94 
CULTIVATION OF COTTOST. 
of picking cotton ; and tlie advertisements in our papers, 
setting forth their superior advantages, remind us of the 
wonderful virtues of infallible patent medicines. Up to 
this time, we have seen no machine equal to the fingers of 
a good stout, brisk negro. 
When a suflficient quantity of cotton has been picked 
and penned, it is removed to the gin house, and stored 
away carefully in the large upper chamber convenient to 
the gin stand. Here it lies till all things are ready, secure 
from all hurtful influence. 
The quantity of seed cotton to the acre varies, of course, 
with the quality of the land. The best bottom lands will 
yield from 1,600 to 3,000 lbs. ; the best highland places 
will make from 1,200 to 1,500 lbs. ; good second-rate high- 
lands from 600 to 800 lbs. ; and poor hills from 100 to 
400 lbs. In 1860 there were 8,000,000 acres under culti- 
vation, and something over 4,000,000 bales were pro- 
duced, or a half bale per acre as an average. Now, as it 
takes about 1,600 lbs. of seed cotton to make a bale, it 
follows that 800 lbs. of seed cotton was the average per 
acre in 1860. 
SECTION vm. 
SINNING AND PRESSING BALING. 
FoETY years ago, in old Virginia, we saw the negroes 
picking the cotton seed from the fibre with their fingers. 
There was one man in the neighborhood who had a roller- 
gin stand, and he was considered ahead of everybody else. 
Whitney's gin had not yet been introduced, although em- 
ployed by Georgia planters for twenty years. It was in- 
deed a great invention, and deserves to take rank with the 
telescope and mariner's compass. The modem improve- 
