COTTON CULTURE. 23 



a hot sun, will fall upon the field just after the planting 

 is concluded. Unless the soil is quite sandy, the surface 

 may bake in a firm crust over the seeds, and delay their 

 sprouting. In this case it is a good plan to pass lightly 

 over the beds with a harrow, taking care to draw up the 

 teeth so as only to scratch the surface and crumble this 

 crust. This is more important in swamp land than on the 

 hills. 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED 



Iii ten days or two weeks from the time the seed was 

 laid in its narrow bed, the planter, walking over his cotton 

 field, may expect to see a row of tiny leaflets just bursting 

 out of the moist earth. If the interval has been uncom- 

 monly wet and cold, anxiety is mingled with his hopes, 

 for so many of the seeds may have rotted as to give him 

 only an uneven and ragged looking stand. The question 

 of replanting must be decided in a day or two, for time is 

 now precious, and every week lost at this end of the season 

 is just so much subtracted from the length of the picking 

 season. If he has planted thick, and the stand, in most 

 places, is a fair one, the chilled seeds in the damper soils 

 may yet come out and do well. He first sees two leaflets, 

 and in about three days the third appears. Cotton has 

 this advantage over many other crops, that it has not the 

 least resemblance to any of the weeds which infest the 

 field, so the most careless glance will decide as to whether 

 a particular sprout is cotton or not. As soon as the third 

 leaf is fairly developed, the cultivation begins, and here, 

 at the very outset, the difference between careful and 

 slovenly planting of the seed will appear. Where the- 



