Excerpt from Report of the Flax and Hemp Commission, Appointed Under Act of Congress February 25, 1863 The commission has found it difficult to ascertain the value and amount of fibrous products that have been produced in the United States. The cotton crop has long been one of so much importance to the commerce of the world that its values have been regularly reported, and this has been set forth by the Superintendent of the Census Bureau as having been the subject of a wonderful increase in the last decade, amounting, indeed, to 110 per cent. The annual exportation at the beginning of this century was less than bales. In 1849 the quantity grown had reached bales Of ginned cotton, of 400 pounds each. In 1859 it had further increased to bales. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.