COTTON. 385 



Of the New Orleans or Upland cotton, there are two principal varieties, each of which have 

 soveral sub- varieties. One of these has green seeds and is quite hardy, the other has grayish 

 seeds and a more flexible, silky staple, but is slightly less hardy than the former. Both are 

 quite prolific. 



The New Orleans and Boweds cottons constitute the great bulk of the production of the 

 country, and are known in European markets as &quot; American cottons.&quot; There are a number 

 of forms of the Hirsute or Orleans type, one of which is the Cuba Vine, &quot; a large and showy 

 plant,&quot; as it is described by one writer; another is a plant bearing yellow or brown-stapled 

 cotton, known as the &quot; Nankeen,&quot; from which nankeen cloths are made, and still another 

 type known as &quot; Bourbon&quot; cotton, but they are neither of them considered as profitable for 

 culture as most of the other varieties. Some of the long-stapled cottons of the Sea Island 

 type have been so widely scattered over the cotton zone of the world, and in consequence 

 have become so modified and diversified in characteristics, that they have been classed as 

 different and distinct species, among which are the Peruvian and Brazilian cottons; the latter 

 being remarkable for its peculiar arrangement of seeds, eight .or ten of which adhere closely 

 together in a compact, slightly oval form, which has given it the name in some localities of 

 &quot;kidney cotton.&quot; 



In some portions of India the cotton plant becomes a tree (Gossypium arboreuni), and 

 bears dark green leaves and reddish purple blossoms, the product being a silky fibre. It is there 

 regarded as sacred, and grown about the temples. Attempts made to improve its cultivation 

 by hybridizing have thus far been unsuccessful. Though there are many varieties and sub- 

 varieties of the cotton plant grown in this country, some of which seem best adapted to one 

 locality and soil, and others to another, thus giving rise to a local popularity more or less 

 extensive, yet doubtless not a few of these could be traced to the same source, the difference 

 being mainly changes produced by climate and cultivation, which have caused them to 

 become fixed in certain characteristics, until they differ so widely from the original plant, 

 that they seem new types or distinct varieties. 



Among the long-established varieties of the widest popularity are the Dixon, which has 

 a fibre of medium length and is quite hardy and prolific; the Peeler, producing a fibre of 

 unusual length and fineness, but not quite as prolific as the former; Boyd s Prolific, of medium 

 length of staple and quite productive. Other varieties that have been much in favor in cer 

 tain sections are the Early Simpson, McClenden Prolific, Boyd s Prolific, Petit Gulf, Johnston, 

 and Hurlong s Improved. Of the last two, the former has been cultivated more extensively 

 west, than east of the Mississippi, while the latter is more frequently found in the region 

 from Alabama to Texas. The Mammoth Prolific has also been quite popular in some sections. 

 Beside those already mentioned, various other kinds of greater or less popularity are grown 

 in certain sections, and new varieties are being introduced from time to time, and their 

 respective merits tested. 



New and improved varieties will doubtless be obtained by careful and patient experi 

 ments in hybridizing, the same as from other cultivated crops, while the older sorts may 

 have their quality of staple and productive capacity more nearly perfected by improving the 

 fertility of the soil, as well as the general method of cultivation and the adoption of a judi 

 cious system of rotation, which will prevent the exhaustion of soil that has formerly charac 

 terized the production of this crop at the South. 



The Cotton Growing Belt. Although the extremes of the cotton belt, or the sec 

 tion where, according to the most authentic sources of information, cotton can be grown with 

 profit, are included between the twenty-eighth and thirty-eighth degrees north latitude ; yet it 

 is possible, with favoring conditions of season and locality, to cultivate it considerably farther 

 north of this limit, the crop having been fairly successful as far north as Missouri and Dela 

 ware in favorable seasons. 



