178 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



would not fall far short of enough to freight a thousand such 

 ships. Such a wonderful increase in the production of a single 

 article, within so short a period, cannot fail to fill the mind 

 with astonishment. 



The late PIERCE BUTLER, Esq., one of the most successful 

 cotton growers, left the following directions for its culture: 



"If the land has been recently cleared, or has long remained fallow, turn it 

 up deep in winter; and in the first week in March bed it up in the following 

 manner: Form twenty-five beds in one hundred and five square feet of land; 

 (being: the space allotted to each labourer for a day's work;) this leaves about 

 four feet two and one half inches from the centre of one bed to the centre of 

 the next. The beds should be three feet wide, flat in the middle. About the 

 15th of March, in latitude from twenty-nine to thirty degrees, the cultivator 

 should commence sowing, or, as it is generally termed, planting. The seed 

 should be well scattered in open trenches, made in the centre of the beds, and 

 covered. The proportion of seed is one bushel to one acre; this allows for ac- 

 cidents occasioned by worms or night chills. 



"The cotton should be well weeded by hoes once every twelve days till blown, 

 and even longer if there is grass, observing to hoe up, that is, to tne cotton, till 

 it pods, and hoe down when the cotton is blown, in order to check the growth 

 of the plant. From the proportion of seed mentioned, the cotton plants will 

 come up plentifully, too much so to suffer all to remain. They should be 

 thinned moderately at each hoeing. When the plants have got strength and 

 growth, which may be about the third hoeing, to disregard worms and bear 

 drought, they should be thinned, according to the fertility of the soil, from six 

 inches to near two feet between the stalks or plants. 



"In rich river grounds, the beds should be from five to six feet apart, mea- 

 suring from centre to centre; and the cotton plants, when out of the way of the 

 worms, from two to three feet apart. It is advisable to top cotton once or twice 

 in low grounds, and also to remove the suckers. The latter end of July is ge- 

 nerally considered a proper time for topping. Gypsum may be used with suc- 

 cess on cotton lands not tiear the sea. In river grounds draining is proper; yet 

 these lands should not be kept too dry. In tide lands it is beneficial to let the 

 water flow over the land without retaining it. In river lands a change of crops 

 is necessary. From actual experiment it has been proved that river tide lands, 

 having the preceding year had rice sown on them, yielded much more cotton 

 the succeeding year than they would have afforded by a continuation of cotton. 

 The mere growing of cotton is but a part of the care of the planter; very much 

 depends on classing and cleansing it for market, after it has been housed. 

 Sorting it before it goes to the jennies, moteing and removing any yellow par- 

 ticles, are essential to assure a preference at a common market of competi- 

 tion." 



The twin or okra cotton. The following interesting par- 

 ticulars respecting this new and favourite species, are detailed in 

 a letter from an eminent planter: "The discovery of it appears 

 to have been entirely accidental. A gentleman of Autauga, 

 Alabama, a few years ago bought some Petit Gulf seed; in a 

 field sown with this seed, a single stalk was observed without 

 limbs, and having a great number of bolls adhering immediately 

 to the stalk, or in clusters on very short limbs. From these 

 seeds the variety has been propagated. In 1837, the seeds sold 

 as high as fifty cents a piece; last fall one hundred and sixty 

 dollars was paid for a bushel. The plant exhibits a distinct 

 variety; the stalk had rarely any limbs longer than one joint, 

 sometimes two; the bolls were two, three, and sometimes seven 



