42 COTTON CULTURE. 



away in the gin-house or in cribs, made for the purpose, 

 before the dew falls upon it. 



Though such is not the custom, probably, there is no 

 time so favorable for sorting and trashing cotton, as when 

 it is first picked. It is less matted then than at any sub- 

 sequent handling, and the particles of leaf and stalk and 

 dirt are not entangled in the fibre, as they afterwards be- 

 come. Instead of weighing the baskets, each hand, as he 

 comes out, can hang his bag upon the hook of a spring 

 balance before he empties it. Then let an invalid, an old 

 person, or a woman, sit by the baskets, and sort over and 

 trash the contents of each bag. 



Cotton of the Mexican, Petit Gulf, and Okra varieties, 

 (all of which are " green seed " cottons, differing very little 

 in appearance,) will naturally class into four grades, as it 

 comes from the field. 



First. The fine, long stapled cotton, clean, dry, and 

 silken to the touch. This will greatly predominate in the 

 early pickings, before the frosts and the heavy fall rains 

 occur. 



Second. The short, kinky bolls, that have been bored 

 by the boll worm, and not quite killed, or which came late, 

 and were unclenched by the frost, or which grew under 

 the disadvantage of excessive or irregular moisture. 



Third. Trashy cotton. This abounds after the heavy 

 frosts, and the trash consists of minute fragments of leaves 

 and stems, that become hopelessly mixed with the fibres, 

 so as never to be entirely removed. They cause the small 

 black specks that abound in the coarser varieties of Lowells 

 and Osnaburgs. 



Fourth. Dirty cotton. This comes in after heavy rains, 

 accompanied by winds, which have blown out the contents 

 of the pods, and beaten it into the" earth, or driven sand 

 all through the fibres. 



During the months of September and October, there is 

 no need of having much trashy or dirty cotton. That which 



