COTTON PLANT. 
181 
rapidly decline in strength, and produce but little 
cotton. Their place is then supplied by others, 
and the manner in which the plants are raised is as 
follows : 
In a shady situation, as much as possible de- 
fended from the north and north-east winds, the 
planters prepare the land, and dig trenches into 
which they put the seeds, A very small quantity 
of rain is sufficient to make them shoot, and in 
about three weeks or a month the plants are suf- 
ficiently grown to require thinning. In doing this 
they pull up all the superfluous ones, leaving but 
very few in each trench. At a certain period of 
the growth of these shrubs, they contrive to stop, 
or rather to check the circulation of the sap in the 
main stem, so as to throw it into the lateral branches. 
This practice, when properly managed, forces the 
plants to subdivide, by which means they become 
more fruitful. 
If the season proves favourable, the cotton harvest 
begins about seven or eight months after the seed 
is sown, and it is generally three months before all 
the crop is gathered. In some countries they have 
two harvests, hut the first is always the most abun- 
dant. Sometimes, from the negligence of the ne- 
groes the crop is very much injured. They gather 
the capsules by handfuls, mixing the cotton with 
the dry leaves, and the dirt which adheres to them; 
thus the mill through which the capsules are passed 
becomes clogged, and the cotton damaged. When 
