COTTON CULTUKE. 43 



is kinky or imperfectly developed, should be carefully 

 separated from the best, and either kept by itself or thrown 

 with the other low grades. The manufacturer can use it 

 in making strong, coarse fabrics. 



The cotton of long staple and high grade, should not be 

 allowed to become damp with dew, but taken while still 

 warm and dry, and stored in a shed or in the gin-house, 

 and lie a month or two before it is ginned. This gives the 

 oil in the seeds time to ascend into the fibres, thus impart- 

 ing a fine, pale, straw color, which the manufacturer loves 

 to see, and also increasing the weight. 



It is almost impossible, after the heavy frosts, to pick 

 cotton free of trash, and where the crop is large, more than 

 half of it may come under this description. In some con- 

 ditions of the market, planters find the difference between 

 trashy and clean cotton so little, as to discourage them 

 from efforts to send a fine article to market. But, in gen- 

 eral, moderate painstaking will enable the grower to com- 

 mand from two to five cents more per pound. 



The thoughtful planter will also manage so as to have 

 the cotton handled as few times as possible, both to econo- 

 mize labor, finish work as early as possible, and prevent 

 his staple from becoming matted and dirty. Where ten 

 baskets are to be emptied twice a day, there is no need of 

 pouring them into a great box wagon, stamping down, and 

 then unloading, by filling the basket again at the crib or 

 gin-house. When the work is in a remote field, and the 

 weighing is done by torchlight, the hands about the 

 wagons may not get their suppers till eight or nine o'clock. 



Where the roads are good, an excellent plan is to couple 

 the fore and hind wheels of a wagon with a pole of proper 

 length, lay t\vo other poles or long planks on the axle- 

 trees, set the basket on them, and empty at the gin-house. 

 If the weighing is done in a bag, this is entirely practicable, 

 and allows all the hands to get to their houses in half an 

 hour after they came out from the rows. Where the num- 



