STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 275 



phenomenon unknown in the Pacific States. The cotton plant is mainly 

 a surface feeder, which seeks its nutriment from the debris of decaying 

 vegetation of the previous j'ear, as it undergoes rapid decomposition 

 under the heat of a tropical sun and a constant immersion of rain and 

 dew, and in all stages of its growth makes enormous demands upon the 

 soil and atmosphere for supplies of food. 



The plant, starting on its career in California under unfavorable condi- 

 tions, continues to meet, at every stage of its existence, a meteorological 

 phenomenon no less disadvantageous. The climatic condition so inimi- 

 cal to the health of the plant consists in the certain recurrence of a lov/ 

 temperature throughout the night, succeeding the high temperatriro 

 generally prevailing throughout the day. In nearly all of the interior 

 districts, protected b}^ ranges of hills from the cold winds and fogs of 

 the ocean, the average temperature at noon may be set dovvn at eighty 

 degrees Fahrenheit, while in the same localities at midniglit it Avill have 

 fallen to sixty degrees. This extraordinary variation continues through- 

 out the summer season, and is accompanied with dry, parching winds, 

 wdiich rapidly extract the moisture from the surface of the soil as well 

 as from the foliage of the plants, shrivelling the leaves so that their 

 valves become choked by minute particles of dust, thus checking respi- 

 ration, or stopping it altogether. The leaf of the cotton jilant is endowed 

 with uncommon absorbent functions, and in countries where there are 

 copious warm night dews, it will thrive vigorously v\'ithout rain. Dews, 

 however, seldom fall in California, after the close of the rainy season, 

 beyond the region penetrated by the ocean fogs. From this it m.ay be 

 seen that the Pacitic Stated have neither the periodical rains nor dews 

 requisite for the nourishment of the cotton plant. It may be contended 

 that the absence of rain may be remedied by artificial irrigation. This 

 may be true of California, where the means of irrigation on a large scale 

 are obtainable at moderate cost. But passing this objectionable mode of 

 supplying a deficit in nature, there can be no artificial way devised by 

 which to compensate for the absence of nightly dews. Even could this 

 ditficulty be obviated so as to get the plant started in a condition of 

 promise, there is still, later in the season, an opposing meteorological 

 condition to be met which no expediency of art can overcome or modify; 

 so there will at last be an insuperable obstacle to successful cotton grow- 

 ing in the Pacific States. This phenomenon consists in the arid atmos- 

 phere which prevails during the period while the bolls are expanding 

 and bursting open. 



The cotton fibre is formed bj^ the hardening of the milky secretion 

 hermetrcally sealed in the green boll, the rind of which is of a tough, 

 elastic consistency when approaching maturity, and is divided from the 

 stem to the apex by a number of sutures, held together by a natural 

 glue. When the fibre begins to mature, the bolls change from a green 

 to a dull, grayish brown color, and it is at this period that a favorable 

 climatic influence is required more than at any other time of its growth. 

 If the weather is drj^, with an entire absence of nightly dews, the bolls 

 open with difficulty, and the staple' wnll be found h^.rsh and uneven. A 

 warm, moist, soft atmosphere keeps the rind of the boll pliable, so that 

 its fullest expansion takes place while the fibre is acquiring its finish, 

 thereby enabling it to foi*m regular layers, and giving it a silky consis- 

 tency. Where this soft, moist condition of the atmosphere prevails, the 

 rind of the boll will commence opening at the apex, the glue being dis- 

 solved b}^ the night moisture, so that several divisions of the shell will 

 roll outwardly and below the point of intersection at the base, thus leav- 



