taple variety, commercially known as _sea island
cotton_. A district in China produces a good fibre of brownish color
known as _nankeen_, named for the city of Nanking, whence formerly it
was exported. The valley of Piura River, Peru, produces varieties of
long-staple cotton that in quality closely resemble silk.

The fibre of ordinary American cotton is about seven-eighths of an inch
long; it is made into the fabrics commercially known as "domestics" and
"prints," or calico. If the fibre averages a little longer than the
common grades it is reserved for canvas. Ordinary Peruvian cotton has a
fibre nearly two inches long; it is used in the manufacture of hosiery
and balbriggan underwear, and also to adulterate wool. The long-staple
cotton of the Piura Valley is bought by British manufacturers at a high
price, and used in the webbing of rubber tires and hose. Egyptian cotton
is very fine and is used mainly in the manufacture of thread and the
finer grades of balbriggan underwear. Sea island fibre is nearly two
inches long and is used almost wholly in the making of thread and lace.

The introduction of cotton cultivation resulted in very far-reaching
consequences both from a political as well as an economic stand-point.
The invention of the steam-engine by Watt gave England an enormous
mechanical power. To utilize this the cotton industry was wrested from
Hindustan; the mills were concentrated in Manchester and Lancashire; the
cotton-fields were transferred to the United States.

As a result, the plains of Hindustan were strewn with the bodies of
starved weavers and spinners, but a great industry grew into existence
in England. The invention of spinning machinery by Arkwright, Crompton,
and Hargreaves, and the gradual improvement of the power-loom, greatly
reduced the cost of making the cloth and, at the same time, enormously
increased the demand for it.

[Illustration: COTTON PRODUCTION]

In the United States the consequences were far more serious. The
invention of the engine or "gin" for separating the lint from the seed
made cotton cultivation highly profitable.[31] The negro slaves, who had
been scattered throughout the colonies and the States that succeeded
them, were soon drawn to the cotton-growing States to supply the needed
field-labor; and, indeed, white workmen could not stand the hot, moist
climate of the cotton-fields.

The cotton-mills grew up in the Northern manufacturing States. The
Northern manufact