BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 505 



moving part of the fructiferous branch, which is apt, unless 

 vegetation is particularly powerful, to remain barren and half 

 dried up. The first process (capaqao) answers the double 

 purpose of checking the growth at a height o 5 or 6 feet, 

 and inducing the shrub to throw out numerous horizontal 

 branches, by which a greater number of flowers, and these 

 developed at the same time, are produced, than as if the shrub 

 was permitted to produce its central stem ; and also facilitating 

 the operation of gathering the pods or capsules (macana). 

 The removal of those branches which have borne seeds is 

 effected at the commencement of the rainy season, when the 

 sap is in circulation and the growth is quickest ; and it has 

 the effect of concentrating the vital juices on those portions 

 of the plant which are still to yield fruit. 



It is seldom that here, except under very favorable circum- 

 stances, a cotton plantation is used longer than three or four 

 years ; at the end of which time the stems begin to grow 

 weak, and in order to promote their improvement, the shrubs 

 are cut down close to the root, or only a foot or two feet above 

 it, thus forcing the plant to throw up fresh and bearing 

 branches. This operation, called decolacao, and practised in 

 all countries where the Perennial Cotton Shrub is cultivated, 

 (as in Natolia, in North America, and Surinam), is not so 

 universally prevalent in the more northern provinces of Brazil, 

 Pernambuco, Parahyla and Rio Grande do Norte, where 

 the grower, favoured by the almost incredible fertility of the 

 land, and the ease with which new cotton plantations may be 

 formed, rather pursues the plan of making fresh Algodoals 

 than seeking to improve the old ones. The country is, gene- 

 rally speaking, so eminently blessed by nature, that not 

 seldom the harvest exceeds expectation, and the proprietor 

 finds a difficulty in gathering it in, and disposing of it. The 

 pods are collected by negro slaves, each of whom is able to 

 gather between one and two arrobas daily. 



It must, however, be remembered, that even here the 

 cultivation of cotton has to contend with many disadvantages. 



VOL. V. P P 



