost
as much per spindle, as the fuel required for heating the Massachusetts Mills.
Once more with regard to Mr. Francis. Mr. Lawrence speaks of him as
a gentleman as well acquainted with motive-power and application as any
man in America. I do not dispute his qualifications, but, if his knowledge
is so deep and extensive in this matter, he certainly has not published all he
knows.  I have received, per last steamer from England, a diagram of the
actual duty performed by a steam-engine, and the cost of fuel for running it
also, and I assure him that the cost is less than one-tenth of the cost he has
put down for water-power. If he has any doubts on the subject, the diagram and evidence, which are in my possession, are at his service.
Mr. Francis informs Mr. Lawrence that, in 1839, the Massachusetts Company had 592 horses water-power. Since that time, the company has purchased the Prescott Mill, with its water-power.  Yet even now, they run but
45,720 spindles, and have a steam-engine besides. How, under such circumstances, would the cost of the company's power, per spindle or yard, compare with that of steam-power at the Naumkeag Mill? More especially, how
would it compare, putting the present established rate of water-power at
Lowell into the account, and which, as stated above, is about 33- per cent
higher than it cost the Massachusetts Company in 1839?  But I have still
another view to take of this subject.
Allow the highest rate of power used in this country to drive machinery
for coarse work, at its highest speed-that is, 100 horses-power to 5,000
spindles-then the Massachusetts Company, driving 45,720 spindles, including the Prescott Mill, would require 914~-49-  horses-power.  I will now
take my data from the table of Lowell statistics, published in 1848, for that
year. I find there, that those mills consumed the following items of fuel,
and which shall be set down here at their value in anthracite coal in the
Boston market. They were —
Anthracite coal, 2,700 tons, which, at $5 per ton, is......................  $13,500
100 cords of wood, at $5.........................................  500
Charcoal, 2,000 bushels, at 10 cents...............................  200
Freight on 2,700 tons of anthracite coal, from Boston, a $1 25........  3,375
Making, in all, the sum of................................    $17,575




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.              29
Thus we have the amount of $17,575 as the cost of fuel for the Massachusetts Mills, beside its water rent. It will be recollected that fuel for all purposes for which the above is used was included in the cost of steam-power for the
Naumkeag Mill. Now, add to this the amount of water rent, in other words the
cost of water-power annually, to the Massachusetts Company, $7,441 44, as stated by Mr. Francis, and you make up the gross sum of $25,016 44. This statement speaks for itself. So much it cost the Massachusetts Company in 1848,
for water-power and fuel. It has already been shown that the cost of steampower at the Naumkeag Mill is $10,850 per annum, and that cost includes,
beside power, all for which fuel is used in the Massachusetts Mills. How,
then, stands the case? If 400 horses steam-power at Salem cost $10,850,
then say, in round numbers, the $25,000 expended at the Massachusetts
Mills would furnish 921,6%5  horses steam-power, or 7    more than
sufficient to drive all the machinery in those mills. Yet the present established rate of water-power in Lowell would raise the annual cost of power
required for the above mills to but a fraction short of $10,000, while the
difference in the sums required in outlays on foundations, &c., would make
a still farther balance, as already seen, of $2,400. The gentleman having invited my attention to the mills of the Massachusetts Company, at Lowell, I
have gone into a thorough investigation on that subject. I have shown that,
even at the cost paid by that company for water-power in 1839, the Naumkeag Mill is run cheaper by steam, including the heating of the mill, &c.
Taking the established rate of power at Lowell at this time, and that is the
fair ground occupied by me all along, every spindle now running in that
city, and all their requisite machinery, can be run by steam generated at a
cost not more than equal to the cost of the fuel now consumed in the mills,
converting it all into anthracite coal, and reckoning at what it costs per ton,
delivered in the mill-yards in that city, taking for the basis of a calculation
the cost of steam-power at the Naumkeag Mill, and the quantity of fuel consumed in the Lowell mills, as per "STATISTICS OF LOWELL MANUFACTURES,
JANUARY, 1850." Beside this, the Massachusetts Company must pay at least
$5,500 per annum freight on cotton, oil, and starch, from Boston, not necessary to a steam-mill in a seaport place. Where, then, lies the advantage?
The reader will judge. And now suppose you take Cannelton, Indiana, for
the field of operation, or any other site in the South or South-west, where
fuel can be procured at one-fifth of its cost at any place in Massachusetts,
and one-seventh of its cost at Lowell-where cotton will be sent directly to
the mill by the planters' own teams, or, at most, on a steamboat, at fiifty
cents per ton for freight —without commissions, without insurance, and without other expenses accruing on its way to Lowell-and where, as at the
South and South-west, a ready and extensive market is open, now supplied
by the New England manufacturers at a heavy advance on the cost. Suppose we plant cotton manufactories in such locations, who can help seeing
that they must become far more profitable than at Lowell, and defy all northern competition?
One word more on steam-power, and I shall have done with that subject.
Many suppose the cost of motive-power to be a principal item in the manufacturincg account, whereas, on all the cotton goods manufactured in New
England, the cost of power, steam or water, does not average more than
three mills per yard. The steam-mill goods, from certain well-known causes,
are of so much better quality than others, as to texture, smoothness, &c.,
that they command in market prices so much greater than others, that the




30                 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
differenee will considerably more than pay the entire cost of steam-power
used in7 their manufacture.  This statement is true. The results in the markets will fully sustain it-and Mr. Lawrence or any one else is challenged to
disprove the statement.  Where, then, the advantage of water-power?
Mr. Lawrence says, " all the country mills in New England, which have
been built fifteen years, have wholly or partially failed," with exceptions,
" which are only exceptions to the general truth."  Does he make this statement with reference to the manufacturing business, or to mill-owners?  If
with respect to the unproductiveness of the business, when properly managed, the statement is not true. Has he known any failures in the companies at Lowell, Waltham, Somersworth, Dover, Fall River, or of individual
manufacturers there, or anywhere else, who have properly managed their business, and not, as he says the cotton-planters have, extended their business
beyond their means? In this business, as in other branches, there have been
many failures, but they have most frequently originated in speculations, and
in attempts to do a great business with a small capital, by which means persons have found themselves unable to pass, successfully, a crisis created by a
tight money market, even of a few months. But a " first" rate-I will not
say "class "-steam-mill, well managed, will make money, especially at the
South, in almost any times. Still, Mr. Lawrence says, "manufacturing has
been a source of great wealth to New England." Precisely so: and in that
wealth manufacturers have shared largely. The South sees it, and wishes
now to have its share. But Mr. Lawrence thinks the people there would
hardly be willing to invest their capital at so great a hazard, for the small
profits derived from New England mills. And yet he has said before, that
the southern people were satisfied to receive smaller rates of interest than
the people of New England! And every one knows, who knows anything
about it, that the hazard of capital invested in the culture of cotton, is far
greater than that of investments in its manufacture. Very probably any
"twenty-six first class" planters would like a guaranty of 8 -~, per cent clear
profit on their capital per annum, for eleven years, the amount of dividends
for the "twenty-six first class mills," to say nothing of their hundreds of
thousands of dollars reserved and undivided at the same hazard.
One word in relation to Mr. Lawrence's scale of prices and rates of wages.
He attempts to make out a very great disproportion between the decline of
prices in cloth and cotton in fifteen years. He makes the decline 4- cents
per pound greater in the price of the cloth than in that of cotton. This he
sets down precisely as if it were so much abstracted from the market value of
the cloth, while its cost to the manufacturer has remained unchanged. What
has become of the great improvements in machinery he talks about? Have
they done nothing toward reducing the cost of manufacturing in fifteen
years? Does it cost as much to manufacture a pound of cotton now, as it
did fifteen years ago? In first rate mills no: and yet the planter can raise
cotton now no cheaper than he could then. But labor, he says, is higher.
"Women's labor is increased three-fold, and men's is nearly double."  Does
he believe this statement himself? Charity says yes; but she has to stretch
a point or two, to give such a reply. Mr. Lawrence will not say, a female
operative now receives wages that would enable her to pay three times as
much for board as she did in 1835, and then have three times as much left
as she had then. He will not pretend to say that a man earns enough now
to pay double what he paid then for the maintenance of his family, and have
double the amount left he had then. No: even Mr. Lawrence dare not




Culture and Afanufacture of Cotton.              31
make such a statement, for he well knows it would not be true, and that
everybody else knows it; his appeal to the cost of ticking, shirtings, and
calicoes to the contrary notwithstanding. The truth is, neither men nor women, factory operatives, to my knowledge, receive more wafges now than they
did in 1835. Ffteen years have not increased their wages, nor materially
reduced the cost of living. True, they spin and weave more pounds of cotton
in a day than they did then.  But they derive no advantage from it, and
their wages, as a general thing, are not enhanced by it. Neither is Mr.
Lawrence's sta ement a fair one in respect to the decline in prices.
To make o 0 t a case, if possible, the gentleman has taken the price of cotton at almost its highest value, for the last eight or nine years, the consequence of a short crop, and cloth at about its lowest value for the same period,
when an average for cotton, much lower, would have been the fair test, and,
for cloth, higher. And even this statement of his was made in the very face
of his previous admission that cotton must decline in price during the coming season, or cloth rise, or both.  Here is an admission that cotton was remarkably high when he wrote, and cloth very low-that the disproportion
between them had been created by extraordinary causes, and that the operaration of the laws of trade must soon restore the two articles to something
like their proper relative values. His prediction as to the increased market
value of cloth is fast being fulfilled; and yet he takes the extraordinary period of a few months past as the basis of calculation for the average comparative diminution in the prices of cloth and cotton for fifteen years! Were
the transactions of the commercial world regulated by such an interpretation
of the laws of trade, they would present a singular spectacle. Yet, after all,
it is enough to know that, during eleven of those fifteen years, twenty-six
cotton-mills have divided, on an average for the whole time, among the whole
number, 8-29  per cent per annum  on enormous capitals, beside building
new mills with reserved profits, and laying by hundreds of thousands of dollars for "surplus cash capital."  Had Mr. Lawrence an object in making
the comparative statement above alluded to without a reference to the qua lifying statement in his first number? It may be so.
Perhaps Mr. Lawrence wished to persuade the cotton planter to promote
the planter's interest, no doubt-not to hazard his capital in the manufacturing business, with its small and diminishing profits, while the profits of cotton planting were large, and scarcely lessened at all in fifteen years; or perhaFs, as we subsequently have a few pretty plain hints, to embark his capital
at the North, to aid in the upbuilding of northern manufacturing cities in
progress or in embryo, or to arrest the fall of certain mills, by purchasing
their stocks, already 40 per cent below par. Such may have been the case.
Let others judge.  It may be otherwise; but his frequent croakings about
the hazards, the disasters, the failures, and, at best, the small profits of the
manufacturing business, seem mightily like a sort of squinting toward
the object of restraining the southern people from entering into competition with those of the North; or, that failing, to persuade them
to embark their funds on board the new northern ship LAWRENCE, or some
other craft belonging in whole or in part to the same firm.  Thus, with honeyed words, and abundant fraternal sympathy, he exhorts "our friends" at
the South, in effect, either not to enter the manufacturing field at all, or, if
they should, to invest their funds in northern mills. The substance is, they
must pay freight and expenses on their own cotton to Lowell, and on their
cloth back again; and leave at the North all the.~ ealth created by labor




32                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton..
with the use of that capital, to build up northern towns and cities, equaling,
once in two years at least, the amount of capital invested, with the exception
of 8-9, per cent per annum on its amount, in the way of dividends! How
kind! how considerate!
If Mr. Lawrence could be in the least suspected of having the smallest and
most remote interest in aiding any of his "first class mills," or building up
the city of Lawrence, or any other place, or in advancing the prices of manufacturing stocks in " first class mills," suspicions might be entertained that,
in all these kindly admonitions, there was a slight tincture of selfishness.
Casting this unworthy thought to the winds, we view the kind-hearted gentleman, his heart teeming with tender compassion, warning " our southern
friends" not to involve themselves in the disastrous results of the manufacturing business, which has so much " enriched New England."  I would aid
the gentleman's pious labors, by holding up, as frightful examples, such men
as the LAWRENCES, the APPLETONS, and hundreds of others, New England
manufacturers.  Lest these examples should fail to produce the desired'effect, I would also hold up to view LOWELL, MANCHESTER, PAWTUCKET, WALTHAM, DOVER, WOONSOCKET, FALL RIVER, LAWRENCE, &C., &C., to which
may be added commercial cities, such as Boston, Providence, and others. With
such examples as these before their eyes, one would think "our southern
friends " might be forewarned, and forearmed. Let the southern capitalists
beware of manufacturing, lest they become LAWRENCES and APPLETONS, and
build up LOWELLS in their midst. They must send their cotton to the North,
and have it returned in cloth, with all expenses accumulated on it, including
the cost of manufacturing.  They DmUSt invest their capital in northern " first
class mills," receive an annual dividend on it of 8,-9, per cent, and leave
behind more than 70 per cent, each two years, of the amount of the capital,
in wealth created by the labor it pays for, to build up the fortunes of northern men, and to people and enrich New England.  Let them do all this, and
they have no reason to fear that the fate of New England will ever befall
them.
Near the close of Mr. Lawrence's review, he appears to have wrought
himself up to some slight degree of pugnacity. He speaks of "Lawrence,
Amoskeag, Saco, and other places of less note," and finally concludes that
the water-power of Massachusetts alone, now unoccupied, is sufficient to
drive all the cotton mills in the United States.  Well-what then? Why,
by holding a rod in terrorum over the heads of the southern people, by as-.
suring them that the mammoth corporations will occupy the water-power,
any how, he tries to firighten those same southern "friends" out of their
wits with the vision of this mighty competition, and to thus prevent them
from embarking in the manufacturing business. But does Mr. Lawrence
recollect that if Massachusetts and New Hampshire have water, the South
has wood and coal quite as abundant, and at much lower rates? Does he
recollect, too, that the southern and south-western people have cotton, and
that the saving to them, in the cost of that article alone, compared with its
cost in New England, will be more than thrice the cost of steam-power to
them to manufacture it? Of what use, for instance, would the water-power
he names be to the manufacturers on the banks of the Ohio? —say at Cannelton, where, with the best of coal at NINETY CENTS PER TON AT THE
MILLS, they can have a motive power better than any water-power, and at
a cost less than that of heating a water-mill at Lowell, and save, also, at
least $20,000 per annum in,the cost of cotton for 10,000 spindles, comn



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.             33
pared with its cost at Lowell? Can Mr. Lawrence tell what competition
Cannelton, or other places with locations equally favorable, have to fear from
New England water-power or New England corporations? And as tj the
time for the erection of cotton-mills-during an experience of more than
twenty years in the business, I have never witnessed a period more favorable
than the present. Were it not that my business is so extended to almost
all parts of the country, and my time so completely occupied, I would most
assuredly embrace the present moment to erect a large mill to run on my
own account. The prospect is as bright, too, as at any time in the history
of our country; and would our New England manufacturers remodel their
mills, and vary their business, instead of adhering to the practice of manufacturing plain cottons only, they would make much more money. A thousand articles might be made, in which the price of a pound of cotton would be
magnified by its manufacture to fifty cents, and even to one dollar per pound,
instead of twenty-five cents, and to great profit. The sooner the South
monopolize the manufacture of coarse goods the better will it be for the
manufacturers of New England; and however much I may be blamed for
spreading the facts I have before the people of the South, the time will come
when the northern manufacturer will see that, as far as my feeble efforts may
have any effect, as to their interest, that effect will be favorable.
For years the northern press has been loud and frequent in recommendations to the South to enter the field of enterprise, and manufacture her
own staple; and, by way of encouragement, the success of New England
in the same branch of business, with the enhanced cost of the raw material,
has been held out as an example. No fault, to my knowledge, has ever
been found with that course. During the time, however, the manufacturers
have uttered no note of encouragement, keeping a continual studied silence
when their business was prosperous, and only opening their lips to give utterance to doleful complaints if occasionally a reverse occurred. Though
myself a New England man, I am also an American, and claim brotherhood
with the American people, as a whole. It gives me pleasure to witness the
prosperity of New England; but, as an American citizen, it gives me equal
pleasure to witness the prosperity of the whole country. Hence, in whatever has been written by me on the subject of manufactures at the South,
my object has been to promote the interest of that section of our common
country, without the most remote wish to injure that of any other.  Business has never been sought by me there, nor ever will be. The pamphlet, of which the abridgment appeared in " Hunt's Merchants' Magazinefor
November, 1849," was written by the especial request of southern men, and
the abridgment was made also by request. The southern people wished for
information on the subject of cotton manufactures, in order to know whether
it was, or was not, prudent for them to engage in the business. They applied to me to impart that information. The call was, after a time, responded to by me, and, as in duty bound, I gave them facts in an honest and truthful manner-facts that I have fully substantiated-and to establish which,
on the basis of future operations, also, I hold myself pledged and bound to
do. I have not only the ability but the means to do it.  Fully aware of
the reluctance of northern manufacturers to have the details and results of
their operations exposed, and wishing neither to excite their animosity, to
alarm their cupidity, nor to injure their interests, I carefully abstained from
all interference with their concerns, and merely stated the general results
of the business in New England, and what could be done, and had been
3




34                Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.
done, with a steam-mill of my own construction. And what has been the
result? I have been attacked from all quarters, and in all forms —and why?
Evidently because my statements were calculated to give encouragement to
manufactures at the South, and to bring them into competition with those
of the North. What other motives could have animated those who have
assailed me? I pretended not, though I could have done it, to penetrate
the veil hung over the doings of northern manufacturers.  My effort was
to show the southern people what they might do-not by reference to the
doings of a number of pretended "first class mills," but to others of my
own building.  Mr. Lawrence, and others, apparently alarmed at this, and
fearing the result, entered the arena, and, by insinuations, innuendos, and
broad statements, have endeavored to fix the falsehood upon me; not because I had misrepresented northern mills, or their products or profits, but
because, as they would have it to be understood, I had made exaggerated
statements relative to mills erected by me. And how have they succeeded?
There is scarcely a statement made by them that has not been proved fallacious-not a statement of mine that has not been substantiated.  Mr. Lawrence has driven me, in self-defense, to bring out facts relative to which, if
let alone, I should have been silent. If they have a heavy and injurious
bearing on the northern manufacturing interest, those connected with it may
thank their champion. I flatter myself that no one can tell me much that
I do not know about the cotton manufacture in New England, or the cost,
condition, product, and profit and loss of a great number of New England
cotton-mills, and among them most of the twenty-six "first class mills."
Thus far, they have just been touched on by me, and there it is my wish
to leave them; yet much remains behind, that some would rather should
be permitted to rest undisturbed. So shall it rest, unless farther provocation
shall call it out.
Why all this hue and cry, like the cry of mad dog, after an humble individual like myself? It is envy, jealousy, hate; because, without the patronage of overgrown and aristocratic corporations, I have, after more than
twenty years of patient and unremitting toil, by means of self-culture alone,
qualified myself, by erecting about one-eighth of all the cotton mills in America,
as an engineer and manufacturer, to construct a better mill than the best of
theirs, at less cost, that will manufacture a greater quantity of better goods
at less expense.  This I proclaim to the world, without the intention of
boasting, and appeal to my work as evidence. It is for this crime —because
I can beat Lowell-that attempts are made, and not now for the first time
either, to hunt me down; but the pursuers are mistaken in their game, and
in their powers. They may as well give up the chase-the manufacturing
spirit is fast gaining strength in the Middle and Southern States. Cottonmills are rapidly on the increase.  As their owners begin to handle the
profits, you cannot cheat them out of the evidence of their own senses.
Southern competition must come. The South can manufacture coarse goods
cheaper, and at greater profit, than the North.  If the nothern manufacturers are wise, they will, instead of fretting themselves on this account,
make all necessary improvements in their manufacturing establishments, and
supply the markets with such fabrics as the South will not find it to its interest to supply for many years to come.
I now take leave of the subject, leaving the public to make up judgment
between M. Lawrence and me. I harbor no unkind feelings to him. If
plain language has been used by me, and some degree of asperity,:they




Culture and Manufacture of Cotton.                35
have not been aimed at him personally, but at his works; and it is presumed
he will understand my allusion, when I say, "the blows aimed at the helmet
were not intended for the head." M. Lawrence is a man of talents, and it
is presumed has written as well as any one else would have done for his
side of the question. Unfortunately for him, his case is a bad one-even
much worse, as I know, and could readily prove, if occasion should requiremuch worse than I have labored to show.                       c. T. J.
NOTE.
Perhaps Mr. Lawrence may be able to account for a curious movement which
occurred about the period when his article may be supposed to have produced
its due effect on the market value of the stock of the Portsmouth Mill. It is
quite well known that he and his associates were in the market as purchasers of
this stock, and that they paid for it sixty cents on the dollar, when they could
have purchased stock in some of their "first-rate water-mills," with their "surplus cash capital," atfifty cents; and I would inquire of Mr. Lawrence if they
did or did not, finally, run the Portsmouth stock up to SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS, and
make offers to purchase at that price? It is somewhat singular that Mr. Lawrence should take so much pains to write steam-mills down, and at the same
time should purchase stock in one he seemed to consider the most unfortunate
among them at a comparative high price.












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Magazine which I like very much, is the spirit of free
From Bon. John Macpherson Berriec, Senator of the United discussil which pervades its pages. You act wisely in
States fromn Georgia.             permitting all parties to be heard upon the mooted theories of trade and commerce, which involve to some ex-'I have been, for some time past, in possession of the tent the great problem of modern civilization. thus keepseveral volumes and numbers of the' Merchants' Maga- inlg open and free from obstruction, the only direct avenue
aine,' and in the habit of referring to it. I can therefore to truth.
unthesitatingly say, that I consider it a very valuable ad-'Your publication is equally creditable to the periodical,ition to the library of the stateslilan, as well as the mer- literature of the day. Its leading articles exhibit abunchant, and express, as I do cordially, the hope that its dant proof of the ability, research and industry of their
publication niay be continued with increased benefit to authors. In short, I esteem the Merchants' Magazine as
yourself, as I feel assured it will be with advantage to second to no publication of the kind, published in this or
time public."                                      any other country."
{E3- A few complete sets of the MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE, embracing NIhETEEN semi-annual volumes, of more
than oli) large octavo pages each, bringing it down to December, 1848, may be obtained at the Publisher's Office,
142 l'tlltoli-street, New York, at the subscription price.