FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 65 



COTTON (Gossyfihim.) There are different species 

 of cotton- plants ; but all natives of warmer climates. 1. The 

 common herbaceous cotton, that creeps along the ground, 

 has yellow flowers, succeeded by large oval pods, filled 

 with seeds and cotton. 2. The American cotton, with 

 hairy stalks, two or three feet high. 3. The Barbadoes 

 cotton, with a shrubby branching stalk, four or five feet 

 high. 4. The tree cotton, with a branching woody stalk, 

 six or eight feet high. The flowers and pods of the three 

 latter species are like those of the first. The three first 

 species are annual, and the fourth perennial. 



The cotton-plant cultivated in the Southern States is an- 

 nually planted in April, or earlier. The ground is prepar- 

 ed, and the seed commited to the earth, in a manner very 

 similar to that pursued in the culture of Indian corn. The 

 young plants come up with two yawning lobes, similar to 

 the cotyledons of the common bean ; and when they appear 

 above ground the weakest are pulled up, and none left but 

 those which are strong and vigorous. The weeds are 

 eradicated from the growing plants in the usual manner of 

 hoed crops, and the crop is collected in October and No- 

 vember. 



About double the number of Hands are requisite to 

 gather the crop, that were necessary in raising it ; but, in 

 this harvest, Children are capable of performing a consider- 

 able share of the business. The wool is cleared of the 

 seeds by the gin, and is afterwards hand-picked, in order to 

 clean it thoroughly from any particles of the pods or other 

 substances adhering to it. It is then stowed in large bags, 

 where it is well trodden down as it is thrown in ; and, in 

 order to assist in pressing it more compactly, some water is 

 every now and then sprinkled on the outside of the bag. 



In this Country, cotton of the best quality is produced in 

 the immediate vicinity of the ocean : The seaisland cotton 

 is therefore the most valuable. The fertility of the soil for 

 raising the crop does not seem so essential. Dr. Mease 

 says he has < seen it grow and flourish with equal luxu- 

 riance in the black alluvial soil of an island in the Altama- 

 ha, and in the blowing sand of St. Simons.' 



As the crop does not very essentially exhaust the soil, it 

 would seem that level lands may, for a considerable length 

 of time, be kept in the culture of this plant ; but where the 

 lands lie rolling or undulated, and are at the same time of 

 a retentive nature, the heavy showers, which commonly 

 prevail in the southerly latitudes, are calculated greatly to 

 injure grounds under the constant cultivation of this, or 

 any other hoed crop, by washing away the best parts of the 

 surface, and by cuting it into deep gullies; which are 



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