CHAPTER XX. 
CULTURE FROM SEED TO BOLL 
In the romance of cotton the climax is reached 
in that scene which has to do with its culture. All 
that has come before is concerned with stage set- 
tings properly to introduce the chief actor, and 
what follows in the disposition of the crop is but 
the natural conclusion expected before the final 
curtain falls. In this growing scene the seeds 
awake from their sleep in the soil, the tiny two- 
leaved plants peep through their surface screen 
and come forth into sunlight and growth, now to 
engage the attention of a vast army of men and 
women through long months of watchfulness and 
care. 
THE BED IS MADE 
Sometime before planting time the land is 
"bedded up" as a final preparation for the seed. 
This custom seems to be almost an universal 
practice, wherever cotton is grown. While it 
involves extra time and labor, its warming influence 
on the soil, especially in cool or wet weather, 
is sufficiently helpful to modify any objection to 
the practice. 
The plan of bedding up is this: the row is 
opened and in it the manure is placed (or if a 
fertilizer drill is used, the work is done by a single 
operation) ; then the plow is run back and forth, 
r (153) 
