SECTION IV : VAR. MARITIMA 289 



Sept. 0-40, Nov. 0'79 and Dec. 1'85 inches. The rainfall is thus 

 highest during the growing season of the cotton, May to August, 

 and lowest when the crop is ripening namely, September to Novem- 

 ber. The climate of the American islands is certainly not exces- 

 sively moist. In fact there are on an average 235 clear days a year. 

 The winter cold is moreover only sufficient to check active agricul- 

 tural operations from the middle of December to the beginning of 

 February. 



Botation and Cultivation, In the districts of the United States High cul- 

 {South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, coast tracts and islands) that tlvatlon - 

 produce Sea Island cotton the rotation usually pursued is (1st) year 

 cotton, (2nd) year fallow, (3rd) cotton and (4th) a leguminous crop. 

 It is freely recognised that, with this particular cotton, high cultiva- 

 tion is essential. In James Island, where subsoil draining has been 

 perfected, the old plants are broken down by a roller early in 

 February. Farm-yard manure is thrown into the old trenches and 

 often, at the same time, a quantity of chemical fertilisers given. The 

 land is thereafter thoroughly forked, ploughed, and the heavy clods 

 broken. Ridges are then formed 5 feet apart, and the seeds planted 

 on the top 18 to 20 inches apart. On light soils the plants may be 

 nearer, say 3 by 1^ feet, and the seeds should then be deposited 

 3 inches below the surface, while in heavy soils they need not be more 

 than 2 inches deep. The season of planting depends on the date of 

 summer rains, and accordingly varies greatly. But if at all possible 

 early planting is preferable say in May, June or July. The plants 

 get in consequence strong before being attacked by disease, but on the 

 other hand late planting, say in September, often results in the plants 

 escaping the cotton worm. Sir Daniel Morris observes that the best 

 distance apart is 4 feet by 1 foot, he then adds that in the States the Distance 

 sowings are made in spring and the plants mature in 120 to 157 days, a P arti 

 reaping being in July, August, or September. Of the West Indies, 

 however, he remarks that the best season for sowing is in July to 

 August or even into September ('Bull.' I.e., p. 351). In the States the 

 seeds are planted by three workers one opens the holes, the second 

 drops in a few seeds, and the third carefully covers them over. As soon 

 as the plants appear weeds are hoed up, and when four weeks old a 

 second weeding is given and some of the superfluous plants pulled out Weeding, 

 from the clumps of seedlings that have appeared. And this thinning 

 is continued at each subsequent weeding until when the plants are 

 six inches high only one stands at each position. When the plants 



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