278 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



only four are cultivated. In Georgia and South Carolina 

 two kinds are planted. One grows on the upland, has a 

 short staple, with green seed. Another has black seed, and 

 is cultivated on the islands near the coast. 



Pierce Butler, Esq. a successful cultivator, has given the 

 following directions for raising this article : 



' 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 alloted to each laborer 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, plant- 

 ing. The seed should be well scattered in open trenches, 

 made in the centre of the beds, and covered. The proportion 

 of seed is one busliel to one acre ; this allows for accidents 

 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 

 the 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 stocks or plants. In 

 rich river grounds, the beds should be from five to six feet 

 apart, measuring 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 generally considered a proper time for topping. 

 Gypsum may be used with success on cotton lands not near 

 the sea. In river grounds draining is proper; yet these 

 lands should not be kept too dry. In tide lands it is benefi- 

 cial 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 



