1863. 



THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



39 



Culture of Cotton. 



By way of experiment, we planted three - 

 fourths of an acre to cotton, using the green 

 seed or upland Tariety. The land was broken 

 up in the summer of 1860, and was the raw, un- 

 pastured prairie. In the fall, it was sown to 

 wheat, the stubble plowed early in May follow- 

 ing, and on the 13th, worked ofiF with a common 

 corn planter, the rows then put nine inches apart 

 and two bushels of old seed planted by hand in 

 these drills. It was then h-rrowed smooth and 

 rolled with an iron roller. None of the seed 

 was covered over half an inch, and much of it 

 merely pressed into the soil. But little of the 

 seed was good— it having been heated. That 

 pressed into the earth without any covering 

 comes up at the same time of that covered from 

 a quarter to half an inch, while some planted on 

 to two inches, by way of trial, did not come cut 

 at all, thus showing that the seed must be slightly 

 covered. The rows were extended with corn, 

 and the culture was the same as that received by 

 the corn crops, with a fwo-horse cultivator. Af- 

 ter the corn was laid by the few weeds remaining 

 in the cotton rows, we cut out, and where the 

 stem was too thick, the plants were thinned, to 

 say six inches, but four plants had to be removed, 

 as the plants were more often three to four feet 

 apart. 



The season has proved a -wet one, and the 

 plants made a most vigorous growth, and set full 

 of buds, but none of them were matured so as to 

 open until aftei^ the severe frost about the 20th 

 of October. The balls soon begin to open and 

 are continuing to mature ; but for the past two 

 weeks the weather has been wet and cold, ani it 

 has made slow progress in ripening, but a few 

 weeks of dry weather will mature it. 



The "contrabands" in my employ, who are 

 cotton hands, say that nearly all of the crop will 

 mature, and they estimate the yield of clean cot- 

 ton at a hundred pounds. The stand is about 

 half a one or equal to three-eights of an acre, 

 and had it been planted at the proper time, say 

 two weeks earlier, the yield would have been 

 much larger, as the early part of the season was 

 more favorable to growth than the latter. The 

 heavy rains of September and October appeared 

 to give the crops an increased growth of foliage 

 and new buds without maturing those nearly 

 grown. The same eflFect was produced on the 

 Bweet potatoe, they yielding an abundance of 

 vine, bit added little to the growth of the tubur, 



THE LOCATION. 



This farm is located on sec. 36, town 19, range 



8, east of 3d principal meridian, about 40' 10 

 min. north, and may be considered the northern 

 limit of the successful culture of cotton. Not- 

 withstanding the late planting and the badness 

 of the season, the crop has matured sufiScient to 

 pay the cost of culture. So well are we satis- 

 fied that cotton can be cultivated as a paying 

 crop, that we intend to plant five acres next sea- 

 son, the land for which is now plowed. 



FALLACY EXPLODED. 



The plant "is not easily killed by frost, being 

 fully as hardy, if not more so than corn. The 

 autumn winds will not blow away the ripened 

 cotton if picked in a reasonable time after open- 

 ing. It therefore needs no protection or shelter 

 by timber belts for this purpose, though the 

 crops will be benefitted by shelter in the spring 

 like any other crop, from the cold winds, but 

 not more so than corn. It needs no scraping 

 and hand weeding as at the south, requiring the 

 same culture as that of corn, in what is called 

 the flat system. The plants should be thinned 

 to sis inches in the drills. The autumn frosts 

 do not destroy all that is not open at the time, as 

 it dries out and matures for several months after 

 the growth is arrested. All half-grown balls 

 will produce cotton. The culture of cotton is, 

 therefore, simple and easy, requiring good clean, 

 well drained land, thorough preparation, early 

 planting and clean cotton. We do not appre- 

 hend the risk of an average crop, if, say two to 

 three hundred pounds a year, is more than of 

 other crops. Even corn, at times, turns out but 

 poorly, and this from the causes noted, is not, 

 this year, over half a crop in this section. 



ITS NORTnKKN LIMIT. 



We think this the extreme northern limit of 

 the field culture of this crop, though west of 

 this on the Mississippi river, it will extend, 

 probably a half a degree further north — caused 

 by the lower elevation, and being more in the 

 direct pathway of the summer trade winds that 

 are pressed up from the Gulf. 



South of Pana and Neoga, the creps should 

 be among the most profitable ; and with early 

 planting and good culture, can scarcely fail in 

 any season. There the soil is a greyish mold or 

 chalky formation — very rich, but requiring a 

 somewhat difi'erent mode of cultute than with ■ 

 us. Here the soil is a dark, pliable clay loam, 

 exceedingly rich, giving to the plant an almost 

 too vigorous a growth ; but should topping cor- 

 rect this excellence of growth, we shall be able 



