FIBER PLANTS 177 



are four to six inches high, they are chopped to a 

 stand with the hoe, usually from one to three stalks 

 being left to a hill. The distance between the hills 

 varies considerably according to the richness of the 

 land. On poor, thin lands they are usually left 

 about a foot apart, and on very ricli land they are 

 often as much as three feet apart. Cotton should be 

 given clean cultivation during the entire growing 

 season. A cultivator or sweep should be passed 

 through the rows often enough to keep down all weeds 

 and grass, and to break the crust and leave a dust 

 mulch after every rain. It may be necessary to go 

 through the fields two or three times with a hoe, but 

 if the cultivation has been properly done, there will 

 be but little work left for the hoes. 



Harvesting. — Cotton picking usually begins early 

 in August, and lasts through November or even 

 later. This work has all to be done by hand and is 

 the most laborious and expensive part of the cotton 

 business. Many attempts have been made to con- 

 struct mechanical cotton pickers, but so far none of 

 them have been successful. It is the question of 

 picking that limits the possible production of cotton 

 in any given region. When the cotton is picked, it 

 is hauled direct to the gin or to some temporary 

 storehouse. After ginning to remove the seeds 

 the lint is packed in bales weighing four hundred or 

 five hundred pounds. It is pressed very closely in 

 these bales, but when being prepared for distant 

 shipment, the bales are further subjected to heavy 

 hydraulic pressure which reduces them to about a 

 fourth their former bulk. 



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