Art. 11.-CULTURE OF COTTON IN TURKEY.

The Experimental Farm, and Agricultural School established near the city of Constantinople in the year 1846-7, by Dr. James B. Davis of Charleston, South Carolina, has survived the changes which have been made since then in the departments of the Ottoman Government; and, though not in so favorable a condition as could be wished-nor, indeed, worthy of the past expenses incurred by the present very enlightened Sultan, is still not void of merit. It was, and still is, an enterprise entirely his own; and it would appear from the accounts occasionally published in the public papers of the capital, respecting it, still commands his interest and attention.

It is now contemplated to procure again cotton seed from the Southern States of North America, and by distributing it throughout different parts of this country, make another attempt at improving the culture of cotton in those places where cotton of an inferior quality is already produced. To facilitate also, the operations of the persons employed in the Agricultural School, an order for works connected with the subject was, some time since, sent, by command of the Grand Vizier, Rechid Pacha, to Mr. George P. Putnam of New York.

The (official) gazette of the capital, Journal de Constantinople, of the 19th of November, 1851, contains a long article, written by the present director of the Model Farm and Agricultural School, Mr. J. Janesco, from which we extract the following remarks. They are deemed not entirely void of interest, from being on a subject which must be always worthy of particular attention to the people of the Southern States. The editorial remarks of the editor introducing the article of the Director of the Farm are the following:

"We would add a few words on the subject of a branch of agricultural industry which could, or might, contribute powerfully to the increase of the wealth of the Ottoman Empire. We allude to the culture of cotton.

"Cotton, as Mr. Janesco correctly remarks, had its origin in the East, and yet it is not the East which derives profit from its culture. True, it is still cultivated there, but it is America which has acquired a superiority in this article which ought, from every reason, to belong to Turkey. The Sultan has a correct idea of the importance of the cultivation of cotton to his empire, and that, in the course of a few years, it might offer a serious competition to the United States, and rival them in the advantages which they derive from supplying the raw material to France and England. Very great sacrifices have been made by the Sultan for the erection of an establishment destined for the amelioration of its culture; but the success has not answered to these sacrifices. And yet, this noble sovereign has not abandoned this idea; and it may yet be hoped that Turkey will, one day, cultivate extensively the same cotton which went as specimens to the Fair of London, and was there so highly commended for its quality."

Mr. Janesco, before writing, especially on the subject of cotton, remarks that "Mankind in his search for resources to gratify his wants, has, as yet, exhausted but few of the means which the earth possesses of raising those resources. The ordinary grains, cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk, are only a few of the articles which have been produced in the quantities susceptible of culture." "What," he asks, are cotton, flax, and silk, in comparison to the other textile plants-such as the agave of America, the apocynum of

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Syria, the asclepias (mullen wort) of the same country, the hemp-apocynum of America, the Aboutelin of India, the Alceas of Spain, the mauve of Corsica, that of India, the paper mulberry of China, the nettle of Tartary, that of Kamschatka, the broom of Spain, and a great number of thready plants? Cotton grows spontaneously in all the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and America. Whilst this plant had its origin in the East, and its cultivation is more or less carried on in the three parts of the old world which form the Ottoman Empire, (Europe, Asia, and Africa,) yet it is not this country which profits most from it. As a general rule, it will not grow in a climate which freezes; in very warm climates it forms a tree, and grows to a considerable hight, whilst in the temperate zone it becomes an annual plant. Turkey, therefore, offers the most favorable of climates for its annual cultivation. In the United States its immense cultivation, and the progress also yearly made in its manufacture, offers a great competition to Great Britain; and with the industry and enterprise for which the people of the United States are so eminently remarkable, it may be supposed that in the course of a few years, they will both cultivate and manufacture for themselves. Turkey is better qualified for being an agricultural country, and only for producing cotton for the looms of Europe. It may be remarked, that America has robbed the East of this plant as well as it has of another great source of her prosperity. We allude to the coffee plant. The history of Coffee is perhaps not known or rather remembered by every one. In the 16th century an Ottoman ambassador, Soliman Aga, presented some of the seeds to a king of France, as a pleasant beverage produced in Arabia; in 1654 an Armenian, named Pasquel, opened the first shop for the sale of coffee (an infusion of it) in Paris. It is now of general use all over the world; and nearly all the coffee drank is the produce of America, where about one century ago, it was not cultivated at all. The people of the East in place of raising it themselves, borrow it from the Americans."

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Mr. Janesco goes on to say, that those persons who are true friends of the Ottoman Government have strongly advised it to encourage agriculture as its chief source of public industry and wealth-especially those branches of it which offer a sale in the more manufacturing parts of Europe. The culture of cotton, silk, coffee, and drugs, and the raising of wool, are the safest and surest means of perpetuating the independence-even the existence of Turkey, surrounded, as she is, by nations opposed by principle to both the one and the other." France," he adds, owes her successful culture of the mulberry tree to the zeal and sacrifices made by Henry IV., and though the task is no enviable one, yet Sultan Abd al Majid may benefit his empire to an equal degree, by the amelioration of cotton cultivation in those parts of it where the soil and climate are favorable to its growth." Respecting the culture of cotton in Egypt, Mr. Janesco says, "It is attributed to a Dervish, who, having brought some seeds from India planted them in the garden of the Tekkeh, or convent in which he resided. From them sprung up such flourishing trees that the late Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, tried, successfully, the culture of cotton in every part of that country, where it is now planted once in two or three years, and not annually, as in the United States. He also cites a French writer of the name of Baron Inchereau de St. Denys, who reports that cotton has been cultivated extensively in Egypt only since 1821; adding that up to that time, it was was only produced of an inferior quality, and but little sought for in Commerce; that a French merchant, M. Jumiel, having remarked in

the garden of Mehemet Ali, at Cairo, some cotton bushes brought from India, as ornamental shrubs, he recommended the culture of the plant as an object of public utility, and thus Mehemet Ali Pacha, by trying experiments with different species of cotton, has done for its culture all that is possible in Egypt. The best cotton is now called in Egypt, he says, Jumel cotton, and that it has received a medal at the London Fair.

*

Mr. Janesco states that the cultivation of Indian corn in the Turkish province of Moldavia was introduced by simply furnishing the inhabitants with the seed gratuitously. The soil and climate being propitious to its culture, the great utility of the product has created for this province a source of immense wealth. Indian corn from Moldavia and the Shores of the Black Sea can be raised, exported to England, and sold there cheaper than that from the United States. In the same way he expects similar results from the introduction of good cotton seed, distributed free of expense to the people of those parts of Turkey propitious in soil and climate to its culture.

Mr. Janesco says that he made his study of cotton culture in Thessaly. The two essential points there, he adds, are, that the soil be ploughed deeply, and well dressed; and these are not properly observed in Thessaly, where the inhabitants spend all their strength in tilling the ground four times, which, however, are together not worth once ploughing and once harrowing it. Sufficient attention is not shown to the depth of the tilling with a plough which only scratches the soil. This, therefore, they must correct, and relieve themselves from the inconvenience in which ignorance has placed them.

The culture of cotton succeeds in Thessaly, he continues, according to the year, in heavy and light soils. If the year is dry, clayey grounds give the best crops; if wet, sandy soils have that result. The crop is sown when there is no longer any fear of late frosts, from heavy weather, and damp soil. Cotton should be kept clean during its entire growth. The weeds are cut away by means of weeding-hoes; a space of at least two feet left between the plants, and free to receive the sun, so as to be able to withstand winds and droughts. To execute these dressings, hoeings, &c., the people of Thessaly have neither time nor means, and they scarcely till their cotton more than once.

In Turkey, the most needed things, are those instruments which economize time and diminish labor. To the plough and the harrow we would add the horse-hoe, which does in one day, with one man, the work of twenty man-hoes, and these would supply the place of all other instruments of agriculture, to cultivators of all parts of the empire.

To the preceding, Mr. Janesco, adds that the crop is collected in dry, warm weather; but that in Thessaly, as occurred last year, the cotton often is completely lost on account of the autumn's proving rainy and cool. The cotton, once picked from the pod, is separated from the seeds by means of a very simple and cheap machine. This machine in Thessaly, he says, only costs some fifty piastres, a little more than $2. On turning the crank, the cotton separates from the seeds between the cylinders, and the latter fall out on the table, whilst the fibers are thrown off in the contrary direction. He cites a village called Lefterohouri, whose inhabitants cultivate only tobacco. They annually descend from their elevated homes to the plain of Larissa

* He procured cotton seed and gins from the United States.

+ The one-horse light plough used by Dr. Davis.

and purchase cotton in the pods, and carrying it to their dwellings, there şeparate it from the seeds. From 16 lbs. of pods, which they buy for twelve cents, they procure 22 lbs. of cotton thread, and this they dispose of for twenty to twenty-five cents. For one dounoom of land (about an acre, or something less) they use in Thessaly from 6 lbs. to 10 lbs. of cotton seed which they purchase for four or six cents, and plant it in straight lines. The produce of an acre varies from 50 lbs. to 220 lbs. of cotton in the pod. This shows that the crop is not a productive one--the result of bad seed, and a miserable system of culture.

Mr. Janesco states in conclusion:-"The culture of cotton will soon again receive the assistance of the Sultan, and it may be hoped that the best results will ensue from it."

The Model School established by the Sultan, within a few miles of the capital, not being located in a propitious soil, nor favored by climate, does not teach the culture of cotton, except theoretically. All the advantages, therefore, derived from it thus far, are due to the labors of Dr. Davis, and to the seed procured by him for the Sultan, from South Carolina. The practical éléves given to him for instruction during the two seasons when the School and Farm were in his charge, returned to their homes in Asia Minor, and by sowing the pod seed, given them by Dr. Davis, they raised a quality of cotton but little inferior to that of the United States. His own crops near Constantinople, in Europe, were not so good, owing to the early rains which wet it when opening; and the Turkey cotton exhibited at the Fair in London, was raised directly from South Carolina seed, and by Dr. Davis's éléves in Asia Minor. It is well that these facts should be known; for it may be that, at the Fair, they were omitted by the persons who exhibited the cotton, without being acquainted with their history. They will, also, serve to show what Turkey may do in respect to the culture of one of the staple products of Commerce, with good seed and an improved system of cultivation.

CONSTANTINOPLE, December 1, 1851.

J. P. B.

Art. III. THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER III.

DESCRIPTION OF FISHING GROUNDS-HABITS OF THE FISH, (COD AND MACKEREL)-MODE OF PURSUIT OUTFIT-CURE--QUANTITY OF CATCH, ETC.

THE Codfish is an inhabitant of cold waters, though not choosing the coldest, and being found, also, thinly, under mild temperatures. Its principal resort, on the coast of the American continent, is the region already alluded to, as frequented by English, French, and American fishermen, lying within the 40th and extending beyond the 50th degree of north latitude, and embraced nearly within the 50th and 65th degrees of west longitude. The most celebrated of the grounds embraced within these limits are the Grand Bank of Newfoundland and the northern coast of Labrador. Labrador is a vast, cold, desert region, peopled only by the Esquimaux, the most diminutive and degraded of the human race. It spreads from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Hudson's Straits, each of its two coasts being about

ten degrees in extent. In the year 1829, the statistics of the fisheries on the Labrador coast, according to a statement in the Quebec Star, were as follows:

The Grand Bank, situated on the east side of the Island of Newfoundland, is from 400 to 600 miles in length, in the widest part about 200 miles in width, and covered by a depth of 25 to 95 fathoms. Of late years it has been abandoned by the English, who formerly had an extensive fishery there, to the French and Americans. The best fishing ground on this bank is between the 42d and 46th parallels of latitude. To the eastward of Grand Bank are two small banks, called Jagnet Bank and Outer Bank, and within, to the westward, stretching from its southern extremity across to Nova Scotia, are a series of banks and ledges, the principal of which are the following:Green Bank, Whale Bank, Banque Bank, St. Peter's Bank, the Middle Ground, Le Havre Bank, Canso Bank, Sable Island Bank, and Roseway Bank. The coasts of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence afford other excellent fishing grounds. The cod is found also, in small numbers, along the whole coast of New England, but is there sought only in small boats, wherries, &c., venturing out but a few miles, and taking only enough to furnish the market with fresh fish.

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The mackerel travels over a large portion of the ground visited by the cod, but as it likes warmer water, preferring a moderately cool temperature, goes further south and a less distance north. The nature of its food may be a partial cause, also, of these movements. It swims at various depths, but none of them far below the surface, while the cod seeks the very bottom. It enters harbors and rivers, and goes up as far as the limit of tide-water. In winter it migrates to the south, and returns early in the spring, at which time our fishermen go as far as the capes of Virginia to meet and have their first strike among the northward-moving schools. This southern mackerel trip is not usually a very profitable one. The fish are poor, and often hardly worth taking, and the fares are usually small. Only a portion of those who are engaged during the summer mackereling make this southern trip. The advantages of it are, that if the mackerel should be coming in plenty, and be easily taken, those who advance to meet them will have one more blow at them than those who wait, and as the profits are very large on such occasions, it makes a material difference in the result. Another thing is, that a crew for the season may be more easily obtained in the early part of the spring than later, when the great body of vessels are fitting out together for