AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
339 
How Cotton is Grown and Prepared for 
Market.II. 
VARIETIES. 
Cotton has so little had the care of scientific 
cultivators, that it is somewhat difficult to deter¬ 
mine the varieties now in use. Formerly there 
were three leading species, pretty well defined, 
viz. : The Green Seed (Gossypium herbaceum), 
known in the market as Upland Cotton. The 
Black Seed producing a long, soft cotton of good 
staple, mostly cultivated on the sea islands, by 
which name it is also known—and more recent¬ 
ly introduced, the Petit Gulf and Mexican which 
are regarded as sub-varieties of the Hirsute, or 
hairy cotton. The Petit Gulf is exceedingly pro¬ 
ductive, and matures early, which is a great re¬ 
commendation, with all those planters, who live 
on the northern edge of the cotton region. 
As very little attention is paid to the selection 
of seeds, on many of the plantations, and the va¬ 
rieties are often cultivated near together, they 
become mixed and degenerate. The planters of 
the upland districts procure the best Petit Gulf 
Seed, from the neighborhood of Rodney, on the 
Mississippi; hut after the fourth year, it has so 
lost its characteristics as to be hardly distinguish¬ 
able from the common, Green Seed variety. In 
most, if not all of the kinds cultivated, .in this 
country, there is a tendency to increase the fur, 
which immediately envelops the seed. This ren¬ 
ders the seperation of the wool, somewhat more 
difficult, but has no other disadvantage. 
TILLAGE. 
There is a gradual change coming over the 
whole cotton region, in the use of new tools, but it 
has not yet resulted in any uniform system of cul¬ 
tivation. While on some places the hoe is still in 
the ascendant, on the great majority, the plow is 
the favorite implement for breaking up the soil, 
and for its tillage, while the crops are upon the 
land. When the cultivation begins, usually in the 
month of April, the young plants appear in a con¬ 
tinuous drill on top of the ridge3. The object of 
the first cultivation is merely to keep down the 
weeds, and stir the soil. However advantageous 
the thinning of the plants might be at first, they 
have so many enemies, in the early part of their 
growth, that they are left, as long as they can be 
with safety to the crop, before they are brought 
to a stand. More or less plants are drawn at 
each weeding, until the last of May, or first part 
of June, when they receive their last thinning. 
The stand is generally from one to two feet apart, 
according to the quality of the land. On a rich 
soil the plants want the most room. In very rich 
bottom lands, where the plants frequently grow 
eight or ten feet high, they should stand still far¬ 
ther apart. 
At each cultivation, the ridges are preserved, 
and rather increased in weight, until the crop is 
laid by, the latter part of July. A favorite imple¬ 
ment of cultivation is the cotton sweep, a sort of 
light double mold board plow, designed to sweep 
over the surface of the ground, and turn the soil 
toward the plants. The cultivators, and horse 
hoes of the north, so admirably adapted to this 
work, are only seen upon a few plantations as 
novelties. 
It is claimed for the ridge system of tillage, 
that it is indispensable in the peculiar climate of 
the south. The rains are very abundant in Spring, 
and it would often be impossible to plant, except 
upon ridges. The rains are often quite as abund¬ 
ant in Summer, coming in violent tropical show¬ 
ers, and the plants would be drowned out, unless 
they stood above the common level of the field. 
The crop is generally tilled from four to six times 
according to the season, and the circumstances 
of the planter. 
ENEMIES. 
These are so numerous, that the cotton crop is 
justly regarded as much more precarious than 
corn. In the first place, it is much more tender 
and easily damaged from any cause whatever. It 
is frequently cut off by frost in April, and then 
the whole ground has to be replanted. In this 
month, also, the cock-chaffer, or cut worm is to 
be apprehended, and as the plant comes through 
the ground, and remains for several days like the 
pea or other pulse, with but two radical leaves, 
every one of the plants cut by the worm above or 
below the surface is destroyed. 
In August, the crop is liable to injury from ex¬ 
cessive rains making the plants cast their blos¬ 
soms, and even their leaves. In this month also 
the caterpillar is expected. This worm proceeds 
from a small brown butterfly, resembling the 
candle moth. This moth deposits its eggs upon 
the leaf always a night or two before the full or 
change of the moon. They hatch in a few hours 
after they are laid, and are so small as to be hardly 
visible. Like the silk worm, they appear to lin¬ 
ger in their first stages, doing no great injury for 
the first eight or ten days. They then become 
extremely voracious, and like the locusts of the 
east sweep every thing before them. Promising 
fields of hundreds of acres in extent are some¬ 
times stript of every leaf and pod, in three or four 
days, involving an entire loss of crop. These de¬ 
structive visitors are said to come as often as 
once in seven years. All the bottom lands are 
subject to overflow, and these often continue so 
late in the Spring, as to prevent the planting of 
cotton. This was the case on hundreds of plan¬ 
tations in the valley of the Mississippi, last year, 
and the overflow has been still higher and longer 
protracted the present season. The loss ofcrops 
for two seasons in succession, must subject mul¬ 
titudes to serious embarrassment, and make many 
bankrupt. 
When the cotton fields escape all these sources 
of injury, they present as beautiful a spectacle, as 
any crop grown in the country. It is a goodly 
sight to behold the wide waving fields of luxu¬ 
riant green, variegated with flowers of three col¬ 
ors, from early in July until September, and with 
multitudes of pods in every stage of their growth. 
The blossom when it first makes its appearance 
is a fine yellow color, which it holds during the 
day. At night it changes to a crimson, or red 
hue, and on the third day turns a chocolate brown, 
and falls off, leaving a pod about a half inch in 
diameter. 
PICKING 
begins soon after the pods begin to open, from 
the first to the last of August, according to the 
latitude, and the forwardness of the season. 
This is the most delightful and joyous season in 
the whole circle of the year, upon the cotton 
plantation ; the hands where they are well treat¬ 
ed entering into the sympathies of the master, in 
gathering the harvest. Their ambition is often 
stimulated by pay for extra work, or by tasks 
which hold out the promise of leisure, or some 
coveted indulgence. As the day’s work is meas¬ 
ured by weight, it is particularly easy to allot the 
work in tasks, to which slaves are always par¬ 
tial. The picking requires sleight of hand, and 
some who have the proper training, will pick 
more than twice as much as others. The whole 
force of the plantation is brought out in this bus¬ 
iness, and the work is more pressing than at any 
other period. 
The hands, young and old, male and female are 
provided with osnaburg bags hung over the neck 
and shoulders, and open in front into which the 
cotton is put as fast as picked. These bags hold 
as much as can be conveniently handled, and are 
emptied into osnaburg sheets, or large baskets, 
placed at convenient intervals along the rows. 
These baskets will hold a half day's work or 
more, and are carried to the gin-house, or place 
of deposit in the afternoon. Cleanliness in the 
picking is enforced upon the hands, as every par¬ 
ticle of leaf or stalk, mixed with the staple, in¬ 
jures its value. The average day’s work is not 
far from forty-five to fifty pounds, in what is called 
a good opening. In the rich bottom lands, in a 
good season, it would be much higher, and in 
poor lands, it would be much less. 
The fresh picked cotton is spread upon a scaf¬ 
folding to dry.. This is usually a part of the gin- 
house, into which the cotton is removed, in 
case of rain. The scaffolds are about four feet 
wide, so that the hands can walk upon each side 
to turn over the cotton, while drying. After dry¬ 
ing the short staple or upland cotton i3 immedi¬ 
ately ginned and prepared for market. 
GINNING. 
The gin-house is usually the largest establish¬ 
ment upon the plantation, and not unfrequently is 
the most expensive. It usually embraces the 
mill, drying house and gin, under the same roof. 
The machinery for both mill and gin is turned by 
mules or horses. The arrangement is very much 
after the pattern of the old fashioned bark mills. 
The building is raised upon posts about eight feet 
high, and the sweeps of the mill, and of the gin 
are in the open shed underneath the building. 
It was a great day for the plantation, when 
Whitney set his cotton gin to work. This impor¬ 
tant branch of agriculture could never have at¬ 
tained its present ascendency without this, or 
some similar invention. The long and tedious 
process of hand cleaning, for the short staple 
cotton, is completely superseded. There are a 
variety of gins in common use, as the Barrel gin, 
Eve's gin, and Whitney's. This last is mainly 
depended upon for cleaning the upland cotton ; 
the long staple or sea island, being still cleaned 
by hand. Whitney's Saw gin is an ingenious con¬ 
trivance for seperating the seed from the fibre, 
and may be worked by water, by oxen, or other 
animal power. A series of circular iron plates, 
armed with teeth, are arranged upon a cylinder, 
about three fourths of an inch apart. As the cyl¬ 
inder revolves, the teeth draw the cotton wool 
through the openings of iron straps, out of the 
bin and hopper, in which the cotton is placed. 
These openings are too narrow for the seed to 
pass. The cotton is brushed from the teeth by 
countermoving brushes, on another cylinder. 
After ginning, the cotton is carefully looked over 
and picked of all remaining broken seeds, and put 
up in bales of about four hundred pounds each. 
Osier Willows for Hedges. 
Chas. M. Buttolph, Lee Co., III., states that af¬ 
ter having cultivated the Osier Willow ( Salix vim- 
inalis) three years, his success has been such as 
to warrant him in concluding that it is better 
adapted for live fencing on llie prairies than the 
Osage Orange, or any other plant with which he 
is acquainted. He says it grows luxuriantly, 
even on the highest land, making from 7 to 10 
feet in a season, and is not injured by the severest 
Winters. [Is there not some mistake about their 
growing luxuriantly on the highest land 1 Again, 
if grown thickly enough to form a barrier to cat¬ 
tle and hogs would they not spread over the land 
so much as to be a nuisance 1 We throw out 
these questions for information.— Ed.] 
