COTTOX CULTURE. 59 



lowing in his routine of plowing, planting, cultivating, 

 picking, ginning, and pressing a crop, might, early in the 

 year following, put his cotton in a Liverpool bottom, and 

 receive his payment in a check on the Bank of England for 

 twelve thousand dollars in British gold. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE COTTON PLANTER'S CALENDAR. 



What follows is in the nature of a summary and reca- 

 pitulation of much that has been set forth in detail, in the 

 foregoing five chapters. It is calculated for about the 

 middle of the cotton belt, or the lands where cotton is pro- 

 duced, between the thirty-second and the thirty-fourth 

 degree of north latitude. Some other crops, such as corn, 

 peas, and oats are alluded to, as they are cultivated more 

 or less on every plantation. 



JAXUAEY. 



The gin is to be kept running most of the time during 

 this month on last year's crop. It is best to have a con- 

 venient scaffold arranged on the south side of your gin, of 

 nn easy slope, and passing directly to the gin loft, so that 

 cotton can be taken from the sheds or cribs, dried, and 

 carried up to where it will feed itself into the gin, or can 

 be pulled in by the operator before the stand. 



Read the papers, keep informed as to rise or decline iu 

 the cotton market, the supply and demand. 



Have a powerful press, sufficient to put four hundred 

 pounds into the space of forty cubic feet. Use wide iron 

 hoops, and plenty of them. Look well after the ends of 

 your bales, and see that they are perfectly snug. 



