62 W A L L ' S M A N U A L 



crop was run over four times with the plow, and the 

 ground left level. 



What is called "high farming" mil pay. The same 

 argument that holds good for a corn crop will hold 

 good for other crops. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



THE COTTON CROP. 



We take it for granted that every intelligent 

 planter would like to know something of the history 

 of the cotton plant ; and as all ma}^ not have had the 

 opportunity to read its history in WAILE'S valuable 

 report of the Geology and Agriculture of Mississippi, 

 we here insert his account as being the best that we 

 have ever seen given, and one that must- prove 

 highly interesting. 



THE COTTON PLAN T 1 TS ORIGIN. 



The cotton plant, to which the generic term 

 gossypiurn has been applied by botanists, is of the 

 natural order malvana), to which the holly-hock, 

 mallow and okra also belong. Although of com- 

 paratively recent introduction into the United States, 

 the cotton plant was known in the earliest ages of 

 the Old World. Herodotus describes the plant as 

 " producing in the Indies a wool of finer and better 

 quality than that of sheep." Pliny mentions certain 

 " wool -bearing trees which were known in Upper 

 Egypt, bearing fruit like a gourd, the size of a quince, 

 which, bursting when ripe, displays a ball of downy 



