54 COTTON 



or cool weather, wet or dry. For the cotton seed 

 must be ready to "come up' 1 as soon as all danger 

 of frost is passed; and now the rows, ridged and 

 waiting, are opened, and fertilizer and seed dis- 

 tributed. Then the long green line of two-leaved 

 plants, bursting the hard seed-covering they have 

 pushed above ground and the grass that will not 

 let them be and that we have always with us. Chop- 

 ping then white and black, old and young, every- 

 body strong enough to handle a hoe. And the 

 plants flourish under the summer sun; now "hoe- 

 hands" report that some plants have "seven leaves," 

 then that limbs have come, and squares and finally 

 the anxiety as to which farmer in the neighborhood 

 shall report the first bloom, or which one in the 

 county shall send the first one to the editor of the 

 county paper. Weeks, then, of budding and bloom- 

 ing and growing, the thrifty branches bedecked with 

 white blooms that opened this morning and red 

 blooms of yesterday, and becoming heavy now 

 with green and growing bolls. Then on the lowest 

 stalks the bolls begin to open and who now will gin 

 the first bale? The women in the towns begin to 

 tremble for their negro cooks, and employers of 

 colored men also begin to scent danger. For the 

 coronation of King Cotton is at hand; and all the 

 sons and daughters of Ham must dance attendance. 

 Cotton-picking has an irresistible attraction for all 

 negroes, especially when the picking is done in 

 groups, and though they stay in town even through 

 the watermelon season, cotton picking is likely to 

 lure them back to farms. 



"The real depth of feeling," as some one has said, 

 "the sheer abandon and the proper stage setting 

 does not come until September has touched the cot- 

 ton fields, and the great hearts of the maturing bolls 



