SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
331 
DYING OF YOUNG COTTON — ITS CAUSE AND 
Prevention. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— During the last spring 
there was an unusually extensive and loud complaint 
among plantersof the “dying off” of young Cotton To 
such an extreme degree did this alarming fatality prevail 
that it was designated and extensively commented upon 
as “the cotton disease, the cotton epidemic,” &c. At one 
period, so late that cotton planted afterward could not pro- 
mise more than half a crop, and when seed had become 
extremely scarce, the whole country seemed trembling 
ander the impending danger of a lost crop. From every 
direction came accounts of portions of crop.s plowed up 
and planted with corn, and other portions so deficient as 
scarcely to be worth cultivating. In such a crisis, without 
any clear convictions of the nature of the cause, or how 
to avoid a repetition of the same disastrous result, should 
they plow up and plant over, it is not astonishing that 
planters should feel extreme anxiety. The result was, that 
replanting, without plowing up, was practiced more ex- 
tensively, and to a later period than was ever before done 
Feeling this subject to be one of great and growing im- 
portance, and having had no occasion to plant over or 
replant a single seed of cotton for the last three years, ! 
feel authorized to invite the attention of f.lanters to my 
views on the cause and prevention of this calamity. Thf 
dying off of young cotton in bunches, though a common 
Bpring complaint, does not appear to have awakened 
sufficient investigation to have led to the general adoption 
of any well defined and philosophic views nfits cause, r r 
to have discovered any successful plan of preveniion No 
season of planting and scraping passes wi hnut givint- 
lise to the frequent observation of rdaniers in the c< m- 
mon phrase, “My cotton is dying off in hunehes:” or, “I 
planted a plenty of seed— it came up and looked we! 
for a few days, but it is dying off I fear 1 shall nm 
get a stand without a good deal of replanting” When 
cotton seed are so cheap and so many are p’anled io the 
acre, why is there so mu< h need of replanting? 
Corn, of which the seed is so valuable as to lead to the 
use of a much smaller quantity to the acre, though pianier' 
with less care, if it comes up. does not die afterward It 
we enquire ofthe intelligent pDnter, or the prac-ir-n) over- 
seer what is the cause of this common annual fualiiy. 
which has this season threatened the wotII with a de 
ficient supply of 'hetp clothing, the frequent reply i.<^ 
“Colton is harder to get a stand of than . orn, it will <lu 
offafter it comes up ” Tn the kingdom of eommen c.nnd ii 
those political kingdoms where commerce builds tit* 
throne, cotmn is the “power behind the throne greater thai 
the throne itself.” It is the prop sought for the archimedim 
lever, to turn the world It is at this moment the fulcruni 
on which hangs, tremblingly, the great balance of bii 
man destiny. Yet, at the very threshliold of its life, lurK> 
a fatality, with cause obscure, unascertained, liut capable 
Under peculiar circumstances, ofidightiag. in embryo, thi 
otherwise well founded hopes of the husbandman, an* 
eensibly diminishing the prosperity and comfurt of indt- 
Viduals and nations. 
But the question recurs: What is the cause of this an 
Uual diffi-ulty in securing a stand of cotton after it is up 
Here, as in most cases of ignorance, it is common to evade 
personal responsibility by accusing the weather, or smue 
accidental or providential circumstance, over which ih 
complainant has no control Not dreaming that his pc 
tuniary interest can be materially affected by any of ihi 
great natural laws that lie, unknown to him, at the foun- 
dation of his business, and not troubling himself to ascer- 
tain the relation which his arbitrary operations sustain to 
the fixed laws, which maintain a constant harmony be- 
tween “seed time and h.arvcst,” the planter finds himself 
frequently di.sappointed in anticipated results, and sagely 
charges his di.'appointment to the weather, or, perhaps, 
to chance. 
The dying off of young cotton is titiributcd by different 
ppr.sons, and by the same person at different limes, to the 
following opposite coniiitions : Cold weather ; cnl ) nights 
and warm days; hot, dry weather; hard healing rains; 
h ird ground ; loo.se ground, not settled by tain before 
planting ; bad seed from being slightly heated, drc. Shade 
of philosophy preserve us ! What an array c.f opjtosiie 
conditions to be the. cause ofone unif<)rm effcci. 
Dissatisfied with such nnrpa'onahle opiniooN. king .<go, 
J began to seekfor a more unifoii'i arifect’d'’ in! h-v- 
ing found one as invarialdc as the malady, I accepted it 
as the cause 1 have caught the cotton infu deide, 
zraihli delicto, and can identify boib princip land acceS' 
snry, and d* monstrate, their dcgr<>es of participation. 
Though I have never before attempted todrag this incorri- 
gible ilestroyer l^cfote a public tribunal, ! have never fail- 
ed on .‘suitable private occasions to demonstrate the truth 
of my suspicions in the field. 
The only secret and implacable slayer of young cotton 
is the seed. And the planter himself is the only culpable 
iccessory. Frost may kill young cotton, but it does it 
openly and unsparingly — not liy the single plant or in 
bunches. Cut-worms and other insects may destroy it, 
hut their operations are visible and quite limited. That 
'he seed having been partially heUed cannot be the cause 
is evinced by their germination 
The heat alluded to is that evolved by incipient deenm- 
oosifion, which cannot be develojird without the carbon* 
iceous and nitrogenous products having, in obedience to 
chemical affiniries, undergone a rha ige destructive of the 
vitality of the germ, or incompatible with the peculiar m'de- 
cular arrangement necessary to furnish the first particleof 
mtriment di'inandf'd by the germ, to sustain and carry 
firward its vita' effort to produce a new plant. If a se*d 
lOSNCSsesihe vitality, in combin Hion with the, elements of 
nutrition, essential to incipient life, necessary to complete 
he process of germination, evolving a new and living ba- 
• ug — comjileie in all i's organs — it, is the most substantial 
evidence ofii.s heahhines.s and freelomfrom any materi- 
■ 1 injurv previous to its germinaMon. How, then, is the 
eaih of ihe young [ilant, r-ftcr it is several days old, pro- 
!u ed by the seed, if they are sound ? 
Tbe maioriry of -eid-: arc -ha-'sed by B'danivts i nder 
twogerifrai heads, c?!ied Monocofyierlons arul Dicolyle- 
uns. The former have only one eotyled'mor lobe, the 
latter have two m each seed. These cotyledons or seed 
iol’es, are destined to be developed by the process of g* r- 
■iiinanon into the first one or two leaves, respectively, of 
I he new [)lant. ealled sometimes the seed leaves. 
Com IS a Mon acotvIftdnnoMs and cotton a Dicotyledon- 
ous plant. In the monocotyledons, the whole seed re- 
mains in the grtnind and developes and supp*'rf8 the 
young plant, until the, root and ihe stem are sufficiently 
idvanced to perform their respective functions, and oon- 
Ntitute an independant plant. 
The root starts immediately downwards and begins to 
branch in search of such clemr nis a.s it r« quires, while the 
-.lem makes its way upward by the gradual elongation of 
I mere point, turning now this way. now that, to elude 
tliRiruciion, till it, almoNf irresihti'dy, penetrates the sur- 
r’lce m the pursuit of light, heat and air. Such are th® 
ercals, and the gras.«es which the Ornni‘!fienl Providf nee 
las thus enabled to overcome the Hifficidties incident 10 
germination and healthy coming up, to ensure the never- 
