130 COTTON CULTURE. 



would meet this deficiency ; and of manures, not directly 

 the product of the soil, the best are Peruvian guano, bone 

 dust, dissolved in sulphuric acid, and the various refuse 

 of manufactories, rich in potash. 



The Sea Island cotton is. planted from March twentieth 

 to April tenth, upon high beds, five feet apart one way, 

 by from eight to twenty-four inches the other, according 

 to the richness of the soil. It is cultivated in very much 

 the same manner as Upland, except that more reliance is 

 placed upon the hoe and less upon the plow. Much more 

 pains is taken in picking, ginning, and marketing the Sea 

 Island cotton, than with the ordinary Upland. In gath- 

 ering it from the field, great care is exercised to keep it 

 free of trash and all stains. It is transferred at once to 

 the drying scaffold, where it is sorted over before packing 

 away in the cotton house. The ginning is done almost 

 entirely in dry weather, when the cotton is again sunned 

 and picked over ; that which is picked Jate in the season, 

 or after a rain, is run through the trasher, which whips the 

 locks against pegs or bars, and frees them from sand and 

 loose dirt. 



It then goes to the gins, where the seeds are separated 

 from the wool. It is somewhat remarkable that no prac- 

 tical improvement has yet been made upon the rude in- 

 vention which was used for this purpose almost a century 

 ago. Neither the Whitney gin, nor any of its modifica- 

 tions or improvements, are found to be effectual in sepa- 

 rating the lint of Sea Island cotton from the seed, without 

 cutting or tangling it. The form of this ginning instru- 

 ment is extremely simple, consisting of nothing more than 

 a treadle and a couple of small iron fly-wheels, for the 

 purpose of producing the rapid and steady revolution of 

 two wooden rollers, about a foot long, and about an inch 

 in diameter. These rollers wear out very rapidly, and are 

 renewed almost daily. It is probable that a pair of gutta 



