185362.] CENTRAL TABLE-LAND : FIVE DISTRICTS. 253 



Seed used and whence obtained. The seed of the CHAP. 



"VI 



Native Oopum Cotton is kept by the Natives from the last ' 



crop, and sown in the following season. The seed is not 358 

 separated from the Cotton till the sowing time, or it looses 

 its germinating power. The New Orleans, Bourbon, Mexi- 

 can, etc. seed used in the late Experimental Farm, was ob- 

 tained by Government from England, or brought out by the 

 American Planters formerly engaged on the Farm here. 

 New Orleans seed of the ninth generation in this country 

 produced excellent crops ; and the American plant has been 

 cultivated in this district from the same stock of seed for 

 eleven years, without apparent deterioration in the quality 

 of either the Cotton or seed produced.* 



Character of the Cotton plant. " The Oopum is a 359 

 small plant, seldom exceeding five feet in height, generally 

 less, and wears the appearance of a degenerated species. Its 

 branches have not the same lateral spread as the exotic 

 kinds. The Bourbon also averages from two to three feet 

 in height, but the branches extend almost as far laterally. 

 The plants are low, depressed, crooked, and as it were stunt- 

 ed. The New Orleans variety, if left untrimmed, shoots up 

 to nearly six feet in height. In the field it averages about 

 four feet ; the branches are longer and thinner than the preced- 

 ing species, with more of an upward, than a lateral direction. 

 A bush four feet high and trimmed will measure nearly as 

 much in spread. Two hundred pods have been counted on 

 a single bush, the stem often equals a man's finger in thick- 

 ness, and it is the only description cultivated here, that at 

 all approaches a tree. From a foot to eighteen inches is left 

 between the plants, but if the growth is vigorous not less 

 than an average distance of eighteen inches should be allowed. 

 In moderately fertile and high and dry lands, from two and 

 a half to three feet between the rows is enough ; but for 



* This fact has been disputed. See General results at the conclusion of 

 the present chapter, para 372. 



