THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION. 
87 
1841.] 
to send the sample, as it can never do any harm and may result in a benefit to the 
country. 
You will find enclosed a notice of the mode of cultivation recommended here, 
which I have taken the trouble to extract, reduce, and translate, merely for general 
information; as no doubt our planters, if they should find it worthy their attention, 
would follow such plans as are found most suitable to their own localities, &c. Seed 
can be procured at any time, if desirable hereafter. I have sent samples to New- 
Orleans also, and I address this to you, supposing the subject not foreign to the 
views of the National Institution. 
I feel highly honored by the contents of your letter of 16th December, ultimo. 
I am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEORGE READ, United States Consul. 
MOTRIL COTTON. 
The cotton cultivated at Motril may be called the “ Vine Leaf” plant. It grows 
best in temperate climates. 
The soil should be light, open, and loamy, where, if necessary, it may be irriga¬ 
ted—arenacious, argillaceous, calcareous, and free from stones; very rich ground 
gives more foliage than blossoms. Ground too rich rots the roots, and dry, hard, 
tenacious, stony earth prevents their penetrating. The plant requires occasional 
moisture, either from rains, very heavy dew, or irrigation; and a general rule as to 
sites, well defended from winds. 
The earth is prepared by deep hoeing (in Spain) at four periods; late in the au¬ 
tumn, in September, at the commencement of spring, and before planting. North¬ 
ern exposures require planting in trenches, and preserve the young plants in severe 
weather. 
Manure required only for poor lands ; much manure makes the plant too flourish¬ 
ing. Cow dung for sandy soil, horse dung for clay. 
Seed before planting should be soaked twenty-four hours in drainings from ma¬ 
nure heaps ; a ley of soot or ashes that they may sprout quickly, because much rain 
at the time of sowing is apt to rot the seed. This will be discovered if the plant is 
not up in eight or ten days, and must be renewed. 
Planting may commence when there is no fear of frost, and just about when rain 
is expected. 
Cultivation is either from nurseries or on the field; the first is best in coldish 
situations for the preservation of the young plants, for the selection of the healthiest 
sprouts for setting out, and as occupying less ground at this epoch. In the beds, 
sow in lines four inches apart and three deep, and the seeds about the same apart. 
There will be a facility and despatch in planting if the seeds are moistened and 
rolled in earth to prevent their adhering to each other. The beds and plants kept 
clear of weeds. The field planting is by raising ridges of about a palm high, a foot 
in width; and on the sides of which exposed to the sun, in holes three fingers deep, 
three palms apart, four seeds are placed. After the plants are up they must be 
cleaned of weeds and the ground kept loose around them. 
For transplanting it will be observed that the plant in first coming up, with the 
