COTTON CULTURE. 147 



Loiiis Blanc, conducted a series of experiments with the 

 view of utilizing the fibrous bark of the cotton plant, and 

 making- of it a substitute for hemp. He arrived at some 

 very satisfactory conclusions, and the result of his investi- 

 gations may be stated as follows. If the cotton plant is 

 taken at full maturity before damaged by frost, cut down, 

 its lateral branches broken or cut away, and the main stem 

 buried under a shallow furrow for ten days or two weeks, 

 the woody fibre becomes so decayed that it may be treated 

 like hemp, and the fibrous bark thus disengaged makes 

 good bagging and cordage. 



It has the color of the gunny or East India bagging, 

 and is spun like the Kentucky heinp, either by machinery, 

 or by hand. 



The best way of producing it is by sowing the cotton 

 seed broadcast. The plant, thus grown, runs up slender 

 and puts out but few lateral branches, thus approximating 

 in appearance to hemp. Whether the slender or the 

 branching plant is taken, the use of it for this purpose 

 cannot be connected with the production of cotton staple 

 in the usual way. That is to say, a plant will not yield 

 its full crop of bolls, and then give good hemp from the 

 stalk. 



But it will often occur that from a premature frost, or 

 the ravages of the caterpillar, a field of cotton is stripped 

 of its foliage, while the stalk is still green and full of life. 

 In cases like this, a disappointed planter may find his pros- 

 pects much less gloomy, if he can, at once, cut down his 

 stalks and produce from the bark almost as many bales of 

 cotton stalk hemp as he would have harvested of lint from 

 the bolls, if his crop had matured. 



The fibre thus obtained has been used by some manu- 

 facturers as a substitute for rags in making paper, and is 

 found to answer an excellent purpose. In some soils, as 

 for instance that of the lower Mississippi bottom, cotton 

 tends to rankness of growth rather than productiveness, 



