200 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



Virginia in the year 1621. It has always been the chief 

 money crop of the farmers of the southern states, and is 

 so closely identified with the prosperity of the people 

 that the welfare of all kinds of business depends very 

 much upon the success of the cotton crop. For a great 

 many years, Mississippi was the chief cotton-producing 

 state, but within the last ten years the opening of new 

 lands in western Texas and Oklahoma has greatly ex- 

 tended the area of land devoted to cotton culture. Cotton 

 occupies the same place in the southern states that Indian 

 corn occupies in the central states of the Mississippi 

 valley, and both crops seem peculiarly adapted to the 

 United States. Barley, wheat and oats are grown all over 

 the world, but corn and cotton are not grown in other 

 countries so extensively as they are in the United States. 

 190. Habits of Growth. In the tropical countries there 

 are perennial types of cotton, some kinds growing 20 or 

 more feet in height; but in the United States all of the 

 varieties are annual, growing in the form of a small shrub 

 two to eight feet in height, depending on the variety, 

 the amount of rainfall during the summer, and the pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil. The plant is very tender when 

 it first appears above the ground, but, if the weather is 

 warm, it grows robust very rapidly. The tap-root extends 

 deep into the soil, and the stalk above ground becomes 

 tough and woody. There are many branches, called pri- 

 mary and secondary. The primary branches are longest 

 near the ground. The flower-buds appear in the axes of 

 the leaves on secondary branches, and are called "squares." 

 The flowers are large in size and are short-lived, lasting 

 only one or two days. When first opened, they are a white 



