CULTIYATION OF COTTON. 
85 
demned—c2.n be restored to pristine vigor by carefal fer- 
tilizing. If calcareous manures are needed, we bave marl 
in every variety— clay marls, stony marls, greensand marls, 
and sbell marls, containing from forty to fifty per cent, of 
carbonate of lime, forty to fifty of silicious matter, from 
five to ten of organic matter, witb traces of iron and 
manganese, and other substances in very small proportions. 
If vegetable mould is needed, it can be easily obtained; 
but the most convenient of all fertilizers, and one which 
Southern planters have been using many years, is the 
cotton seed. We refer the reader to Chapter IX. for 
further remarks on this subject. 
EotLiNG Logs and Cleaning up.— A cotton crop 
occupies the time and attention of the planter just one 
year. We ask the reader to accompany us to the field 
about the first of January. The hands are rolling logs and 
cleaning up. Some are setting fire to the big log heaps; 
others are knocking down or pulling up the old cotton 
stalks and gathering them together to be burned. In 
another portion of the field, which has already been 
brushed off, an irregular procession of ploughs maybe seen, 
and these useful tools, with a horse or mule at the beam, 
and a negro at the handles, have already commenced the 
work of bedding up. This is done by throwmg from four 
to six furrows of the turning plough together. The num- 
ber of furrows required to make the bed depends upon the 
character of the land— poor land requiring fewer furrows 
than the rich alluvial bottoms, where the cotton plant 
spreads itself. As the time for planting approaches, these 
beds are reversed— that is, they are thrown back into the 
middles in the same manner that they were originally 
thrown up. This is styled "rebedding," and should not 
be done until very shortly before planting time. 
