13G7.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
179 
and plowing could be more effectually done, 
and the whole field have a neater appearance. 
When there are heavy rains, followed by 
much wind and a bright sun, directly after 
planting, and any part of your land is of such a 
nature as to form a crust on the surface, it is 
sometimes necessary to go over it with the 
scraper, to break up and "knock off" the thin 
crust formed on the surface, so that the young 
plants can push their way through. 
This practice, however, cannot be recom- 
mended ; cotton is not or should not be covered 
so deeply as to admit of much scraping off after 
the beds are leveled in the first place at plant- 
ing. In any event, judgment must be exercised 
to know when such a scraping might be inju- 
rious to the seed row, by cutting off the tops of 
the young plants, should the seed have been in 
the ground long enough to be sending up young 
shoots, and any meddling with the surface does 
more harm than good. When any danger is 
feared from such a crust, an adjustable horse hoe 
run between the rows will be found sufficient 
to break up or crack the surface, and permit the 
plants to force their way through. 
Fight Grass. — Should, however, the young 
grass an^ weeds come up so thickly, four or 
five days after planting, as to threaten to over- 
run the beds and choke off the young plants as 
soon as they appear, it is best not to delay one 
hour in commencing to "fight grass," but to 
run the wooden scraper, in the hands of a care- 
ful man, over the beds, and "knock off" very 
lightly this first coat of weeds, etc., even at the 
risk of breaking off some of the forward plants 
near the surface. The hoes, plows, sweeps, and 
horse plows must be kept moving — j udiciously — 
over the fields, early and late, as long as and 
wherever there is any grass to kill. 
Clean Culture. — Upon the clean cultivation 
of your cotton land depends, in a great mea- 
sure, the success of the crop. Let none of your 
hands forget that the ground must be kept 
stirred, and that every single weed and blade of 
grass must be cut up, and demolished. 
A Cotton Planter Needed. — Perhaps no 
other improved implement in the cultivation of 
cotton is so much needed as a good one-horse 
planter, of simple and durable construction. 
Much labor, not only in planting and covering, 
but in all the after cultivation — "chopping out," 
" siding," etc. — would be saved by such an im- 
plement. If the seed could be sown straight in 
one continuous row, the seed not more than two 
or three inches apart iu the row — so as to be 
sure of a " stand," the process of " chopping 
out " would bo simpler and require less care. 
The difficulties that might be experienced iii 
dropping cotton seed through a planter, would 
be owing to the lint that covers them, causing 
the seed to bang together in bunches. But by 
rolling in ashes, as recommended, this difficulty 
may bo somewhat overcome, and enable the 
seed to be dropped through a small opening or 
tube, with more certainty. The sales for such a 
planter would be immense, and make the in- 
ventor rich. May we soon see it in the field. 
Caution. — Never work cotton during a spell 
of rainy weather, unless you are behind-hand 
with the work, and must take advantage of 
every moment in fair or foul weather to "catch 
up." Tou can not effectively kill grass in wet 
weather; you may plow it around, push it 
about and turn it upside down — but your plants 
arc only partially relieved; the moist soil and 
warm rains enable it to take a fresh hold the 
instan' almost that it is uprooted. — Hot, sunny 
weather, is the best time to work among cotton 
—no matter how hot, — then all grass turned 
up or displaced only partially, and buried under 
the burning sand, will be effectually disposed of. 
Chopping Out. — It is a common rule, not to 
begin working cotton until the greater part of 
the young plants can show two pairs of leaves, 
mostly when thoy are four or five inches in 
hight. But if the grass is very rank and threat- 
ens to outgrow the cotton, it will be prudent 
not to wait for four leaves, but to open the fight 
at once ; even though the plants are but two or 
three inches in bight and have but two leaves. 
The first work then in order will be " chop- 
ping out," or scraping out of the rows some of 
the over-abundant plants that have come up 
too crowded, giving them a careful thinning 
wherever they stand in bunches, to prevent a 
spindling, and consequently delicate growth. 
At the same time scrape off and pull up all 
the grass around and among the plants; and let 
the sweep follow the hoes, running through the 
middles to destroy the grass not reached by the 
hoes, and to throw a little loose soil toward the 
plants, using care not to cover them. — For this a 
horse-hoe or cultivator is well adapted ; it should 
be used by a careful man and run along lightly. 
The hoe bands confine their labors only to 
the graaB in the immediate vicinity of the rows, 
about and among the plants, leaving the mid- 
dles for the sweep or hoe-harrow. 
It is not advisable to remove many plants at 
this first working, except where they are much 
crowded ; a late frost may nip many of them, 
or early grasshoppers may thin them out, so 
that if the hoe hands remove too many, the 
chances of a " stand " may be endangered. 
Siding. — After all the fields have been gone 
over with this first operation, it will be found 
necessary, iu consequence of the rapid growth 
of weeds and grass, and to keep the soirwell 
stirred, to at once proceed with the next work. 
The small turn plows are now run along close 
to the young plants, up one side of the row and 
down the other, as near as an average of three 
inches, throwing a light furrow away from the 
plants towards the middle of the space between 
the rows, covering the grass, and leaving the 
plants on a slight elevation or ridge. Be care- 
ful not to run the plows too deep, as there is 
danger of hurting the roots ; besides it is an 
injury to the young plants to set them up too 
high and dry on a sandy ridge, — the hoe hands 
may not come along for a day or two, and the 
hot withering sun may dry out the tender roots. 
Do not let the ridge — made by the plows (run 
up one side of the row and down the other) — 
be cut too narrow. The plant has not only a 
tap root, but numerous fine and delicate side 
roots, that in young plants are hardly noticed. 
These tender feeders are of vital importance to 
the growth of the stalk, and none of them can 
be rudely cut or broken without proportionately 
injuring the plant itself. 
After the plows have sided the rows and left 
the plants on a ridge, the hoc bands come along 
as soon as the work on hand permits, — the soon- 
er the better, — and scrape off the grass remain- 
ing on this plant ridge; at the same time chop- 
ping out and again reducing the over-abundant 
plants, where they stand too crowded, and en- 
deavoring as much as possible to have the plants 
standing in the rows at intervals of six or eight 
inches, in pairs, or three or four near together, 
always cutting out the weaker and letting the 
strongest plants stand, at the same time leveling 
the ground about the rows and drawing up soil 
to the stems, where the plows in "siding" have 
run too close to the plants or too deep. 
A look into the Sea. 
Those who live at the sea side have an oppor- 
tunity to observe forms of animal and vegetable 
life which, to those residing far inland, must seem 
very strange. Indeed those who live upon the 
very beach overlook many of the curious forms 
that grow near them. These animals and plants 
are best observed when grown in a glass tank or 
aquarium, and we have in our seaboard towns 
many who devote much time to marine aquaria. 
Our Superintendent of Engraving is well known 
as an enthusiast in this way, and he is so much 
pleased with an aquarium of one of his friends 
that he has produced a beautiful picture of it, 
presented on the succeeding page, and has fur- 
nished us with the following note of its con- 
tents : " The engraving represents the interior 
of an aquarium in the possession of Mr. W. E. 
Damon, and gives at one view a number of re- 
markable forms of animal life that are but little 
known. The two prominent figures in the cen- 
ter of the aquarium are Sea Anemones. These 
belong to the class of Polyps, and are two of the 
finest species found on our coast. It is almost 
impossible to describe the beauties of these 
flower-like gems of the ocean, nor is it strange 
that they were considered for so long a time as 
marine plants. Their tentacles expand like 
the petals of a flower, and at other times they 
remain closed for hours, only to seem more 
beautiful when again opened. On account 
of their bodies being coated with slime, and 
being of a soft pulpy nature to the touch, 
they are named by our fishermen " Halibut 
slime," and are brought up on the trawls in 
large numbers, they are attracted by the bait, 
and the fishermen imagine that they are the 
slime from the bodies ot the Halibut. It is enly 
iu still water and in perfect security that they 
unfold their thousand tentacles, and display their 
beautifully organized disk. Each tentacle is a 
hand, by which it can seize any small fish, and 
convey it to its mouth; if the fish is strong and 
hard to hold, the Anemone will bring every hand 
to bear, so that the fish is entirely surrounded 
and held fast till dead, when it will slowly dis- 
appear into the mouth and down one of the 
many stomachs of the Anemone. Their manner 
of reproduction is very curious — they throw off a 
piece from the base. I have often cut pieces off 
with a penknife, which iu about two weeks be- 
came perfect Anemones, but always having only 
six tentacles, which, in the course of time, in- 
creased to the proper number. Another way of 
multiplying is by budding off from the sides of 
the stalk (as shown iu engraving.) These bud3 
fall off from the parent, make an attachment on 
some stone or shell, and in course of time be- 
come perfectly organized Anemones. They also 
reproduce by ejecting young from the mouth or 
orifice at the disk. Two smaller varieties are 
also figured, of great delicacy and beauty. 
The fish shown in the engraving is the Stick- 
leback (Oastcroskus,) and one of the most lively 
and interesting fish known for the aquarium. 
The male fish, about the month of March, be- 
gins to take on the most brilliant hues, of blue, 
orange and green; it then commences to build 
its nest for the reception of the spawn. As soon 
as the female lias spawned, she is driven away 
by the male fish, who carefully guards the 
nest, and ventilates the spawn by ejecting water 
from his mouth into one of the orifices of the 
nest. I had one Stickleback that uvery day, 
as the sun reached a certain spot in the tank, 
would take the spawn out of the nest and give 
it a half hour's sunning, then take it back and de- 
posit it iu the nest, and when the youug were 
