HOCKINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



149 



For different modes of culture and manufacture, 

 the reader is referred to Loudon's Encyclopcedia of 

 Agriculture, p. 936. 



COTTON. 



Varieties : There are many varieties of the cotton 

 plant, and probably some very valuable sorts may yet 

 be produced by hybridising and selection. The Sea 

 Island or Long Staple and the Egyptian, New Orleans 

 or Upland are the sorts most cultivated. 



Soil : The soil should be rich, friable, and deep, and 

 free of water for two feet six inches in depth. 



Cultivation : The land should be well ploughed, and 

 the subsoil broken up if possible. The seed is sown 

 three or four in a hole, at four to eight feet apart, 

 according to the richness of the soil, in September, or 

 as soon as it considered the frost is over. Great care 

 is necessary to keep the crop clean by an early weeding, 

 or it may be smothered by the weeds or destroyed by 

 caterpillars. In weeding, the plants are thinned out, 

 leaving the two strongest in each hole. The second 

 weeding may be done with a light plough or scarifier, 

 when the plants may be earthed up. If the earth is 

 stirred as soon as the weeds are a quarter of an inch 

 high, two or three times during the early growth of the 

 young cotton plants, the crop will require but little 

 further trouble. 



Cotton picking commences in March, and should be 

 proceeded with without intermission, as serious damage 

 often occurs from rain when the ripe bolls are allowed 

 to remain on the tree, and the sample is much damaged 

 by dirt and pieces breaking into the cotton from the 

 dried pericarp. 



Notwithstanding the superior quality of the Sea 

 Island cotton produced in Queensland, and the con- 

 sequent high price which it commands, the New Or- 

 leans is growing into favor, as it is stated to possess 



