98 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



ticed, and the leaves of the plant exhibiting a yellowish hue : 

 it is then generally supposed to be ripe, but it is safest to 

 wait a few days longer. Very little attentive observation 

 will enable any one to judga when it is fully ripe. In that 

 respect it is a very accommodating crop, for if gathered a 

 little too soon, the lint is not materially injured, and it will 

 wait the leisure of the farmer some ten days or a fortnight 

 after it is entirely ripe. 



Two modes of gathering the plants are practised, one by 

 pulling them up by the roots, an easy operation with an 

 able-bodied man, and the other by cutting them about two 

 inches (the nearer the better) above the surface of the ground. 

 Each mode has its partisans, and I have pursued both. From 

 a quarter to a third of an acre is the common task of an 

 average laborer, whether the one or the other mode is prac- 

 tised. Tne objections to pulling are, that the plants with 

 their roots remaining connected with them, are not after- 

 wards so easily handled in the several operations which they 

 must undergo ; that all parts of the plant do not rot equally 

 and alike, Avhen exposed to the dew and rain ; and, finally, 

 that before you put them to the brake, when the root should 

 be separated from the stalk, the root drags off with it some 

 of the lint. The objection to cutting is, that you lose two 

 or three inches of the best part of the plant nearest the root. 

 Pulling, being the most ancient method, is most generally 

 practised. I prefer, upon the whole, cutting ; and I believe 

 the number who prefer it is yearly increasing. When pull- 

 ed, it is done with the hand, w^hich is better for the protec- 

 tion of an old leather glove. The laborer catches twenty or 

 thirty plants together, with both hands, and by a sudden jerk 

 draws them without much difficulty. The operation of cut- 

 ting is performed with a knife, often made out of an old 

 scythe, resembling a sickle, though not so long, but broader. 

 This knife is applied much in the same way as the sickle, ex- 

 cept that the laborer stoops more. 



Whether pulled or cut, the plants are carefully laid on the 

 ground, the evener the better, to cure ; which they do in 

 two or three days, in dry weather. A light rain falling on 

 them whilst lying down is thought by some to be beneficial, 

 inasmuch as the leaves, of which they should be deprived, 

 may be easier shaken off or detached. When cured, the 

 plants are set up in the field in which they were produced, in 

 shocks of convenient size, the roots or butt ends resting on 

 the ground, and the tops united above by a band made of the 



