184549.] AMERICAN PLANT IN INDIAN SEASONS. 79 



From four to six months before the sowing time, the CHAP. 



land should be well ploughed, the deeper the better, and L. 



then should be allowed to lie fallow. If rain fell in the 

 interval, then a second ploughing should take place, so as to 

 keep the land thoroughly open and freely exposed to the 

 conjoint action of the air and sun ; this would prevent ex- 

 cessive absorption of heat ; it would greatly promote fertility; 

 and it would clean the land by exposing and killing the 

 roots of all perennial weeds. Last of all, just before sowing, 

 the ground should have a final ploughing. 



3rd, Ploughing and hoeing during the growing 115 

 Season. The ploughing and hoeing during the growing 

 season of the American Cotton plant should be regu- 

 lated as follows. If the seed is sown in drills according 

 to the American practice, then, whilst the plant is still 

 small, the land should be ploughed once or twice between 

 the rows. If the seed be sown broadcast, this ploughing 

 cannot be conveniently carried out ; and then the hoe must 

 suffice. When the third leaf has appeared, the ground must 

 be hoed, and the plants thinned out to six or eight inches 

 between them ; and this will leave enough to allow of con- 

 siderable destruction during the subsequent ploughing. A 

 second hoeing is always deemed necessary, in both American 

 and Native practice, when the " stand" should be further 

 thinned, to an extent varying from a foot to eighteen inches 

 between the plants. If the growth is vigorous, the distance 

 between the plants should average not less than eighteen 

 inches, but otherwise, an interval of one foot would be suf- 

 ficient. 



4th, Distance between the Rows. The distance be- 

 tween the rows and ridges should be regulated as follows. 

 In moderately fertile and high and dry lands, it will be suf- 

 ficient to have an interval of from two feet and a half to 

 three feet between the rows. But for moist low-lying rich 



