18 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
these open into beautiful blossoms. The first day the blossom is 
white, the next day it is pink, and' the next it is red; then it falls off. 
After this comes the boll in which the cotton grows. In a few weeks 
it bursts and the snowy white cotton hangs out. Each boll has four 
locks, which contain four or five seeds each. When the bolls burst, the 
cotton is ready to pick. It is picked by hand and put into sacks or 
baskets. Cotton-picking begins the last of August or the first of Sep¬ 
tember and continues until December or later. 
After the cotton is picked, it is taken to a cotton-gin, where the 
seeds are separated from the fiber. The fiber is then baled; that is, it 
is pressed together to form a large bundle. After it is ginned and 
baled, it is sent to a cotton-factory, where it is made into cloth. We 
should be thankful for the cotton-plant. —David Williams. 
BAMBOO 
' I V HIS is a grove of bamboo. Bamboo is very valuable to the Jap- 
anese people. It brings a good price and is very useful. The 
boys have put on their rain-coats and -hats and are now digging with 
their hoes among the tall bamboos. They probably are looking for 
some nice, tender sprouts for dinner. When they have found two or 
three, they will send the little boy to the house with them, and their 
mother will wash and slice the sprouts and boil them tender for din¬ 
ner. Bamboo sprouts are very sweet, and the Japanese children are 
quite fond of them. 
But it is the large stalks that the boys like best. From these they 
can make stilts, whistles, flutes, pop-guns, fishing rods, flag-poles, 
bows, arrows, swords, and all such things with which a boy likes to 
play. The girls like it because from it they can make dainty baskets, 
little cradles, vases, brooms, and all kinds of toy furniture. 
The farmer likes it; for it makes good picket fences, water-pipes, 
and rakes. Then it is suitable for so much of his house that he would be 
at a loss to know what to use if he did not have bamboo. His< wife can 
also use it for many things. It makes pretty furniture for her house, 
all kinds of baskets and vases, broom-handles, and clothes poles, to 
hang the clothes on in the sunshine. She can also find so many uses 
for it in the garden and hen-yard that she could scarcely get along 
yqthout it, 
