OUR LEADING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 51 



THE BILL OF FARE. 



Pies of pumpkin, apple, mince. 

 Jams and jellies, peaches, quince, 

 Purple grapes and apples red, 

 Cakes and nuts and gingerbread —  

 That's Thanksgiving. 



Turkey ! Oh. a great, big fellow ! 

 Fruits all ripe and rich and mellow. 

 Everything that's nice to eat, 

 More than I can now repeat — 

 That's Thanksgiving. 



Lots and lots of jolly fun. 

 Games to play and races run, 

 All as happy as can be — 

 For this happines,s. you can see. 

 Makes Thanksgiving. 



We must thank the One who gave 

 All the good things that we have : 

 That is why we keep the day 

 Set aside, our mammas say. 

 For Thanksgiving. 



— Eugene Field. 



HISTORY OF COTTON. 



Cotton is a plant which grows wild in nearly every tropical coun- 

 try. The ancient inhabitants of India were perhaps the first people 

 to use it in making clothes. The Europeans saw the cotton plant 

 for the first time in its natural state about the year 1200, and they 

 spoke of it as "wool growing on trees." When Columbus dis- 

 covered xVmerica he saw the cotton plant growing in the West Indies, 

 and it was afterwards learned that the Mexicans knew of the great 

 value of this fiber, since they have " exquisite cotton fabrics dyed in 

 various colors." 



Many years before Sir Walter Raleigh organized his first colony 

 for the purpose of making settlements in America, England knew the 

 value of the cotton goods made in India, Arabia, Egypt, China, 

 and Mexico. In these countries it grew with very little cultivation. 

 In many countries the seed had to be planted only once in every 

 seven years, and the cotton could be gathered twice a year. The 

 fiber was very fine, and the seed barely adhered to it. It was, there- 

 fore, easy to shake the seed out, or in many places to whip them out 

 with switches. In those tropical countries, tiierefore, it required 



