.44 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



many domestic purposes, as will be farther noticed 

 in another chapter. 



The annual plant is cultivated in the same man- 

 ner as that just described; only that in sowing it 

 more seeds are put into the holes, and these are 

 placed nearer to each other. It comes to maturity 

 much quicker, the seeds being sown in April or 

 May, and the crop reaped in September; in some hot 

 climates two harvests can be gathered in each year. 



Another important consideration is, that the cotton 

 should not be pulled immediately after rain, as this 

 would render the drying process much more tedious 

 and difficult ; and should it retain any moisture when 

 it is packed, it would ferment or become mouldy. 



Immediately after gathering it is taken to a barn 

 and assorted according to its quality ; it is then laid 

 on mats or hurdles, and exposed to the heat of the 

 sun, or dried in stoves. 



The separation of the cotton from the seeds is a 

 very long and troublesome operation, when per- 

 formed by the hand ; for the fibres of the cotton 

 adhere tenaciously to the seed, and some time is 

 consumed in cleansing even a small weight of so 

 light a material. In the greater part of India the 

 use of machinery for this purpose is unknown, and 

 all the cotton is picked by hand. A man can in this 

 mariner separate from the seeds scarcely more than 

 one pound of cotton in a day. In some parts of 

 India, however, they make use of a machine, which, 

 though more simple, does not materially differ from 

 the gin used in the West Indies, Dr. Buchanan 

 describes it in 'A Journey from Madras through 

 the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,' 

 (vol. iii. p. 317). Mr. Clarke Abel also found 

 precisely the same machine in China, at the village 

 of Ta-tung, not far from Nankin. This is his 

 description of it: " It consisted of two wooden 

 cylinders placed horizontally one above the other, on 



