COTTON CULTURE. 



37 



known, at least in this country, of which the harvesting is 

 so long and monotonous. One boll is just like another, one 

 row the fac simile of its neighbor. There is no science or 

 ingenuity that has been brought, or is likely to be made 

 effectual in very much modifying, abridging or lightening 



Fig. 7. THE COTTON PLANT. 



this labor. In the nature of things, it must be done by the 

 fingers, and by the fingers only, in order to be done well. 

 The green seed or Mexican and Petit Gulf cotton, which is 

 the variety chiefly cultivated in this country, when fully 

 mature, opens its burr or shell quite wide, and the mass of 

 cotton within gradually falls outward, and droops by the 

 weight of the seeds. At some periods of the picking sea- 



