THE UPPER PINE BELT. 93 



vorable conditions the plant will take on a heavy crop of fruit in four to 

 six weeks, any time from the middle of June to the middle of September. 

 At such a period it will cease to grow, the leaves will pale and turn red, 

 all the energies of the plant being devoted to reproductive efforts. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers promote this crisis, by contributing more to the fruit- 

 fulness than to the growth of the plant. Any vicissitude of the weather, 

 heat or cold, wet or drought, will seriously enfeeble or even kill the plant 

 in tliis its term of labor, especially on poor, sandy, or ill-drained soils. 

 A crop will have been made, the utmost that the soil, the variety of seed, 

 and the seasons admit of, but the future growth and fruitfulness of the 

 plant is checked or destroyed. This is what is usually termed rust or 

 blight. The remedies are, varieties of the plant that are more vigorous 

 growers, those of longer limb, and less given to excessive fruiting ; stable 

 manure in the place of fertilizers ; the potash salts are used with marked 

 benefit ; and thorough drainage. 



Cotton sheds by far the largest portion of the forms which come on it, 

 and the closest observers state that in the great mass of our cotton lands, 

 the cotton plant will not, in the best of seasons, mature into open bolls 

 one in five of the blossoms that appear, generally not one in ten. Reme- 

 dies for this are being sought in the selection of seed, and in various 

 methods of culture, but nothing decided has been thus far obtained. 



When the early season is wet and warm, the plant may run too much 

 to weed. Some attribute this in part to late thinning and deep cultiva- 

 tion ; others think it may be checked by running a deep, narrow furrow, 

 closing after the plow, close to the cotton. Short-limbed varieties of cot- 

 ton, cotton seed and phosphates as fertilizers, are recommended as remedies. 



Although the cotton caterpillar moth is frequently met with, even dur- 

 ing the severest winters, the worm rarely makes its appearance before 

 September, and hardly ever does any damage. 



CHARGES ON SELLING. 



In addition to freight, these consist of the following items, at the rates 

 stated : commissions on sales, two and a half per cent. ; storage, twenty-five 

 to fifty cents per bale per month ; drayage, wharfage, mending, forty cents ; 

 insurance, twenty-five cents. These charges vary slightly, and Avith freight, 

 amount to from three-quarters to one cent per pound of lint, or a little 

 over seven per cent, on the net sales. 



COST OF PRODUCTION. 



Eight correspondents state the cost of production at six to eight cents 

 per pound lint; one at eight and a half cents; one at twelve and a half 



