42 LITTLE WANDERERS. 
snowy white cotton. The field looks as if a skyful of 
soft little snowballs had fallen upon it. 
The cotton flowers are succeeded by pods, or bolls as 
they are called, and these contain black seeds about the 
size of a white bean. Each seed when 
ripe wears a coat of long, 
soft, white cotton fibers, 
and when the bolls J\ 
split open to let out & . 
An unopened boii. the seeds, out gush s 
(i nat. size.) streams of snowy cotton. 
A cotton field is most picturesque A boll just opened 
during the picking season, when the ( * nat - size) 
negroes, the women with bright kerchiefs over their 
heads, go into the fields, pick the cotton, and carry it 
— , away in large baskets. 
r^- >\ Each cotton seed is covered 
k w@tv-- with cotton fiber that clings very 
"y, close and has to be removed by 
^machinery. The machine that 
/M l ^\^J^^ does this is called a cotton gin, 
^^^//(^[^^^7 xT and is a very interesting and 
wonderful m achine . 
°^-4 N A Cotton seeds are cleaned more 
a seed and its coat of cotton, than once ; the first time the 
(Nat. size.) 
long fibers are pulled off, and this 
is the best of the cotton. Then the seeds are cleaned 
