Department of Commerce [pp. 450-460]

450
COMMERCF.
best fruit grown on the shores of the Mediterranean. Locate in
either of these sections a thriving colony of southern Europeans,
and it will not be long before theentire demand for this delightful
fruit for the whole country, prepared by experts, will be supplied
from home sources, at prices which will tend rapidly to increase
consumption. The culture of the grape and of the orange will
give employment to many thousands; the former flourishing in
rich profusion in almost every part of the South, and the latter
yielding munificent returns in the States above mentioned, and on
the sea-coast of Soutth Carolina and Georgia.
We have thus briefly, and we fear imperfectly, presented a few
of the arguments presented by Mr. Weiss to prove that rich elements of success are in store for the projected line of steamers,
and trust we will have succeeded in arousing some attention to a
scheme in which we have the highest confidence. Mr. Weiss has
all the necessary data to substantiate his views, and will cheerfully communicate with parties who desire further information.
He can be addressed through this office. E. Q. B.
ART. X.-DEPARTMENT OF COMMIERCE.
1.-COTTON AND THE COTTON TRADE.
OUR notes on the cotton market close on the first of November. The sit uation is full of gloom. While from all parts of the world where soil and
climate favors the cultivation of the staple, the most encouraging accounts
come to us of increased production, of improved quality, and of advancing
enterprise and prosperity, our own prospects continue steadily to decline,
and the unwelcome truth is forced upon us that our prestige as a great and
controlling cotton-producing power, is passing away from us forever. While
the cultivation of the plant is surrounded here with all the embarrassments
of restricted means, inefficient labor, and adverse legislation, British wealth
and British enterprise is lavished upon her distant possessions, and even in
other countries, wherever her diplomacy could wield its subtle influence.
In far off Abyssinia, under the convenient cover of obtaining redress for
some petty grievances, England aims to plant a colony,-not peaceably, but
under the protection of an army of Asiatics. Tihat she will succeed, the his tory of her aggressive policy through many centuries leaves no doubt, and
thus she will acquire not only a magnificent cotton field, two thousand miles
nearer than her East India possessions, but an outlet for her iron and her
manufactures, on which her prosperity as a great empire chiefly rests.
From the latest reports to the British Cotton Supply Association, from all
parts of India-from the Cape Colony and from Jamaica-we learn that the
prospects are most encouraging, and that the capitalists who are at the head
of the cotton growing-business in these provinces, feel satisfied that hlencefor ward they have nothing to fear from American competition. Even in Mace donia the crop has attained considerable proportions, and this year is ex