290 



WILD AND CULTIVATED CO1TONS 



Harvest. 



Yield. 



Recent 

 know- 

 ledge. 



A modern 

 plant. 



are about six weeks old a plough is run between the rows and, by 

 means of the hoe, the loose soil is subsequently drawn up around 

 the stems. In this way the plants are supported against the risk of 

 storms, but where liable to heavy winds it is customary to plant 

 hedges of pigeon-pea or guinea-corn. From time of sowing, in about 

 seventy days the flowers appear, the plants are then four to five feet 

 in height, and are about mid-season, since in seventy days more the 

 harvest may be complete. 



The picking is done with great care, and the utmost cleanliness 

 observed. In the Sea Islands it is customary to speak of the crop 

 on the standard of the average number of bolls to the plant. With 

 plants standing 5 feet by 20 inches, every 15 bolls would give 100 Ib. 

 per acre, and as already stated, a bale of 300 Ib. lint would be 

 obtained from 1,100 Ib. In some races of the plant with large seeds 

 the yield may only be 300 Ib. lint to 1,500 Ib. seed cotton. Hence it 

 follows that the crop may range from 250 to 600 Ib. of ginned cotton 

 to the acre (see p. 283). 



Sea Island in the West Indies. It seems necessary to repeat here 

 that most of the early botanists, subsequent to Linnaeus, have 

 expressed doubt as to their being able to recognise this plant. 

 Macfadyen ('Fl. Jam.' 1837) follows the customary treatment of 

 repeating the Linnean description. He does not use the name Sea 

 Island, but says definitely that he had not met with it on the island. 

 This is practically the position of all the botanical writers who have 

 described the plants of the West Indies until within the past fifty 

 years or so. In none of the historic herbaria, seen by me, are there 

 any specimens of undoubted G. barbadense, var. maritima, from the 

 West Indies or in fact from anywhere else. There is certainly no 

 specimen of it in the Sloane Herbarium, if we exclude the type of 

 G. barbadense, Linn. a specimen that originally belonged to 

 Plukenet but of which we know next to nothing as to its origin, and 

 in any case it is hardly Sea Island cotton. As already frequently 

 observed, therefore, Sea Island cotton would seem to be a modern 

 cultivated condition. 



Morris and Bovell (' Sea Island Cotton in the West Indies,' 

 Bull, iv., 1904, No. 4) conclude their most instructive report on the 

 cotton-growing of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida by the 

 following paragraphs: 'After a careful review of all the circum- 

 stances as existing in the Sea Island cotton districts of South 

 Carolina and the West Indies, we are of opinion that, taking into 



