SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOE. 
299 
with our fine cottons, I will mention only such parts of 
our system as would be likely to suit him. As to the cul- 
tivation of Long Cotton, it differs little if anything from 
that of Short Staple necessarily, though we do cultivate 
very differently and much more expensively. As soon as 
our cotton begins to open we put out a few hands, gener- 
ally elderly women and children, to pick it, getting from 
10 to 20 pounds per hand daily, and as it opens more 
freely more hands are added, until all hands are employed, 
and we continue to pick as long as we can get 1.5 to 20 
pounds per hand a day, stopping occasionally to gather 
other crops when compelled, hly highest pickings sel- 
dom exceed 80 pounds, and that only to the best pickers. 
The cotton that is picked one day is left in the sheets until 
earlv next morning, when it is spread out on a large board 
scaffold (or floor exposed all day to the sun) and looked 
over, each sheet by its picker, until about 7 or 8 o'clock, 
or until the dew has dried off the cotton in the field, when 
the pickers leave the cotton spread out on the scaffold in 
the care of a weakly, but trusty hand, and go to picking 
again. The cotton tn thescaffold is turned over occasion- 
ally through the day and put up at sunset or when ever 
any shower of rain comes on. When taken from the scaf- 
fold it is thrown open into some room until properly cured, 
which is known by the seed cracking under pressure. It 
is then carefully packed away in bulk, in some close 
room. The hands are directed to pick the cotton out of 
the fields free from leaves, dirt, (tc., and as each picking 
bag is emptied into the sheet, the cotton is looked over 
and all motes, leaves and dirt picked out; then it is spread 
out in the sheet in the sun until they stop in the afternoon 
at sunset. Before ginning, the cotton from the bulk is 
looked over and all leaves, stained or imperfect cotton, or 
other trash, is picked out. The task for this varies from 
50 to 300 pounds of cotton to each hand, according as it is 
desired to do the work nicely or not. The finer the staple, 
the more troublesome and important this first cleaning, for 
unless this is done properly, the cotton can never again be 
properly cleaned without much extra time and labor. It 
is then ginned, and if it is desired to put it up clean, it is 
next moted — the task varying from 25 of fine cotton to 100 
or 150 pounds of commoner quality per day. This mote- 
ing is done only by the most careful woman, and fine cot- 
ton is again overhauled by two or three of the most care- 
ful moters before it goes to the bag, which must be round, 
otherwise, owing to the prejudices of the buyers, it will 
not sell for anything near its value. Long Cotton is never 
packed in square bales, though we planters believe that 
pressing must injure the staple less than the pestle ; but 
in this we have to yield to the prejudices of the buyers. 
Some of my neighbors, who cultivate the common Sea 
Island Cotton, after picking it with some little care, pass 
it through the whipper, when they have oae, which whips 
out the dust and some of the leaves, &c., sometimes hav- 
ing one woman or two behind the whipper to pick out 
yellow and rotten leaves, &c., as well as they can, after 
which it is passed through the IMcC.iRTHY Gin, packed 
and sent to market. Of course, such cottons have proved 
hard to sell, and have brought comparatively much lower 
prices than cottons that were finer and better prepared. 
Planters producing such ?;ottons have to contend with a 
po%verful competition from Florida, w'here it can be pro- 
duced much more abundantly and cheaply thtin with us. 
As Long Cotton is purely an article of luxury, the price 
of it varies from year to year, and frequently does not de- 
pend merely upon the quality produced. 1 have sold the 
same quality of cotton at seventeen cents and again at fifty- 
one cents. A prophet, who could foretell anything about 
the future of Long Staple Cotton, has not yet risen that we 
have heard of, in this region, therefore, nothing can be 
said wdth any certainty, but as the section of country suit- 
ed to the production of this staple is very limited, the pro- 
duction cannot be materially increased while its consump- 
tion must gradually increase as its value becomes known. 
Small steam engines are being used about here for ginning 
cotton and with so much satisfaction by those w’ho have 
tried them that the number of engines is being increased, 
every year. They have proved much cheaper and more 
reliable than mule power for this purpose. Engines of 3, 
5, 8 and 12 horse power are very substantially made, with 
strong wheels, axles and tongue for moving them, by Mr. 
Wm. Lebby, of Charleston, at such reasonable prices that 
they are the ones most used. Others of cheaper and slight- 
er construction, but still well adapted to plantations, are 
made at the North, delivered in New York City at about 
S80 to S90 per horse power, also portable. Messrs De- 
VEAUX & Heyward, of Charleston, will order the latter. 
Yours respectfully, R. C. 
Beaufort, S. C., Sept , 1855. 
METEOROLOGY FOR EAEMSES— LIEUT. MAURY'S 
LETTER, 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In a recent number 
of the American Farmer, Lieut. IM. F. Maury, U. S. N., 
makes a proposition to the Farmers of America, having 
in view Meteorological Statistics and Charts for the land, 
on a plan similar to those gotten up by him for the sea. 
The value of such statistics in an agricultural and sanitary 
point of view must be evident to all. I quote some sug- 
gestions from a letter recently received from Lieut. 
Maury, hoping to elicit an interest in this project on the 
part of the Executive Committee of our State Agricultural 
Society, and Agriculturists generally. 
‘T am glad to find in you such a hearty second to my 
proposition. The matter is now fairly before the farmers 
and it is for them to say whether or no I shall have the 
help needful to enable me to carry it out. There are hun- 
dreds, I might say thousands of public-spirited citizens 
like yourself in all parts of the country who'^are ready to 
lend me aid by their co-operation as fellow-laborers and 
observers. But what can I do with their observations, 
unless government will order them to be discussed and 
authorize their publication 7 I might put them away in. 
the pigeon holes of my desk, but I apprehend that they 
would do very little there towards the advancement either 
of agricultural or sanitary Meteorology. Meteorological 
observations are of very little use in pigeon holes, indeed 
they are as useless as the old log-books and sea-journals 
were in old sea-chests and garrets, until I was autliorized 
to ask for them, discuss tliem and publish the results, then 
it was found that they contained information that enabled 
us, in one sense, to compress the world and put it into a 
smaller compass for the business of trade, and enable ves- 
sels to accomplish, almost in weeks, voyages that it form- 
erly took them months to perform. 
“ The improvement in the ways and channels of com- 
munication that have taken place by land and sea, even 
in our life-time, have so dimished, in one sense, the size 
of this globe of ours, that one may now ‘put a girdle round 
about the earth’ in less than half the time it could be done 
when we were boys. "When the battle of Navarino w’as 
fought, it took the news (and it was brought by the swift- 
est messengers of the day) 90 days to reach the United 
States. Now, there is no market-place or fortress any 
where on the sea shores of this wide world that is so far 
off but what news can reach us from it in less than 90 
days. Vessels taking advantage of the increase of knowl- 
edge concerning the ‘winds and currents of the sea,’ and 
trusting to their canvass alone, are now continually in 
the habit of making a voyage to the antipodes and of com- 
pleting the run from the farthest port in Australia to 
