A STORY OF COTTON 



This display is in evidence, AT ALL TIMES, each year, after 

 the opening of the FIRST BOLL. 



The stalk continues to grow, the limhs of the stalk continue 

 to grow and leaf, the blossoms continue to make, the matured 

 bolls are constantly bursting, and the raw% unpicked cotton 

 is in evidence, constantly, until a killing frost, that usually 

 occurs about the 25th of October or the 1st of November, stops 

 the FURTHER GROWTH of the cotton stalk or plant. 



The blooms on the stalk fade and die by virtue of this kill- 

 ing frost. 



The squares that are frostbitten no longer produce a boll, 

 but are shed from the stalk, and, it sometimes occurs, that the 

 VERY YOUNG BOLLS are also affected; but, ordinarily, the 

 bolls that are somewhat advanced, unless a FREEZE occurs, 

 will grow and mature. 



Shortly after a killing frost, and after ALL of the leaves 

 have fallen, the sun's rays then have an uninterrupted chance 

 to shine on EVERY boll on the stalk and the bolls open and 

 mature, much more rapidly than when the bolls were shaded 

 by the large leaves. 



Thus, one will see that an EARLY FROST has a very defi- 

 nite bearing on the cotton production, which, up to the time 

 of the frost, always PROMISES a production of cotton from 

 each bloom that is in evidence. 



When the bottom bolls are rapidly bursting, and the entire 

 field is white with cotton, at the bottom of the stalk, the grower 

 becomes very busy gathering his cotton crop. 



If he grows a very small field of cotton, he, with his wife 

 and all of his family, that are old enough to pick cotton, will, 

 very industriously, start picking cotton daily. 



Those who cultivate plantations on a very large scale, engage 

 cotton pickers, at, usually, a very exorbitant figure, to pick 

 this cotton that is daily, very rapidly opening and maturing, 

 which, if not picked, may fall to the ground, and, when gath- 

 ered, produce the lower grades of cotton. 



The payment to the cotton picker, is, usually, made accord- 

 ing to the number of pounds he or she gathers, during the day. 



