Raw Cotton is the woolly down which envelops the seeds of the cotton plant, of which there are three principal species, the cotton herb, the cotton shrub, and the cotton tree. Most of the cotton of commerce is derived from the cotton herb, which is more extensively grown in the Southern United States than in any other cotton-producing country. Raw cotton is commercially designated as the North American or United States Cotton, produced in the Southern States; West Indian and South American Cotton; East Indian Cotton, imported from India, Further India, the Philippines, &c.; Levant Cotton, chiefly from European and Asiatic Turkey; and African Cotton, from Egypt, Algeria, Réunion, &c.

The commercial value of cotton depends upon the length, strength, and fineness of the staple or fibre, which varies from 1 to 1%1⁄2 inches in length in the Egyptian and Indian cotton, to as much as 21⁄2 inches in the famous Sea-island Cotton, grown on the coast of Georgia-the finest cotton in the world. 'Long staple cotton is generally spun into the threads for the warp, and the short staple is used for the woof." Cotton-seed is used for the manufacture of oil and oil-cake.

Cotton comes into the market in compressed bales; the cotton wool is freed from the seed by ginning, and the cleaned cotton then packed in bales, the weight of which varies from 180 lbs. of Brazilian to 450 lbs. of New Orleans or 560 lbs. of Mobile cotton. Nine-tenths of the raw cotton imported into the United Kingdom come from the United States (average annual production 1,200,000 tons), India (200,000 tons), Egypt and Turkey (120,000 tons), and Brazil (30,000 tons), and the first three countries produce four-fifths of all the cotton grown in the world. The cotton region of the United States has an area of 700,000 square miles, of which 23,000 square miles, or one-fifth of the entire cultivated area, are actually under cotton. The Civil War of 1860-5 gave a great impetus to cotton cultivation in Egypt, India, Brazil, &c. The average yield of cotton wool in the United States is 200 lbs. per acre, in Egypt it rises to 300 and even 500 lbs. per acre. The cotton manufacture is by far the most important textile industry in the world, and the cotton manufactures of England exceed those of all other countries taken together.

The Flax plant yields a variety of most useful products--the prepared fibre or woody tissue of flax being manufactured into linens, lawns, and cambrics, and in this country into canvas-cloth for sails, &c., while the seed forms the linseed of commerce, which yields an oil used in making paints and varnish, and the residue, or crushed cake, is used as food for

cattle.

Flax has a wide geographical range, thriving well in the United Kingdom (especially in Ireland), the continent of Europe, and India. Three-fourths of our import of flax fibre come from Russia; in India and the United States, flax is cultivated mainly for the oil expressed from its seed. The labour involved in preparing the fibre for the market prevents its culture on a large scale in England and the United States; in the north of Ireland, flax is still largely grown to supply the great linen industry which centres in Belfast.

The Hemp plant yields a similar, but stronger and coarser, fibre than that of flax; it is chiefly used for making ropes and cordage, and canvas or sailcloth.

In warm countries the fibre is not so useful, but the plant becomes powerfully narcotic, and an intoxicating drug (charras) is made from it. Hemp

thrives in the same kind of soil and climate as flax, and is grown most largely in Russia, Italy, and India.

Jute fibre is chiefly used for making the gunny lags in which rice, cotton, oil-seeds, sugar, dye-stuffs, &c., are sent from India. The largest jute factories in this country are in Dundee, but gunny cloth is now largely woven in India and on the Continent.

Other fibre-yielding plants are the so-called New Zealand flax, of the snowwhite silky fibres of which a beautiful cloth is made by the natives; Manilla hemp, the fibre of which is used in the manufacture of the most exquisite textile fabrics (fine muslins, &c.) and the fine Manilla hats. A beautifully fine cloth is also made from the fibres of the China grass, and the esparto grass or alfa yields fibres for making ropes and cordage, in addition to its chief value as material for paper-making.

Timber-Trees: Pines and firs yield by far the largest portion of the timber of commerce. Other valuable building and furniture woods are supplied by the oak, cedar, teak, rosewood, and mahogany.

Most of our building timber-logs, deals, planks, and boards—is furnished by the pine, fir, spruce, larch, and other coniferous trees, the felling and preparing of which for the market form a leading industry in Northern and Central Europe and North America. Canada and the United States, especially, export enormous quantities of pine and other useful woods. The oak is largely exported from Central Europe, Canada, and the United States. The mahogany, the best of all furniture woods, is a large and lofty tree of Central America and the West Indies. The best "Spanish mahogany" comes from Hayti. Teak is a hard and durable East Indian wood, and of great value in ship-building and engineering purposes. The ebony of the Mauritius and the East Indies is a valuable black wood, hard and heavy, and with an ivory-like texture. Cedar is the general name for a number of trees "whose wood is thought to resemble that of the true cedar of Lebanon in colour or appearance, or both: the cedar of Lebanon furnishes none of the timber of commerce." Such are the American cedar used for cigar boxes, &c.; the red or pencil cedar, for lead pencils, &c. Rosewood, black walnut, bird's-eye maple, and lignum vitæ, the last the heaviest and hardest wood known, are beautiful and much-used cabinet woods. A very large number of other trees yield valuable woods; in fact, the trees which furnish building and furniture materials are so numerous, that their names alone would form an extensive catalogue. 1

Miscellaneous Commercial Plants: Cork is the bark of an evergreen oak found in Spain and Portugal, the south of France, Corsica, Sardinia, and Algeria. Bottle stoppers are also made from the cork-like wood of the balsa tree of South America. Vegetable ivory is the product of a South American dwarf palm-the clear liquid albumen of the nuts (imported under the name of Coroza nuts), hardening gradually until it resembles ivory, as a substitute for which it is much used. The coquilla nut of South and Central America is used by turners for trinkets and toys, umbrella handles, &c. The marking nut of the East Indies furnishes an indelible black marking ink. The canes or rattans of commerce are the rope-like stems of a species of palm, some of them being as much as 300 feet in length, and so strong as to be used in catching elephants, and instead of ropes and cables on native vessels. Millions of canes or rattans are brought to England every year from India and the Sunda Islands for making chair bottoms, baskets, &c. The bamboo is a gigantic tropical grass of immense value to the people of India, China, and Japan.

1. The percentage of forest area in the British Isles | many a5, France 17, India 10, Japan 50, United Is only 3%, while in Sweden it is 39. Norway 21, States 24, Canada 33

Russia 38, Finland 56, Austria-Hungary 30, Ger.

The Commercial Products of the Animal Kingdom include live animals, articles of food and materials for clothing, and other products that enter largely into the trade and commerce of the world.

The Animals and Animal-Products that enter largely into international commerce are comparatively few in number, but they are essential to the comfort and well-being of man; in fact, except in the Tropics, it is doubtful if man could live without making use of the lower animals. Several kinds of mammals are of inestimable value as beasts of burden, of which the most important are the horse, mule, ox, reindeer, llama, camel, elephant, and even the dog, while a large and essential part of the food supply of the various races of man is derived from the mammalia. Meats (both fresh and salt), fats, lard, milk, butter, and cheese, fall under this head. Both savage and civilized man draw largely upon the various groups of mammals for their clothing, and for articles in every-day use. Among the raw materials thus used are hides (furnishing leather of all kinds), furs, wool, hair, bristles, silk, ivory, whalebone, horns and hoofs, bones, tallow, oils, and manures." A large trade is also carried on in Live Animals, principally the larger domestic animals, such as cattle (chiefly from the United States and Canada), sheep and lambs, horses, and swine (chiefly from Holland, Denmark, and Germany). Living wild animals, such as lions, tigers and bears, tropical birds, &c., are imported in considerable numbers for menageries, zoological gardens, &c.

Food-Products of animal origin include meat, lard, butter, cheese, and eggs. Large quantities of beef (both fresh and salt) are sent to Europe from the United States and Canada, while fresh mutton is sent in cooled or refrig erating chambers from New Zealand and the Argentine Republic. Enormous quantities of bacon, hams, and lard are brought into this country from the United States; butter and cheese are obtained from Holland and Denmark, France and Germany, but our import of cheese is mainly supplied by the United States and Canada. In addition to an enormous home production, about one thousand millions of eggs are annually imported into the United Kingdom.

Fur garments form the most suitable clothing in countries where the winters are severe, as in Canada and Russia, and are also much worn in milder climates.

Most of the furs of commerce are obtained from animals of the temperate and colder regions, and comparatively few are derived from those of tropical countries. The four great fur markets of the world-London, Leipsig, NishniNovgorod, and New York-are supplied principally from Northern Eurasia and the northern half of North America. The woolly fur of the sheep, lamb, goat, llama, alpaca, vicuna, and guanaco, is used in some localities as clothing material, but the most valuable furs are those of the ermine-the royal fur of England-the sable, the sea-otter, the true fur seal, the black or silver fox and the red fox. Millions of squirrels, rabbits, hares, musk rats, coypu rats (nutria), and hair-seals, are annually slaughtered-over six millions of squirrel skins being obtained every year, mostly from Siberia, while New Zealand alone exports about twelve millions of rabbit skins annually. South America yields enormous quantities of chinchilla fur and nutria skins, the latter furnished by the beaverlike coypu rat of the River Plate region. Large numbers of wolf and bear skins are annually obtained from Northern Eurasia and North America, and several hundred lion and tiger skins, &c., from tropical Africa and Asia.

Wool is another animal product of much greater value, forming, as it does, the chief clothing material in all temperate and colder countries, except China and Japan, where cotton is principally worn.

Most of the wool of commerce is furnished by the sheep, which is reared, principally for the sake of its fleece, in larger numbers than any other domestic animal. English Wool was a large and valuable export in the Middle Ages, and, strangely enough, is still in considerable demand abroad. The finest wool is obtained from the merino sheep, originally introduced from Northern Africa into Spain, and thence into Saxony and other parts of Europe, and later into Australasia, South Africa, and South America. For centuries, Spanish wool was the most famous of all, and German wool still ranks high, but Australia has now eclipsed all other countries in regard to both the quantity and the quality of its wool, which is unsurpassed for softness, length of staple, and lustre, and commands the highest price in the London market-the chief wool market of the world. Wool is generally exported in its natural state; when the grease and dirt are removed from the unscoured wool, it loses about half its weight-the proportion of clean wool after washing or scouring' varying from 37% of the River Plate wool, 50% of Australian, to 60% of South African. On an average, then, only about one-half of the raw wool produced is available for use. Nearly all the Australian and South African wool is consigned to London, but owing to the establishment of markets in the great wool ports of Australasia, large quantities are now sent direct to Antwerp, Hamburg, Marseilles, and New York. The River Plate wool is sent mostly to France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. The number of sheep and the annual production of raw wool in the chief wool-producing countries of the world are as follows, according to the latest returns:

No. of Sheep (in millions.)

Raw Wool

(in mill. lbs.)

Australasia. Russia. United States. Argentina. U. Kingdom. S. Africa.

The wool of the Angora goat of Asia Minor (also successfully introduced into South Africa and Australia) is as soft and fine as silk, but the most highly valued of all wools is the delicate, downy wool furnished by the Cashmere goat, and woven into the famous and costly Cashmere shawls. The alpaca of the Andean plateaux yields a beautifully soft and fine wool, and camel's hair is also woven into shawls and other coarse fabrics.

Most of the Hides and Skins of commerce are obtained from the larger domestic animals, but the skin of almost every animal, from an elephant to a crocodile or a porpoise, can be utilized and converted by tanning into leather.

The trade in tanned and untanned skins is enormous, and the British leather industry (which derives the material chiefly from British India) ranks next to the cotton, woollen, and iron industries. In South Africa, the hides intended for export are dried in the sun; from India, Australia, and the United States, the larger number is sent already tanned as leather; in South America and elsewhere, raw hides for export are salted or preserved in brine.

Hairs and Bristles are not unimportant products-the British imports of hogs' bristles from Russia alone exceeding, in some years, three millions sterling. Horse-hair is largely employed for stuffing and for making a durable cloth to cover sofas, chairs, carriage seats, &c.

The Horns and Hoofs of domestic and other animals are manufactured into combs, knife and umbrella handles, buttons, &c.

Ivory is derived from the tusks of elephants, principally the African elephant (of which about 65,000 are killed every year), and in much smaller quantities from the tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, and occasionally the extinct Siberian mammoth.

The Bones of all animals are extensively used for manufacturing purposes, and for making valuable manures.

Tallow and Stearine, or animal fat and oil, are used in the manufacture of soap and candles. Train oil is chiefly obtained from the blubber of the true or Greenland whale (which also yields whalebone, a product now worth over £1,500 a ton). Sperm oil or spermaceti is obtained from the sperm whale, which also yields an expensive perfume-ambergris. Other costly and rare perfumes are also furnished by the musk deer and the civet cat.

Birds are of considerable commercial value-the flesh and eggs of many of them being largely used as articles of food, while ornamental and useful feathers form an important commercial commodity.

Most of the eggs and feathers of commerce are supplied by the domestic fowls, the trade in eggs especially being very large, and annually increasing. The downy fur of the grebe, penguin, swan, puffin and other birds, is made into warm and beautiful muffs, mantles, &c. ; bed-feathers are obtained from the eider-duck, goose, and other natatorial birds, and the common fowl; while ornamental feathers are furnished by the ostrich, humming-birds, birds of paradise, &c. Ostrich feathers are supplied chiefly from the ostrich-farms of the Cape Colony. Guano, another bird-product of great commercial value, is one of the best fertilizers. The chief deposits are on the Peruvian and Chilian coasts.

Of Insects, the silkworm and the honey bee are the most useful to man, but the cochineal, lac, and white-wax insects yield valuable products.

Silk ranks next to cotton and wool as the most important textile material. The raw silk of commerce is the product of several "worms" or moths in their caterpillar stage-the finest and by far the largest quantity of silk being obtained from the cocoons of a worm that feeds on the leaves of the white mulberry tree, and the only insect actually reared for this purpose. The silkworm, before assuming the chrysalis form, sends out two fine filaments from minute openings on its under lip, these are glued together into a single silken thread, which the worm, by continually twisting its body, coils round itself. When completed, this soft fibrous envelope or cocoon is thrown into warm water to loosen the thread, which is then wound off on a reel-a single cocoon sometimes supplying an unbroken thread 300 yards long. The thread thus obtained is, however, too fine to be spun or woven, hence the threads of from 5 to 20 or more cocoons are united together and slightly twisted, forming the true silk yarn or thrown silk used for the finest silk fabrics. The outer covering of the cocoon or floss, and inferior or damaged cocoons, and silk waste generally, were formerly considered useless, but now the spun silk they furnish is extensively worked up into silk plushes, &c.

The Silkworm and the mulberry tree are both natives of China, and 'the art of rearing silkworms, and of unravelling the threads spun by them, and manufacturing those threads into articles of dress and ornament, seems to have been practised from time immemorial