164 COTTON 



five feet wide. The young shoots usually appear in about eight 

 days, and are thinned out until only one- is left in each hole. 



Three or four months later the flowers begin to appear, and 

 in the hot sunshine bees, and wasps, and humming-birds are 

 seen buzzing over the plantations, carrying the yellow pollen 

 from one flower to another. Later on the flowers wither and 

 the capsules burst open, and then the cotton has to be picked. 



PICKING. This is a wearisome and toilsome operation, and 

 at present is almost entirely done by hand, as no satisfactory 

 picking-machine has yet been invented. 



' The picking season is the busy time on a cotton plantation. 

 All hands are requisitioned, as the quality and cleanliness 

 depend, to a large degree, upon its being quickly gathered 

 after the bolls have opened. Should it be left long on the plant 

 after opening, it is liable to be injured by the heat of the 

 sun, which overdries it ; or again by the winds which load 

 it with sand, or dust, and dirt of various kinds. The cotton 

 fields are so arranged that a section can be given to each picker, 

 who, provided with a bag tied round his body, and a sheet 

 or large basket, which he leaves at the end of his section, 

 passes rapidly between the rows, using both hands, picking 

 the open bolls on each side, until he gets to the end, when 

 he empties the contents of his bag upon his sheet, and recom- 

 mences his work. 



' Picking is an operation requiring considerable skill and 

 expertness. The picker has to seize at the first effort the whole 

 of the contents of each boll ; and bring it away in his fingers, 

 taking care not to bring away any of the boll-leaf, or petals, 

 which it is difficult to remove subsequently, and which seriously 

 deteriorate its quality. 



' The average amount picked by each labourer in an 

 ordinary field is about one hundred pounds of seed -cotton 

 each day. The pickers go to the field with the opening of 

 the day and work with little intermission till darkness closes.' 1 



In the West Indies the method is slightly different. The 

 writer of Cotton Cultivation in the West Indies says : 



' The pickers should be trained to hold the boll firmly with 

 the left hand, with two fingers and the thumb inserted from 



1 Richard Marsden, Cotton Spinning. 



