PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE. 65 



rows equi-distant each way. The question is frequently 

 asked, " Why not lay off the land four by four feet, or five by 

 four feet ?" There is a very serious objection to this simple 

 plan, which every planter must perceive on a moment's re- 

 flection. In either case, the cotton will be found so entirely 

 interlocked by the 20th of June to the 1st of July, as to for- 

 bid further work ; yet we find, under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances of seasons and culture, that it will take the stalk 

 until the 10th of July to attain the height of six feet, short of 

 which we should not top it, nor earlier in the season ; and it 

 is very desirable, and highly necessary even, that the cotton 

 be swept once after topping it, which we find impracticable 

 unless the rows be laid off wide one way, with a view to that 

 desirable operation. Upon land, then, that is but moderately 

 improved, 1 prefer the rows north and south five feet, by three 

 feet east and west ; and upon land in a higher state of improve- 

 ment, six feet by forty inches will be found the best distance. 

 Though we shall find the stalk a little crowded the narrow 

 way by this course, yet we secure the more important advan- 

 tage, in being able to scrape and pulverize the surface later 

 in the season. I suppose there to be other advantages like- 

 wise, in this plan of laying the rows at right angles, north 

 and south, and east and west, and bedding the land north and 

 south ; which, however, must form the subject of another 

 article. 



The next object to which I shall direct your attention, is 

 the mode of culture which I conceive to be necessary in the 

 after management of the cotton plant ; the correctness, and 

 even superiority of which, I hope to establish as clearly here, 

 as in practice it has so triumphantly succeeded. The con- 

 stant and invariable success which attends this improvement 

 in my hands, is the result of a strict and scrupulous adherence 

 to system in its management. Every science and every pro- 



