60 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



torial of the country, and others of the " skinning gentry," i 

 have not ventured upon this most delicate position, though long 

 promised, without again revising carefully and practically, the 

 principles and ability of this system. 



In my first paper, it will be recollected, I stated the grand 

 object which this system of improved culture proposes to ac- 

 complish for the planting interest of the country; and I also 

 gave there a fair and impartial, and a most satisfactory expose 

 of that system, (if such it may be styled,) by which the cotton 

 plant is at present grown. In my second number, I gave in 

 detail, in an equally plain and simple manner, the modus ope- 

 randi by which my experiments were conducted. This was 

 no second-hand report, or say-so of another person ; but in part 

 the work of my own hands, and the entire management under 

 my immediate supervision. In this paper, I propose giving 

 the why and the wherefore for all this at least, in my humble 

 opinion ; and to point out the inconsistent, the reckless and 

 grassy policy of the present practices of the country, as com- 

 pared with the systematic, economical and %)hilosophic policy of 

 this improvement. 



It is my purpose, gentlemen, first to give you a correct 

 sketch of the botanic characteristics of the cotton plant, as we 

 meet with it under the circumstance of its most favorable cul- 

 ture. I do not offer this in the spirit of ostentation, to appear 

 learned from the technicals used, (the necessary peculiarity of 

 every science.) My object is simply to call attention to a 

 subject too much neglected by planters about which the 

 books are carelessly in error; and a proper knowledge of 

 which, in my opinion, tends greatly to indicate the best or 

 right mode of culture. 



The botanic name, then, of the plant we cultivate, is Gos- 

 sypium hcrbaceum ; we find it in the fifteenth class of the 

 Linnean system, (Monadelpliia,*) and in the thirteenth order, 



