VIRGINIA 75 



these come up, the weaker plants are pulled out, so as 

 to give the few remaining more nourishment. After 

 the plant has reached a height of a foot or a foot and a 

 half, earth must be newly heaped up about it, and all 

 foul growth weeded out ; and continuing to grow 

 until there are four or five side-branches, the plants 

 are broken off at the top, and when these side-branches 

 have each put out four or five buds, the ends of the 

 branches themselves are broken off, so as not to let 

 them grow into long, barren stems ; but in this item 

 there is not everywhere (especially in Carolina) the 

 same sort of careful attention. Moreover the suckers, 

 or young side-sprouts, must be nipped off. All this 

 done, the plants are let bloom, mature, and stand in the 

 field until there is opportunity to take them in, which 

 is often not until late in October. The blooms stand 

 only two days, white on the first, yellow on the second, 

 and then falling, after which comes a pod-fruit of the 

 size of a wallnut, and this finally opens. They have 

 two varieties of this plant, one with a rough, and the 

 other with a smooth seed, but there is no marked dif- 

 ference between the plants. Many people select care- 

 fully the smooth seed, and plant nothing else, the 

 wool from it admitting of easier separation, by means 

 of a hand-mill, between two wooden cylinders moving 

 lightly the one over the other. Ants often damage 

 the seed in the ground ; and to keep them off, the seeds 

 are mixed with ashes, luke-warm water poured over, 

 and let stand over-night ; in this way the seed swell a 

 little, and the ants, it said, do not then attack them. 

 The statement is made that even boiling-hot water 

 does not greatly injure the sprouting faculty of these 

 seeds, most of them coming up afterwards. Four 



