COTTON. 



cases, one extreme produced another. 

 For many years, however, among 

 e.vperieiiced planters, the course is 

 to divide their enclosed fields into 

 two portions, the one at rest, the 

 other in culture. 



" Preparing the Land for the Crop. 

 — Early in February, any hands not 

 engaged in preparing the previous 

 crop for market are employed in 

 cleaning u[) the rested fields, and 

 either m burning off the fennel w^eeds 

 and grass of the previous year, or in 

 listing them in at five feet apart, to 

 serve as the base of the future ridg- 

 es or bed. There is much difference 

 of opinion upon the subject of burn- 

 ing or listing in ; for myself, I am in- 

 clined to take the first opinion, be- 

 lieving that the light dressing of 

 ashes the field receives from burning 

 off is more beneficial to the soil than 

 the decay of the vegetable matter, 

 and renders it less liable to produce 

 what is a growing evil, the rust, a 

 species of blight much resembling 

 the rust or blight upon wheat, and 

 which takes place about the same 

 period, just as the plant is putting 

 out and preparing to ripen its fruit. 



" Ridging. — The land being listed 

 in short lines across the entire field, 

 at five feet apart, the operation of 

 ridging is commenced about the first 

 of March. The ridges occupy the 

 entire surface ; that is, the foot of 

 one ridge commencing where the 

 other ridge ends, and rising about 

 eight inches above the natural level 

 of the land, thus presenting a sur- 

 face almost as smooth, and almost as 

 deeply worked as a garden-bed. This 

 ridging is carried on but a few days 

 ahead of the planting. The ridge, if 

 the operation has been carefully done, 

 is from two to two and a half feet 

 broad at top ; it is then trenched on 

 the upper surface with the hoe, six 

 inches wide, and from three to six 

 inches deep, depending upon the pe- 

 riod of planting. 



''Planting. — In the beginning, if 

 the seed is covered more than two 

 inches, the soil will not feel the in- 

 fluence of the sun, and the seed will 



Some planters top the cotton in 

 August. 



Cultivation of Sea-Island. — The fol- 

 lowing is by Mr. Spalding, of Sapelo, 

 from the American Agriculturist : 



"The Sea-Island cotton was intro- 

 duced into Georgia from the Baha- 

 mas ; the seed was from a small isl- 

 and near St. Uouiingo, known as Ar- 

 guilla. then producing the best cotton 

 of the Western world. It in no way 

 resembles the Brazil cotton, which 

 is the kidney-seed kind, introduced 

 some years later, and which, after 

 trial, was rejected in Georgia. This 

 seed came in small parcels from the 

 Bahamas in the winter of 1785. It 

 gradually and slowly made its way 

 along the coast of Georgia, and pass- 

 ed into Carolina, from the year 1790 

 to 1792. The winter of 178G in 

 Georgia was a mild one, and al- 

 though the plants of the Sea-Island 

 cotton that year had not ripened their 

 seed — it being a perennial, and sub- 

 ject only to be killed by frost — it start- 

 ed the next season (1787) from the 

 roots of the previous year, its seed 

 ripened, and the plants became accli- 

 mated. Many changes have come 

 over this seed since that time, from 

 difference of soil, of culture, and lo- 

 cal position ; and, above all,, from 

 careful selection of seed. But it re- 

 quires to be discovered that what is 

 gained in fineness of wool is lost in 

 the quality and weight of the prod- 

 uct ; for, in spite of a zeal and intel- 

 ligence brought to act upon the sub- 

 ject without parallel, the crops are 

 yearly diminishing, until to grow Sea- 

 Island cotton is one of the most prof- 

 itless pursuits within the limits of 

 the United States. 



"The Culture. — When the Sea- 

 Island cotton seed was introduced in 



1786, it was planted in hills prepared 



upon the level field, at five feet each 



way ; but it was soon learned that 



of all plants that grow, it is, in its 



first vegetation and early stage, the 



most tender, liable to suffer by storms, 



by wind, by drought, and by excess 



of rain. I'he quantity of seed was 



therefore increased, and the plants 



multiplied, until, as in most other] not vegetate later ; that is, in April, 



203 



