COTTON PLANT. 
175 
sow the seeds of the cotton plant, after having pre- 
viously soaked them in water, and rubbed them 
well to detach the filaments. When this operation 
is completed, the husbandmen rake the earth, not 
with a harrow, that being an uncommon instrument 
in Sicily, but with the branches of trees bound to- 
gether and drawn over the land by oxen. This 
practice promotes the germinating of the grain, by 
confining the necessary moisture within the earth. 
As the seed degenerates every year, and at length 
ceases to produce cotton of a good quality, the 
Sicilian cultivators are obliged to come to Malta ; 
and the Maltese, for the same reason, exchange their 
seed for that produced in Sicily. 
In Malta the cultivation of cotton has been for a 
long while one of the most considerable branches 
of agriculture in the country. All parts of the 
island are not equally proper for this purpose, 
though there is land sufficient for the cultivation of 
three distinct kinds, the herbaceous cotton , the cotton 
of Siam , and the cotton tv hich comes from the An- 
tilles , and which is a taller plant than either of the 
preceding. 
The Maltese ladies amuse themselves in picking 
the cotton, and the Maltese are very expert in 
making the thread which is employed in the manu- 
factory of different kinds of hosiery. Of late years 
they have made great improvements in their cotton 
thread, which appears to be partly owing to the In- 
dian workmen that have been sent to their assist- 
ance from the coast of Malabar. 
