IS37] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



S5 



po.Pt of rot; but when we beiran to plant it largely, 

 and thi-DW the seed in large bulks, it rotted as bad 

 as? other cotton, and was abandoned. I believe 

 that it is possible with high culture and manure to 

 produce, if we had no rot, five tliousaiul pounds of 

 seed cotton to the acre. An acre, in hills three leet 

 .square, would have near live thousand hills, one 

 stalk to the hill ; a stalk o\' cotton, on land as rich 

 as it can be made, will make one hundred boles, or 

 one poiuid, which would be nearly five thousand 

 pounds to the acre. To try this, I had one stalk 

 of cotton highly manured and thinned to this dis- 

 tance ; it grew very large ; 1 directed a careful wo- 

 man every Saturday to nick all the open cotton on 

 it, and keep it in a batr; but before it was half done 

 opening, it accidentally got destroyed, and was for- 

 gotten. Next year while planting, tlie woman re- 

 minded me that what cotton she had saved was 

 still in a bag in the house; it was sent lc>r, and as 

 1 could not gin it, cotton, seed and all, was planted. 

 Very lew seed came up, but the tew stallcs it made 

 had no rot, while the whole field roited very much. 

 I can conceive of no other cause but its beinij- in 

 small quantity. A gentleman of my acquaintance 

 o:i his way ti'om Auixusta, as he passed a field of 

 cotton, picked a bole or so, picked out the seed, 

 and <rave them to his fi'iend by th.e way of a quiz, 

 saying it was a very valuable kind of S'>ed he had 

 obtained in Augusta ; he carelully saved them, and 

 for some years prized them very high, as they had 

 no rot; but when he began to save these seed in 

 quantity, they rotted as his other cotton. With 

 these facts in view, let us now see if a statement 

 of circumstances, as they occurred, will not fully 

 explain why one of my crops rotted so very bad, 

 the other little or none. A friend of mine who 

 plants very largely, a few years ago, ginned out 

 his cotton, and threw the seed together in so large 

 a bulk, that at plantinij, his seed were found all 

 black from overheating, and unfit lor planting. He 

 got from me seed I'O plant his crop. Last year he 

 moved his hands to another place, and therefore 

 ginned out his cotton as soon as he could. Hear- 

 ing I was in want of seed, he told me I could have 

 from his [)lace as many as I wanted. I got my 

 seed, therefore, from the large bulk that perhaps 

 seventy bales of cotton produced: the}^ were put 

 in a room, and then planted. They came up well, 

 but no sooner was it up, than it began to die, and 

 I thought none would be left ; for seed that has 

 been heated will come u|), but it is no sooner up 

 than it dies. This is the cotton that 1 say rotted 

 more than [ have ever seen cotton rot, and I be- 

 lieve the cause to have been the heated state of 

 the seed. To confirm this, two other facts may 

 be stated. On the same place [ planted some 

 Petit Gulf seed ; they rotted very little. Aaain — 

 the vear before, I planted one small field in cot- 

 ton ; it rotted so much that little attention was 

 given to it. I never had it picked till after frost, 

 when all the cotton was open ; this was ginned, 

 and the seed thrown in the back part of the room, 

 the other seed being on it. The last field of cot- 

 ton was therefore mostly |)Ianfed f>om this seeil, 

 and it turned out as mi^rht be expected, in [ilaces 

 it was rotted as bad as any, while in other places 

 it had little or no rot, as the seed happened to be 

 mixed. Of my other crop, which rotted none, I 

 procured these seed from my brother ; he is al- 

 ways very particular to sun his cotton well. The 

 seed were brought home directly after ginning ; 

 Vol. V — 4 



they were put in a carriage house, the doors of 

 which, when open, liiid open the whole end of the 

 house, the house being so situated, that the sun 

 came fully into it when the doors were open. Aa 

 this house was a great place lor my children to 

 play in, the seed were exposed to the sun every 

 day, and frequently moved about by them. This 

 cotton had no rot: how else shall we explain it 

 hut by the fact that they were never in a large 

 bulk, and had the sun on them every day? 



Many singular fiicts in the growth of cotton, if 

 these opinions be correct, may be satisfiictorily 

 explained. Why are large cotton planters more 

 subject to loss by rot than those who plant in the 

 small way ? — Because small planters do not have 

 the seed heated by large bulks. Why in all 

 fields do we find some stalks very mucfi rotted^ 

 while others are rotted little or none? — Because 

 those seed which were in the interior of the heap 

 were heatetl, while those over the surface were 

 not; some cotton was picked wet, some dry, &c. 

 Why is any kind of new and scarce cotton for a 

 while clear of rot? — Because the seed are not 

 heated by being in large bulks. The Petit Gulf 

 cotton fi'om this cause is less subject as yet to rot, 

 but will, alter a while, rot as bad as other cotton. 



Of the exciting causes we have many. Every 

 planter can fiirnish exciting cause of rot. I shall 

 only meniron two — wet weather, and workimr 

 cotton when the ground is wet. Now, although 

 we cannot control the seasons, yet by preventing 

 the predisposition, the exciting cause would do lit- 

 tle injury, or be harmless. 



We have made considerable progress towards 

 the removal of an evil, when we have come to a 

 knowledge of its true cause or causes. If these 

 suggestions as to the causes of the rot in cotton 

 be correct, they will lead on to such plans as may 

 diminish or prevent it. 



Of the proximate cause, or the disease after it 

 has occurred. We have a remedy, as far as it 

 goes, certain in its eflect : cutting oli' the stalks, or 

 pulling them up, puts an immediate stop to the rot. 

 1 have more than once, when the rot was very bad, 

 had the rankest spots pulled up and laid in heaps 

 along the rows; the rot would then stop, and when 

 all the boles were open, a saving crop might still 

 be picked out. But there is an intermediate stage, 

 when all the exciting and predisposing causes have 

 already had their full effect, and when nothing can 

 be elfected by way of prevention, and the rot is al- 

 ready raging with violence; when there is not a 

 sufficient number of boles arrived to maturity to 

 make pulling up the stalks profitable, if it were 

 practicable ; while at the same time the boles are 

 observed to rot as soon as they approach maturi- 

 ty. In this staire we are not altogether without 

 remedy. In 1821, I had a small field of fresh land, 

 with which I had taken great pains ; it was beau- 

 tiltil cotton; the rot made a start in it, and pro- 

 irressed with great violence ■, it did look like it 

 would all rot; it was the wet rot, and the foam 

 ran li'om the lioles in quantity. Now it was certain 

 that pulling up the stalks would stop the rot, yet 

 as the boles were mostly not grown, it would also 

 ruin my cotton. I wanted a remedy which would 

 check the action, without destroying the vitality of 

 the stalk — a remedy which would approximate to- 

 wards killing, without absolutely killing the stalk. 

 A corn stalk sends out a circle of crown or hori- 

 zontal roots, for every ear or ehoot it bears ; cut off 



