COTTON-WOOL. 



381 



moist the ground is the more lightly should the seed be Appendix, 

 covered, otherwise it will be apt to rot. The plants will 

 generally show themselves in from five to nine days, but 

 vsometimes not before fourteen. When they have four 

 distinct leaves, half the number in each hole may be 

 drawn, and these must afterwards be gradually reduced 

 until one, and that the most vigorous and healthy plant 

 is left in each hole. 



For the first six weeks the plants are of slow growth 

 and very tender, and they must be carefully kept clear of 

 weeds until they become of a sufficient size to suppress all 

 extraneous growth. It would be of great service, also, 

 that the earth should be occasionally drawn up about the 

 roots until the blossoms appear, when this operation is no 

 longer necessary. At the end of six weeks, if not before, 

 the plants if luxuriant ought be topped or pruned, by 

 breaking or cutting off an inch or more from the end of 

 each shoot, which makes the stems spread and throw out 

 a greater number of branches: and this operation, if the 

 plants are very luxuriant, will require to be performed a 

 second, or even a third time, with a knife, on the stem 

 and branches. 



The blossoms generally appear in about eighty days 

 after the seed has been planted, and sometimes later, and 

 the first pods arrive at maturity in about three months 

 from that time. The blossom of the green seed when it 

 first appears, which is generally in the morning, is white, 

 and remains of that colour for the first twelve hours ; but 

 it changes the following night to a beautiful crimson, and 

 drops off within thirty-six hours of its first appearance. 

 That of the black seed, or Sea Island, undergoes the same 

 change with the green, but when it comes out it is of a 

 deep yellow colour. 



The cotton should be fully blown before it is picked. 



This 



