172 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



return in a few months, comparatively easy field-operations, simple 

 and not laborious process of collecting the crop, and requirement or 

 but little care in the use of the gin -machine in finally preparing the 

 raw material for the market, the woolly covering of the seeds consti- 

 tuting the cotton of commerce. The oil obtained by pressure from 

 the seeds is useful for various technic purposes, and the oil-cake can 

 be utilized like most substances of similar kind as a very fattening 

 stable-food. This oil can even be used quite well in domestic 

 cookery (Colonel O. Nelson). Crushed cotton-seed cake without 

 admixture is eaten by cattle and sheep with avidity. Of cotton seeds 

 212,000 tons were introduced into Great Britain in 1884, valued at 

 1,580,000, mostly from Egypt. Sea-Island cotton was raised to 

 great perfection in the northern parts of Victoria fully twenty-five 

 years ago from seeds extensively distributed by the writer; but the 

 want of cheap labor has hitherto militated against the extensive 

 cultivation of this crop, as well as that of tea and many other indus- 

 trial plants. Cotton having been reared far away from the influence 

 of the sea-air, it would be worthy of attempts, to naturalize various 

 kinds of cotton in the oases of our deserts, irrespective of regular 

 culture. Our native Gossypiums of the interior produce no fibre 

 worth collecting. Cotton plants have a predilection for gently undu- 

 lating or sloping ground, with light soil and a moderate supply of 

 moisture. In the most favorable climes, such as that of Fiji, cotton 

 produces flowers and fruit throughout the year, but the principal 

 ripening falls in the dry season. From two hundred to three hundred 

 plants or more can be placed on an acre. As many as seven hundred 

 bolls have been gathered from a single plant at one time, twelve to 

 twenty capsules yielding an ounce of mercantile cotton. Weeding is 

 rendered less onerous by the vigorous growth of the plants. Cotton 

 comes in well for rotation with other crops. Major Clarke has ascer- 

 tained, that crossing cannot be effected between the oriental and oc- 

 cidental kinds of cotton. A high summer temperature is needed for 

 a prolific cotton-harvest. Intense heat, under which even maize will 

 suffer, does not injuriously affect cotton, provided the atmosphere is 

 not dry in the extreme. The soil should not be wet, but of a kind 

 that naturally absorbs and retains humidity, without over-saturation. 

 In arid regions it is necessary, to irrigate the cotton-plant. Heavy 

 rains at the ripening period are injurious, if not destructive, to the 

 cotton-crop. Dry years produce the best returns, yet aqueous vapor 

 in the air is necessary for the best yield. In colder localities the 

 bolls or capsules continue to ripen after night-frosts prevent the forma- 

 tion of new ones. Porous soils, resting on limestones and meta- 

 morphic rocks, are eminently adapted for cotton-culture. The cane- 

 brake-soil of the North-American cotton-regions absorbs ammonia to 

 a prodigious extent. 



Gourliaea docorticans, Grisebach. 



The Chafiar of Argentina. Bears sweet pleasant fruits, and yields 

 a tough valuable wood (Dr. Lorentz). 



