52 Cotton and its Cultivation. [Sess. 



implement forms a little channel, drops the seed into it, and 

 covers it much after the manner of a turnip drill : only one 

 row is planted at a time. In from five to ten days the seed 

 is up when conditions are favourable, and when the first pair 

 of true leaves appear the rows are chopped. Chopping is 

 really just thinning. The hoe is used, and men, women, 

 and children do the work. The plants are thinned to 8 or 

 10 inches apart. Weeds spring up rapidly, and the plough 

 is used to remove them and keep the plants well covered 

 up with soil. This is necessary, as the rains are very heavy, 

 and wash the soil from the ridges, exposing the roots to the 

 sun. During the growth of the plant four hoeings and 

 ploughings are necessary. The last ploughing is done after 

 the first flowering is over, and when the fruit is advancing 

 towards maturity. This last ploughing is called laying by 

 the crop. After this nothing is done till the bolls in the 

 lower branches have opened, allowing the cotton to hang 

 out, and then picking begins. The seed is planted in April 

 or early in May. The first blooms appear about the third 

 week in June, and picking generally begins early in September, 

 varying, of course, with latitude, altitude, and exposure. 



On the very rich bottom lands of the Mississippi valley, and 

 all over the rich bottom uplands of Texas, cultivation is very 

 much the same as already described, but arrangements differ a 

 little. The rich soil yields a larger plant, and the rows have 

 to be 4 or 5 feet apart, and the space between the plants 

 greater also. On these rich soils no fertilisers are used. I 

 have seen the fortieth successive crop of cotton just as strong 

 and good as on newly cleared land. In Texas I have seen 

 planting done without any preparation of the soil since the 

 previous year's crop. The winter's rains had washed down 

 the ridges to a general level, and the planter was just run 

 along half way between the old rows of the year before, the 

 soil being afterwards thrown up on each side to protect the 

 plant. In one part of Texas, farmed by German planters, I 

 have seen cotton planted without ridges on smooth and level 

 fields ; but where rains are more frequent and the climate 

 moister, experience favours the method of planting on a 

 ridge. On the poorer uplands the plant, to yield well, 

 ought to attain a height of 3 to 4 feet at maturity. On 



