64 COTTON CULTURE. 



JULY. 



You will go over your corn for the last time this month, 

 if the season is dry. A stirring of the soil between the 

 rows will help it to resist the effect of the intense heat, 

 and prevent the lower leaves from " firing." Cotton needs 

 another plowing, but if the previous cultivation has been 

 thorough, the crop can be laid by the last of this month. 



As soon as your corn is " past roasting ear," pull fodder. 

 As this work is by no means easy, and comes in the height 

 of midsummer heat, some of the hands are quite likely to 

 injure themselves unless special care is exercised. 



Drenched as they are with perspiration, they must 

 drink frequently, and the water should never be cold. If 

 vinegar and a little sugar is added, all the better. There 

 is no use in pushing laborers now. A press of work is 

 soon to come, and you do not want to start a set of jaded 

 and half-sick hands to picking. 



Some have doubted the propriety of stripping the leaves 

 from Indian corn before the ears are mature. You lose 

 a little in the weight of shelled corn and in its fattening 

 properties, but for the southern climate a more wholesome 

 corn is produced in this way, than by allowing the whole 

 plant to stand till dead ripe. It will not be so heating to 

 animals, and the bread made from it is lighter and more 

 palatable. 



AUGUST. 



The picking season is at hand. Store your dry fodder, 

 and get ready to send every hand into the cotton field. 



About the middle of the month you will observe quite 

 a number of the lower or ground bolls open. As soon as 

 a picker can gather fifty pounds, the work of harvesting 

 begins. It will continue three and a half or four months. 



This is the time of year to be on the watch against your 



