9 * 
CHAP. IV.] WEST INDIES. 
This operation, if the growth be over luxuriant, is 
sometimes performed a second, and even a third 
time. At the end of five months, the plant begins to 
blossom and put forth its beautiful yellow flowers, 
and in two months more, the pod is formed. From 
the seventh to the tenth month the pods ripen in suc¬ 
cession ; when they burst open in three partitions, 
displaying their white and glossy down to the sight. 
The wool is now gathered, the seeds being enve¬ 
loped in it 5 from which it is afterwards extricated 
by a machine resembling a turner’s lathe. It is 
called a gin, and is composed of tw r o small rollers 
placed close and parallel to each other in a frame, 
and turned in opposite directions by different 
wheels, which are moved by the foot.* The cot¬ 
ton being put by the hand to these rollers as they 
move round, readily passes between them, leaving 
the seeds, which are too large for the interspace, 
behind. The wool is afterwards hand-picked, that 
it may be properly cleared of decayed leaves, bro¬ 
ken seeds, and wool which has been stained, and 
damaged in the pod.f It is then packed into bags 
of about two hundred pounds weight, and sent to 
market. 
* It is a very slight and -simple instrument, and costs only from 
two to three guineas. 
-j- The cotton manufactory of England, since the year 1780, hath 
made a rapid improvement, owing to the large spinning machines 
which are worked by water. These require the cleanest cotton, as 
the smallest particle of a broken seed breaks the th;ead in this mode 
of spinning. 
