Cotton culture

Front matter

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Preface

This Treatise is not a compilation.

Agricultural literature is by no means so rich in valuable works on the Cotton Plant, that it is possible to select from existing writings the information which, however skillfully grouped, can make an excellent book.

Twelve years of experience among the cotton growers of the Southwest have been found by the author of vastly more importance to the proper understanding of the whole subject, than all which has been written.

Of what has been before given to the world on the subject, I have found no matter more valuable than the letters of Dr. Cloud, of Alabama, who did more for the true and scientific culture of the plant, than all the other Southern writers put together.

His views, and those of that Bayou Sara planter who Avrote an admirable letter to De Bow's Review on the Cotton-worm, have been freely quoted. Some useful statistics are to be found in the New American Cyclopaedia, under the head of Cotton, and these, as well as other tables, have been studied. The writer would also express his obligations to Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, whose lecture before the Geographical Society of New York is rich in valuable conclusions.

But whatever is of most worth in the pages that follow, is the result of personal observation, and of frequent and lengthy conversations with the most successful and the most intelligent cultivators of the great staple.

A TREATISE ON COTTON CnLTUIffi.

TABLE OF COIVTEIS'TS.

Part I

WHERE AKD HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED. A SERIES OF

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING.

Chapter I. The Cotton Farm. — Its Stock, Implements, And Lab0eer3

The Climate for Cotton. Geographical Boundaries of the Cotton Zone. Soils Best Suited to Cotton Growing. Draft Animals Required by the Planter. Plows, Wagons, Laborers, Milk p.p. 9 — 16

Chapter II. Preparation Of The Soil And Planting

Time for Plowing ; Manner of Plowing. Laying-ofT the Cotton Beds. Time for Planting. Varieties of Seed. Errors in Keeping Seed. Immediate Preparation for and Manner of Planting. Amount of Seed Required. Advantages of Precision in Making the Rows. The Old Mode of Planting. Improved Cotton Planter. Preparation of the Seed for Planting p.p. 16—23

Chapter III

now THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED.

First Appearance of the Plant. "Chopping Out." Hoeing. Rapid Movement Required. Attention to Corn. Amount of Moisture Required by Cotton. Lice Bred by Excess of Moisture and, at a Later Stage, Rust. Remedy for these Evils. Proper Shape of Plows for Cotton. The Eagle Plow or Sweep. Frequency of Going Over the Crop. Time of First Blooms on Cotton ; Description of Bloom ; the " Forms." Effects of Great Excess of Moisture, etc. Continued Heat at this Stage. When Plowing should be Discontinued. Summary of the Old Routine. Modification of this Routine. Care for the Laborer and his Mule. Improvement on the Old Modes. The Shanghai Plow. Summary of the Best Mode of Planting and Cultivating the Cotton Crop p.p. 33—35

TABLE OF CONTENTS. V

Chapter IV. Cotton Picking

Time of Commencing. Utensils and Preparation. Picking Must be Done Mainly by Hand. Slow and Fust Picking ; Conveniences and Encouragements. Health of Field Laborers. Sorting and Trashing of the Cotton. Four Grades. Economy of Time and Labor in Handling the Crop. The Picking Season ; its Length. Task Work. Weight of Lint as Compared with Uugiuned Cotton p.p. 36—45

Chapter V. Ginning, Baling, Ano Marketing

Principle of the Whitney Gin ; Description of Its Parts. The Gin-house. Plans of First and Second Stories. The Drying Scaffold. Improvements Suggested. The Old Wooden Packing-box and Screw. Cost of Bad Packing. Cut and Description of an Improved Press. The Iron Hoop. Honor and Reliability in Putting up a Crop. The Planter should be a Judge of the Market. Speedy and Direct Communication between Producer and Consumer p.p. 45 — 59

Chapter VI. The Cotton Planters' Calendar

January. — The Gin ; the Market; Pressing. Clearing off the Fields. Filling up Washes and Gulches. Talcing Care of Seed Cotton. Using the Remainder of the Cotton Seed for Manure.

February. — About Time to Commence Plowing. Plan and Prepare for Another Crop ; Cut Wood ; Haul out Manure ; Decide on Rotation of Crops ; " Bedding Up " for the Rows. Oats.

Ifarch-^—ThQ Garden ; Kelons ; Plantation Roads ; Circle Ditching and Circle Plowing ; Beginning to Plant.

April. — Careful Planting; First Going Over; the Shanghai Plow; Cutting Away to a Stand.

May. — Another Thorough Working ; Best Mode of Plowing between Cottou Rows ; the Sweep ; Importance of Good Plowing.

June. — Cultivation Vai'ies Somewhat with the Season and Moisture ; Caring for the Well-being of Man and Beast in the Field.

July. — Last Working in Advanced Crop ; Fodder Pulling ; Drink for Field Hands ; Effect of Fodder Pulling upon the Grain.

August. — Picking at Hand; Advance of the Enemies of Cotton ; How to Fight the Army-worm ; the Caterpillar or Cotton-moth ; How to Destroy them.

Se2ytemher.—T\ic Picking to be Pushed ; Care for the Hands ; Coffee iu the Morning.

October. — Keeping up the Spirits ; Sorting Cotton ; the Trasher.

VI COTTON CULTUKE.

Nmeniber.—Kxo'A Night Work ; Giauing ; Cotton Shonlcl Lie for a Time in the Seed.

Decetnher. — Gathering of other Crops ; Hauling Cotton to Market ; Clearing the Fields for the following Crop p. p. 59—68

PAET II.

Chapter I

QUALITT, EXTENT, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COTTON LANDS OF IfORTH AMERICA.

Boundaries of the Cotton Belt. Which are the Cotton States ? Texas : Extent and Character of its Cotton Lands ; Soil and Climate described ; Valley of the Brazos ; Black Prairies ; Valleys of other Rivers in Texas. Louisiana and Arkansas : their Cotton Fields ; the Washita Lands ; Cotton South of Red River, and North of the Arkansas. Mississippi : Its Alluvial Lauds ; Cotton Planting in the Hills ; the Tombigbee Lands. Alabama : Its Alluvial and Black Caue Brake Lands ; Extent and Fertility of its Richest Fields. Georgia : its Three Divisions, Southern, Middle, and Northern ; Climate and Soil of each ; the Facilities for Cotton Growing. South Carolina: Three General Classes of Lands as in Georgia ; the Best Cotton Lands ; Inferior Lands. North Carolina and Tennessee : the Limited Region in these States where Cotton is Grown ; Cotton north of 38° ; Principal Dates in a Cotton Crop ; Effect of Shortening the Season ; the Experiment of 1863 p.p. 69—84

Chapter II. Enemies And Diseases Of Cotton

The Cotton-louse and How to Get Rid of it. The Cut-worm; How to Prevent his Ravages. The Cotton-moth or Caterpillar; its Fearful Ravages Described. Full Account of, and Description of the Insect in its Different Forms ; two Modes of Attacking it. Effect of Rotation of Crops ; Manner in which it Destroys itself; Conclusions with Regard to it. The Army -worm ; Compared with the Caterpillar ; How to Arrest its March ; Army-worm Described. Boll-worm; Peculiarities of this Insect ; the Moth described ; Manner and Place of Laying Eggs ; Appearance of the Worm ; Mischief it Produces ; How to Get Rid of it ; Modes of exterminating the Moth. Diseases of Cotton : Rust ; What Produces it; Sore Shin ; Rot, or Gangrene. Blue Cotton p.p. 84 — 100

Chapter III. Improved And Scientific Culture Of Cotton

Reasons for the unskillful Manner in which Cotton has generally been Raised. The Preservation and Restoration of Cotton Lands Depends on

TABLE OF CONTENTS. VH

Two Practices : Circle Plowing and Ditching, and Manuring. The Amount to which Uplands in Cotton Deteriorate by Washing. The First Practice of Circle Plowing. Circle Ditcliing ; Detailed Instructions. Fertilizing Properties Removed from the Soil by Cotton. Analysis of the Lint and of the Seed. Fertilizers which Best Restore the Elements Abstracted. Best Manvire for Cotton Lauds : Guano. Cotton Should not be Manured in the Drill. Dr. Cloud and his Improved Culture. Reasons for not Maniiring in the Hill. "High Farming" in Connection with Cottou ; what it Consists in. The proper Rotation of Crops on a Cottou Farm. Most Suitable Arrangements for Making Large Amounts of Manure ; Best Method of Applying it. Mode of Cultivation that Should Follow ; the Results. Cotton Seed Better as a Manure the Second Year than the First. The Length of Time for which this High Manuring is Felt. Contrast between "High" and "Low Farming" in Cotton. Improvement of the Seed by the Use of Fertilizers ; Gypsum to be Applied with Guano p.p. 100—119

Chapter IV. Various Kinds Of Cotton Cultivated In The United States

Upland and Sea Island. Mexican Seed, how Introduced. Petit Gulf Seed, and Why so Called. Prices at which Improved Varieties Sell. Methods of Improving any Seed; Something Depends on Locality. Various Seeds Developed from the Mexican and Petit Gulf. Mr. Phillips on the Varieties of Cotton Seed. Manner in which Choice Varieties Deteriorate ; "Banana" and "Mastodon" instanced; Five Conclusions on the Subject. Sea Island Cottou ; its Average Yield and Price. Sea Island Cotton described ; Time when it Began to be Cultivated ; Results of an Analysis of Sea Island Cotton and Soil ; how Cultivated; Method of Ginning and Preparing for Market. Mr. Chichester's Invention. The Largest Crop of Sea Island. Other Statistics p.p. 119—133

Chapter V

now TO REALIZE THE MOST FROM A CROP; SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE UNION OF THE GROWING OF COTTON WITH ITS MANU- FACTURE INTO YARNS AND FABRICS.

No probability that the South will ever Manufacture All the Cotton she Grows. A Plan Suggested for Manufacturing : One Large, Central Factory in every Town or Township ; Machinery Driven by Steam ; Facilities for Ginning, Packing, and Manufacturing Enough Cloth for that Community. Ground Plan of such Factory with Oil-mill Attached ; the Bagging also to be Made there from the Trashy Cotton. Advantages of the Plan Proposed. Perfection of Ginning and Baling. Modifications of the Proposed Plan for DifFerent Localities. Associated Capital Compared with Individual Euterprise. The Plan Proposed Adapted to the Small Producer. Question of Operatives p.p. 133 — 141

VIII COTTON CULTURE.

Chapter VI

OF THE VAJLTJE Or COTTON AS A PLANT, AND THE USES TO WHICH IT MAT BE APPLIED.

Cheapness of Cotton as au Article of Clothing. Cotton for Ropes ; as a Material for Beds ; as a Material for Bed-Covers ; Cotton Blankets. The Comforts that Two Bales of Cotton may be Made to Bring into One Family. The Possible Employment of Cotton as a Building Material. Cotton-stalli Hemp. Cotton Seed as Food for Animals ; as Manure. A

Medicine from the Root of the Cotton Plant p.p. 141 — 149

Chapter VII. The Past And The Future Of Cotton ; Its History And Statistics

Cotton Previous to the Present Century ; no Mention of it in the Earliest Writings. What Herodotus Says. Cotton Introduced from India to Rome. Hindoo Mode of Weaving ; Wonderful Delicacy of some of their Fabrics. Difficulty of Producing Large Amounts of Cotton in India. Cotton in Egypt and Africa. Early Notices of Cotton in the New World. Its Culture in the West Indies and Brazil. First Culture in the United States. Impetus given by the Invention of the Gin. An Account of the Manner in which Eli Whitney Made the Discovery ; the Importance of his Invention. Statistical Tables as to Increase, Amount, Price, and Total Value of the Various Cotton Crops of the United States. Five Conclusions with Respect to the Past and the Future of Cotton as Drawn from a Study of the Tables. Views Expressed in the London Economist. Question of Cotton Supply during the War. ..pp. 149 — 164 CHAPTER VIII.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS TO VARIOUS CLASSES OF PERSONS WHO PROPOSE TO ENGAGE IN COTTON GROWING.

Modes of Producing Cotton in the Future ; Different Classes likely to be Engaged in it. Suggestions to the Large Capitalist and Joint Stock Companies as to the Best Cotton Lands ; the Advantages and DisadA'antages of Various Sections Examined. The Cotton Fields of Alabama, Texas, and of the Mississippi Valley Considered. Attractions of the Upland Cotton Fields ; their Desirableness for the Farmer. Middle Tennessee Considered. The Northern parts of Alabama and Georgia. North-western Arkansas. Northern Texas. The Poor Immigrant will Go where he can Get the Highest Wages ; with Thrift he can soon Rise above a Hireling; Three Simple Rules for Keeping his Health. Conclusion ; p.p. 164— -179

Chapter IX

COTTON SEED OIL. COTTON SEED CAKE.

The Discovery of Oil in Cotton Seed. Experiments. Process of Manufacture of Oil. Difficulties to be Overcome. Seed Hullcrs. Machinery Required to Express Oil. How Oil is Expressed. How Refined. Its Uses. Cotton Seed Cake. Its Value in Stock-feeding. As a Fertilizer. Ashes of the Hulls p.p. 180—190

A TREATISE ON COTTON CULTURE.

PART I.

WHEKE AND HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED.— A SERIES

OF PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED

ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING.

Chapter I. The Cotton Farm; Its Stock, Implements And Laborers

Two general considerations must be regarded in approaching the business of cotton producing ; one that of climate, the other of the soil.

The natural demands of the plants are for a tropical or semi-tropical climate that aifords seven or eight months entirely secure from frosts. In the United States cotton is produced in all the belt that reaches from 40° north latitude to the Gulf of Mexico. A line drawn westAvard from Philadelphia divides that part of the country where cotton will, in various degrees, reward the labor of cultivation from those where its production is hopeless.

But in the upi>er part of that belt, between 36° and 40°, it is an exotic, more than half its productive power being 9 1* entirely cut OAvay by a damp and chilly April, and a frosty October. The superiority of the lands of the Southern States of North America is due less to soil than to climate. In the relations of the mountains to the sea and of the Great Valley to the Gulf, into wbich its waters pour, is to be found the true secret of the rapid ascent of cotton to a great commercial and political power. This was very aptly stated by a recent lecturer before the American Geographical Society in terms substantially as follows :

" The pecuhar climate of the Cotton States I understand to be produced by the chain of mountains which intersects our country, the loAver spurs of the Alleghany range passing oif westward in the hills of northern Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

" On these the moisture brought inland by the seabreezes from the Gulf and Gulf-stream is condensed, and falls in many showers, but not often in long storms ; these showers occur frequently in spring, but rarely in midsummer and autumn, thus giving dry seasons for gathering the crop. After it has attained a vigorous growth, the cotton plant may defy the droutl), for by means of a long tap-root it lives upon the moisture accumulated beneath the surface during the winter and spring rains."

A line drawn from Raleigh westward through Nashville, and continued into the northern j^art of Arkansas has, until of late, been regarded as the true northern limit of the cotton belt, south of which it is, even at ten cents a pound, the most valuable crop that can be produced.

There are some good cotton lands in North Carolina, but that State has never been a large producer of the staple. Many of its river bottoms are too wet and heavy, and most of its uplands are too poor.

West of the mountains very little has ever been grown in the valleys of the upper Tennessee. But descending that tortuous stream, and passing west of Chattanooga into northern Alabama and western Tennessee, v.'C come into a region quite fovorable to its growth, and in the section lying between the Tennessee and Cumberland, and drained by the Duck and Elk rivei-s, it has, in about half the counties, been for many years the staple.

In the northern part of those valleys, below Fort Donelson, its production gives place to tobacco. With the exception of these parts of Tennessee, and the south-eastern half of Arkansas, the Cotton States all touch the ocean or the Gulf. The thirty-second degree, or a line drawn across the Gulf States through Montgomery and Jackson, is the centre of the cotton belt. For a hundred miles each side of that parallel, north and south, and especially in the lands bordering on the lower half of all the affluents of the Gulf and the southern tributaries of the Mississippi, cotton is produced to an extent, and of a quality surpassed by no other equal area of the earth's surface. This is its natural home ; here is its chosen domain. For cotton is essentially a child of the sun. It does uot rejoice in copious moisture, and can thrive and come to perfection on less rain than any plant cultivated on the continent.

There are three classes of soil well suited to cotton. First, the soft argillaceous limestone, or what is called the rotten limestone and red lands of Georgia, South Carolina, parts of Alabama and Mississippi, and a small part of Texas.

This description of soil is soft, fine and friable, easily washed away, nearly, and in many parts entirely free from stones. The descents to streams are steep, but, in general, such soil is spread over an undulating surface, about half of which should be protected from washing by the winter rains with a system of circle ditching or circle ploughing. The growth on such lands is beech, magnolia, white and red oak, and some pine on the swells, with gum and enormous poplars on the creek bottoms. From 1840 to 1850 probably two-thirds or three-fourths of all the cotton produced grew on land of this description. For the ten years

12 COTTOISr CULTURE.

preceding the war, tliere was a strong tendency among all the cotton planters to transfer their labor to alluvial lands.

The second class of cotton soils are the rich black canebrake lands of middle Alabama and the black rolling prairies of Texas. These are generally called the black lands, and cannot be surpassed by any alluvions for the certainty with which they produce crops, their freedom from destructive vermin, the admirable roll of the surface just sufficient for drainage, and the completeness w^ith which every square yard of the soil may be turned under the plow. In winter, the roads through this class of lands become immense black mortar beds, where a loaded wagon sinks nearly to the axle, and six mules can hardly pull four bales, but in spring these formidable sloughs harden, and become polished under the wheel, so as to afford for eight months of the year a road as firm, smooth, and agreeable as it is horrible during the remaining four.

Another discount on these regions is the badness of the water. In general, however, such lands are considered worth twice as much as the former or red hill countries. In 1860 the price of the former ranged from ten to thirty dollars per acre, according to the degree to which they were washed or exhausted, nearness to markets and towns, excellence of buildings, and state of fences.

The black lands of middle Alabama, between the Tombigbee and the Alabama rivers, were seldom sold at less than fifty dollars, and the price ranged from that to one liundred. Now, (1867,) large surfaces are in market at r.bout half the price they commanded before the war.

The alluvions or river bottoms are the third and most raluable class of cotton lands. Like river bottoms every- ?vhere, the valleys of the Santee, the Chattahoochee, the A.labama and Tombigbee, the Pearl, and, beyond all, the rast areas drained by the Mississippi and its lower tributaries have very little inclination, and that little is gener-

COITON CULTURE. 13

ally away from the bank rather than towards the stream. But the soil is admirably adapted to cotton and the maderdrain is such as to compensate for the flatness. Successive overflows have deposited an exhaustless bed of vegetable mould, mixed with fine sand and wash from the hills, through which the falling rains easily pass to a porous subsoil.

In dry seasons, a copious dew, which is rapidly evaporated by the hot morning sun, drenches the plants. The low lands are covered by a heavy growth of gum, magnolia, poplar and cypress, wdth, in many places, a thick undergi'owth of cane. The labor of clearing, and the vegetable miasms of swamp lands, render them less desirable for permanent residence than the two classes above described, but tbeir exhaustless fertility, and the ease with which great crops can be marketed, the steamboat in thousands of cases coming within a few hundred yards of the gin house, can but form a very strong attraction to every enterprizing cultivator. In 1860, the general price of bottom lands, cleared, cultivated, and safe from overflow, was one hundred dollars per acre.

Suppose now a person has a capital that enables him to possess and cultivate a cotton farm of two hundred acres, about half of which he proposes to put in cotton, the remainder being devoted to corn, vegetable garden, pasture, and woodland. What stock and implements, and what number of laborers should he have ?

Of di-aft animals, his principal demand is for mules or horses. Oxen are too slow and heavy for the business, unless it be in the fall, in hauling long distances to market or a shipping point. It is desirable also that his mules be of medium size, and remarkable for a fast xoalk above every other quality. The cultivation of cotton requires rapid movement rather than strength. Except in opening heavy timbered land, weight of bone, either in animals or laborers, is unnecessary and frequently objectionable.

Moderate sized mules, rather long-legged, hardy, and not great eaters, are the best on a plantation.

On account of their greater freedom of movement, horses are a little superior to mules, but they are more apt to break down in the long hot days of June and July, when tliey must be constantly in the traces.

A mule to every ten acres in cotton is no more than a proper allowance. On the place supposed, ten mules is the complement. Of plows there will be required two kinds, one for breaking up and forming the beds, the other for subsequent cultivation. Heavy plowing is seldom called for on a cotton farm, and as an anomaly in agriculture, deep plowing between the rows has been found positively injurious. The reason is this : deep cultivation on many soils tends to develop a rank growth of the plant, and to retard the early opening of bolls ; and cotton can be successfully grown only by a treatment that pushes the plant to an early maturity. For preparing the land, four or five large plows will be required. These should be rather broad than deep, with the moulding board well rolled over.

Eight or more small plows will be used in -the cultivation. By small plovvs is meant those which make a light furrow, and their form will be discussed in a following chapter. Ten hoes will be needed, and three or four small light harrows.

Arrangements for harvesting the crop and hauling to market vary so much with the distances from the giu house and the shipping point, that no directions can be given that will be of universal application. The planter of one hundred acres may need no high box wagons for bringing in seed cotton from the field, and his gin house may be so near a stream that the bales can be rolled directly from the shed to the deck of a steamer. Under advantageous circumstances, a single four-Avheeled wagon will sufiicc for the hauling of a place such as wc suppose.

But in the great majority of situations at least two large wagons will be found necessary.

A gin house with machinery for grinding corn is almost a prime necessity. But this may be erected in the interval between laying aside the crop and the picking season. August is not generally a very busy month on a cotton farm.

As to the laborers on a place of the size supposed, ten hands is the average; one hand to ten acres in cotton. Unless the surface is uncommonly rough, and the season unfavorable, a good hand can take proper care of ten acres in cotton, and five in corn, besides having some time in the garden. But in the j^ckuig season, it is very desirable to put two or three more hands into the field. If your land is a rich bottom, it may produce six hundred pounds, or a bale and a half of ginned cotton to the acre, and it is a very smart picker that can get out fifteen bales in a season. Ten bales to the liand is always good work. In employing laborers, regard should be had chiefly to their capacity as cotton pickers, and here the diiference is astonishing. Two men will Avork together all the year, a match for each otiier in chopping, splitting rails, plowing, lioeing and harvesting corn, yet in September, when they go into the cotton field with sacks on their shoulders, one will bring out two hundred pounds, and the other one hundred. One is naturally quick in his m.otions, and the other, though a faithful laborer and equally assiduous, cannot " get the knack of it," and though, by the stimulus of extra wages, he may come up to a hundred and fifty, and in the best picking to two hundred, he will never overtake his comrade.

In this respect, women are better than men ; as a rule they make the best pickers. .The work is light, though monotonous. The most of cotton is from three to four feet high, and many bolls are but a few inches from the ground, hence a tall person works at a disadvantage. A man about five feet six inches, or five feet eight inches, compactly built, is likely to be the most valuable on a cotton farm, because he will prove a faster picker than an athletic man of brawny frame and large muscles.

It is very desirable also to hire laborers that are accustomed to cotton, and particularly such as are skillful with the plow. A man that understands circle plowing, on a hill place, that can carry his scooter, his sweep, or his cultivator within two inches of a row of young plants, yet never break^or uproot one, and who can pick rapidly in the fall, is worth a hundred dollars a year more than one who understands nothing but corn or wheat and tobacco, though the latter may be the more able bodied man of the two.

Care should be taken to have an abundance of milk. No drink is so grateful to the heated laborer, who passes the whole day from dawn to sunset between the rows, as buttermilk. The curd it contains is nourishing, and the acid cooling. Milk in every form in which it can be taken, is admirably suited to the farm laborer, and in stocking a cotton farm, a cow to every three or four persons should be provided.

Chapter II. Preparation Of The Soil And Planting

The plows should be started just as early in the spring as the season will permit. In the latter part of February, the ground in the hill country and red lands will often be found dry enough. The same is true of the bottom lands in the latitude of Vicksburg, and in the southern counties of South Carolina and Georgia. In general, it may be said that the direct preparation for a crop commences with February. The first plowing depends somewhat upon the crop of the previous year. If the breadth was planted in cotton, all that is necessary is to keep a hand or two in advance of the plow, with hoes or clubs, to break down the old cotton stalks, or pull them up by the roots, and throw them into piles for burning. If the growth is not very rank they had better be plowed in, but in rich bottoms, where it sometimes attains the height of six or eight feet, the large branching stalks are unmanageable, and had better be burned. Where cotton was the previous crop, aud no change in the width of the rows is desirable, run a small furrow between the ridges, then let the large plow pass on the middle of the slope of each row or ridge, and throw furrows from each side that will lap, so that what was a " middle " last year shall be a row this year, and vice versa. Where the previous crop was corn, and it becomes necessary to change the width of the rows, and where the land has been lying out, and is covered with tall weeds and sedge grass, a different course is to be pursued. The rows or beds are laid off by running shallow furrows at the proper distances apart.

These distances are to be determined by the nature of the soil, say five and a half or six feet, and sometimes seven on very strong bottom lands, and four or four and a half on hght lands. A good plan on stubble, corn, or fallow land, is to lay off the rows with a scooter, (a small plow without mould-boards, making a shallow furrow,) enlarge the furrow with a shovel-plow, then drag all the weeds, stubble and trash into these furrows, and cover in by throwing two furrows together upon this trench with a two horse plow. Many careless cultivators simply lap two furrows together, leaving six or eight inches of unbroken soil beneath. If good crops are thus raised, and it quite often happens that they are, it is due to the exuberance of a virgin soil, which can make amends for almost any neglect in cultivation. All the writers, and all planters, who have given the results of their experience, agree in saying that cotton requires a soft, deep bed. The most thorough cultivation would seem to require that the plowing should be continued until all the space between the rows, or the " middles," as they are called, are plowed or "broken out," in cotton pai'lance, by throwing iip the soil upon the beds on each side. But the prevalent custom has been not to " break out " these " middles " at the first plowing, but to do it afterwards in tlie covn-se of cultivating the crojD. On lands that have been thoroughly cultivated, this omission is probably immaterial. At any rate, tbe very best of crops are produced year after year by this luethod.