232. Making of the West.
232．西部地区的创建
Even before the Revolutionary War explorers and settlers had crossed the Alleghany Mountains. In Washington's time pioneers, leaving Pittsburg, floated down the Ohio River in flatboats. Some of these settled Cincinnati. Others went farther down the river to Louisville, in Kentucky, and still others founded Wheeling and Marietta. In 1811 the first steamboat appeared on the Western rivers. The whole problem of living in the West rapidly changed. For the steamboat could go up stream as well as down stream. Communication between the new settlements, and New Orleans and Pittsburg, was now much safer and very much easier.
远在革命战争之前就有人穿过奥利哈尼山到西部探险和定居。在华盛顿担任总统的时候，拓荒者乘坐平底船离开匹兹堡，沿着俄亥俄河顺流而下。他们有的定居在辛辛那提，有的沿着俄亥俄河继续前进到达肯塔基州的路易斯维尔，还有的在威灵和玛丽埃塔定居。1811年，第一艘气垫船出现在西部的河流上，居住在西部的生活问题迅速得到转变，因为气垫船可以顺流而下也可以逆流而上，现在聚居地之间的交流以及新奥尔良与匹兹堡之间的交通比以往变得更加安全和便利。
233. Cotton Growing in the South.
233．南方的棉花种植
Cotton had been grown in the South for many years. It had been made on the plantations into a rough cloth. Very little had been sent away. The reason for this was that it took a very long time to separate the cotton fiber from the seed. One slave working for a whole day could hardly clean more than a pound of cotton. Still as time went on more cotton was grown. In 1784 a few bags of cotton were sent to England. The Englishmen promptly seized it because they did not believe that so much cotton could be grown in America. In 1791 nearly two hundred thousand pounds of cotton were exported from the South. Then came Whitney's great invention, which entirely changed the whole history of the country.
南部各州种植棉花已经有多年的历史，棉花在种植园被加工成粗棉布，很少卖到外地原因是将棉花纤维与棉籽剥离开来要花费很多时间，一个奴隶工作一天只能加工一磅多棉花。而棉花种植面积越来越大。1784年有人将几包棉花运到英格兰，英国人迅速盯上了这件事，他们想不到在美国可以种植这么大面积的棉花，1791年南方各州出口的棉花几乎有20万磅。后来就有了惠特尼的伟大发明，这项发明彻底改变了美国的历史。