380 



COTTON -WOOL. 



Appendix, for burning. The more completely the ground is clearedy 

 the more productive is the cotton likely to be. It cer- 

 tainly, however, would not answer to grub out the larger 

 stumps and roots ; they must be left to rot, vv^hich they 

 would do in a few years. 



In situations where the rains are not violent, the cotton- 

 seed is generally put into the ground at the early part of 

 the rainy season. But in places differently circumstanced, 

 this operation is deferred till the rains are within a month 

 or two of their termination, with a view both to guard 

 against an over-luxuriant vegetation, whereby the plants 

 might exhaust their strength in branches and leaves, 

 and to avoid the injurious consequences of rain at the 

 time the blossoms are appearing and the pods forming. 

 In Africa, the best time for planting the seed must be 

 regulated by experience, and by the result of experiments 

 to be made at all seasons, from March to September; but 

 the earlier the seed can safely be sown the better. 



In Georgia and Carolina, considerable labour is be- 

 stowed in ploughing and harrowing the ground, and 

 forming ridges raised pretty high with trenches between. 

 This, no doubt, assists vegetation, and at the same time 

 serves to carry off the water from the flat lands. The 

 same thing is done, though less carefully, with hoes in 

 Demarara and Berbice, but it is seldom done in the West 

 India Islands. There, however, the fields are regularly 

 laid out and the holes opened in straight lines. The dis- 

 tance between the holes varies from five feet in poor soils, 

 to eight feet in rich soils. The holes are made by loosen- 

 ing the earth for about eight or ten inches or a foot 

 square, and five or six inches deep. 



From six to fifteen seeds, spread longitudinally, may 

 be put into each hole, and covered over lightly with earth, 

 not above one or two inches deep at most. The more 



moist 



