GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



whole fields in a few days. We have seen 

 400 acres of cotton that looked promising and 

 well to-day, and that 4 days afterwards had not 

 a green leaf, and scarcely a small pod remain- 

 ing upon it. These destructive visitations, 

 judging from the past, may be expected once 

 in about 7 years. When cotton fields have 

 escaped injury from rains, from wind, or 

 worms, they offer as beautiful a spectacle to 

 the observer as the cultivation of any plant 

 can present. One wide and waving field of 

 green leaves, covered from the 1st day of July 

 to the 1st day of September with blossoms of 3 

 colours, and with a multitude of pods of every 

 growth. The blossom, on the first day of its 

 coming out, is of a fine, yellow colour, and it 

 sustains that colour during the day. It changes 

 under the influence of the night air to a crim- 

 son or red hue ; and again, on the third day, it 

 becomes of a rich chocolate brown, and falling 

 to the ground leaves a pod already of half an 

 inch in diameter. The time which intervenes 

 from the blossoming to the perfection of the 

 fruit, greatly varies, depending upon the sea-, 

 son. We have marked hundreds of blossoms 

 which ripened and perfected their cotton in 21 

 days from the day of blossoming ; and again 

 we have frequently seen them require six 

 weeks to arrive at the same end, which is, 

 however, a bad omen as to ultimate results. 



"The cotton pods begin to open about the 

 1st of August. From this time to the Nt of 

 December the whole attention of the cultivator 

 is directed to the picking in of the cotton as 

 the pods daily open. During this autumnal 

 season in Georgia and Carolina, upon the sea- 

 coast, the winds are violent and the rains 

 heavy ; so that the operation is tedious, al- 

 though not laborious ; and during this time the 

 persons employed may be expected to gather 

 from the field 25 pounds per day, when the 

 weather admits of gathering or picking cotton 

 as it is called. When every thing is favour- 

 able, the persons employed should bring in 50 

 pounds daily of cotton in the seed; but as the 

 gathering is continued so long as they bring in 

 10 pounds, 25 pounds may be considered the 

 full average of labour so directed. There are 

 few subjects upon which there is more contra- 

 riety of opinion than upon the real amount of 

 product given by the soil in any cultivation; 

 agriculturist as I am, loving my profession as I 

 do, seeking information to enlighten my la- 

 bours as I have done, I know no book upon 

 which I can lay my hand which would give 

 me correctly the real mean result of labour or 

 of land employed upon any one object through- 

 out a whole extended district. The Abbe Ray- 

 nal kindly tells us how many coffee plants and 

 how many cotton plants grew upon the French 

 part of the island of St. Domingo; and yet 

 there was not one planter in St. Domingo who 

 could really have told how many cotton plants or 

 how may coffee plants grew upon any one arpent 

 of his own field. Taking, however, the best 

 means my long experience would give, I should 

 say that a labourer cultivates, in sea island 

 cotton, 4 English acres, and that these 4 acres 

 yield, as the result of his labour, 500 weight of 

 clean cotton, or cotton separated from the 

 seed, which consists of 400 weight of white 



cotton and 100 weight of coloured or stained 

 cotton ; and that these 500 pounds of clean 

 cotton have, for the last 15 years, averaged to 

 the grower 20 cents per pound for his white 

 cotton, and 10 cents per pound for his stained 

 cotton, yielding in American money, conse- 

 quently, $90 to the labourer a small remunera- 

 tion, certainly, to the cultivator, and not calcu- 

 lated to excite jealousy or hostility in any other 

 persons engaged in any other pursuit. 



" Preparing sea island cotton for market. 

 The process of preparing the cotton for 

 market commences as soon as it is generally 

 gathered in from the field, and is tedious and 

 troublesome in a high degree. The cotton, 

 when gathered from the plant, is put into a 

 bag, containing about half a bushel, which 

 hangs upon the person engaged in the opera- 

 tion, suspended from the neck or waist as they 

 may prefer, and when it is desired by them 

 they deposit the contents of the bag in a large 

 light basket, which contains the amount of 

 each one's gathering in the day. At the ap- 

 proach of night, the cotton gathered in the day 

 is brought home and weighed and deposited in 

 a common house, from whence the next morn- 

 ing, if the weather is good, it is carried out 

 ami spread upon drying floors made of 2-inch 

 American pine. These floors are of course 

 proportioned to the quantity of cotton expected 

 to be placed upon them at any one time, but 

 may be estimated at 20 by 40 feet of floor to 

 every 100 acres of cotton cultivated, and in 

 that ratio of quantities upon these floors. If it 

 has been gathered from the fields in good wea- 

 ther, the cotton is allowed to remain but one 

 day to take off" the dew of the morning or the 

 damp of the night air; but if gathered in wet 

 weather, it may require two or even three days' 

 exposure upon the drying floors, which are 

 raised upon posts three feet from the ground, 

 as well to preserve the wood of which they are 

 made, as to admit a more free circulation of air. 

 It is, however, known that strong, cold winds 

 or very bright suns, if continued too long, have 

 an injurious effect upon the fibre of the cotton; 

 and this extreme exposure to either wind or 

 rain is, therefore, carefully avoided, and the 

 cotton left no longer upon the drying floors 

 than is necessary to preserve it from heating 

 in the house. Before it is put up finally in 

 the house, it is usual, and quite proper to pass it 

 through what is called a ' Whipper,' to shake 

 off any sand or broken leaves, or any other ex- 

 traneous matter that may have attached itself 

 to the cotton either in the field or in the gather- 

 ing. The cotton having been gathered, dried 

 upon the floors, and whipped, is ready for the 

 next operation, or ginning. 



"The whipper, which is a very necessary- 

 instrument in the well-preparing of cotton, is 

 made of wood, is a long barrel composed of 

 slats or reeds (or it would be better made of 

 wire) 6 or 8 feet in length, and 2 feet in dia- 

 meter, with one end closed and the other open, 

 and is supported at the two ends by feet of dif- 

 ferent lengths, so that the barrel, in its hori- 

 zontal position, declines about 1 foot at the 

 lower end ; a hopper containing about a bushel 

 rests upon the upper side of the barrel, at the 

 upper enclosed end of it. This hopper lets the 



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