146 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
at least five weeks earlier than the American varieties, pro- | 
duces a certain crop, more or less productive, every year on 
land which can be irrigated at all seasons. On ‘or about the 
20th of March, when the frost is considered finally to have 
departed, the planter commences to sow his cotton, and what 
he sows in March and early April, he begins to pick in 
August. Cotton is sown even as late as July, but the season 
for it being consequently a short one, a third of a crop is all 
that can be expected from it before the frost, which generally 
appears the first week in December and destroys the plant for 
that year. It is also found by those who have cultivated 
cotton in this State scientifically, that if the crop be kept 
clear and free from weeds, the grasshopper will not prove to 
be a very dangerous enemy; for the warmth of the cotton, 
heated by the mid-day sun, is too much for the.gorged insect, 
and the cooler resting-place which would be provided by the 
weeds having been removed, he leaves the field. The cater- 
pillar also can be to a great extent kept at bay; for if the 
field be flooded as soon as this destroyer attacks the plant, 
the vapour in the day, and the cold evaporation at night, will 
destroy the insect, so that the planter may expect to reap a 
good percentage of his crop from the fresh pods, which are 
quickly reproduced after the land has been irrigated and the 
caterpillar destroyed. 
Tobacco is sown as early as the frost will admit in March, 
and the leaves are picked during the summer and fall. I saw 
on the Altar River, in a field belonging to my guide, Van 
Alstine, some acres of tobacco on the 10th of December, | 
1867. The plants had yielded two large pickings, and, from 
the thickness of the leaf, there seemed to be one-third of a 
summer picking still forthcoming. There had been no frost — 
up to that time, although the altitude was great. 
The sugar-cane is cultivated upon the banks of all the ~ 
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