192 THE ALPINE REGION. 



preference to staples of both long and sliort cottons grown towards the 

 northern limits respectively of their culture. It is said that the fibres 

 are stronger and of more equal and uniform length, admirable qualities, 

 which might naturally be expected from a short, steady and continuous 

 growth. For all these reasons, together with the improvements in the 

 selection of seed, by which the period of growth is lessened and an earlier 

 and more simultaneous ripening of the fruit is obtained, it is expected 

 that what has been already done is only the commencement of a much 

 wider extension towards the mountains of the growth of the cotton plant. 

 No peculiarities of cotton culture are to be noted in this region. Little 

 or no previous preparation is given to the soil until it is thrown into 

 ridges thirty inches to four feet apart, according to the strength of the 

 land, just before planting. The seed is planted from the 10th to the 20th 

 of April, commencing on the same date as in the region below, but con- 

 cluding earlier by ten to twenty days. About two bushels of seed are 

 used to the acre, and it is, for the most part, sown by hand, the outlay of 

 twelve dollars for a planter being generally considered too great for the 

 advantage gained, especially by small renters, who hold their farms only 

 for the crop season. The seed comes up in six to fifteen days. The 

 variety preferred is some one of the cluster cottons, prolific bearers, of 

 early maturity. In two weeks after planting, the cotton is chopped out 

 with a hoe to about twelve inches apart, sometimes to only six inches, 

 and on very strong land, intervals of eighteen inches between the plants 

 may be left. If the soil be well stirred with the ploAV, and kept clean in 

 the drill with the hoe, the cotton will have obtained a height of eight 

 inches to eighteen inches by the 1st to the 10th July, when blossoms will 

 appear. The first blooms are now looked for the latter part of June, but 

 until the last year or two, they were never expected before the 4th of 

 July, and even that was thought early. Open bolls are seen from the 

 25th of August to the 1st of September. Picking commences from the 

 10th to the loth September. The growing season ends with the first 

 black frost, which occurs about the 15th October to the 1st November. 

 The crop is gathered by the 15th to the 31st December. The plant is 

 considered most productive when it attains the height of two feet. Fresh 

 lands yield seven hundred pounds to twelve hundred pounds of seed 

 cotton. The same lands, after two to ten years culture withc^ut manure, 

 yield six hundred pounds to four hundred pounds seed cotton ; with 

 moderate manuring and fairly good culture, they improve. It is esti- 

 mated that it requires here an average of twelve hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds of seed cotton to produce a bale of four hundred pounds. 



