HENS Sth Loa RMTHA HY Sestite bss si i Faint SHU Ait Se ae ate Sahay * ke tit Sih shaistes \ f ates isa at eal Has H Nas i ; a iH Wt RSM HH ES ROT BR sited ast Paley i ne petites x slaltath Pat rs = Sth es Bite : a Carers Ra aes ae ae Wet is ae a a ‘s oa | | Explanation. Red indicates Cotton lands of the best quality. Yellow, wndicates second class Cotton lands producing three lind. red lbs. per acre and less. | Green indicates lands which pros duce little or reo Cotton. These colors are not intended ( as exact representations of the, quality of the land. For exam - 2s) ple. many creek bottoins in the part marked greety, produce Sore COWOr, & Of the surtace colored Ted considerable tracts are otten covered with water. WM MAG, sy MN BIN Vays BS COTTON | OF T UNITED by L&R.MoLellan 55 Beekman Str. NY. Eng. & Printe fi cP tH A = COTTON CULTURE. “ BY JOSEPH B.” LYMAN, LATE oF LOUISIANA, WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER ON COTTON SEED AND ITS USES. J. R. Sep Bee “Of Washing NEW YORK: ORANGE JUDD & COMPANY 245 BROADWAY. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, py ORANGE JUDD & CO. At the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York, dota Sad oD) oD tie! —_+e—_ This Treatise is not a compilation. Agricultural literature is by no means so rich in valua- ble 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 sub- ject, 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 wrote 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 Cyclopex- dia, 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. 3 A TREATISE ON COTTON CULTURE. —_*+oe— TABLE OF CONTENTS. PARE, A. WHERE AND HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED.—A SERIES OF PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING, (CAPAG Pas E ig Ey eel. THE COTTON FARM.—ITS STOCK, IMPLEMENTS, AND LABORERS The Climate for Cotton. Geographical Boundaries of the Cotton Zone. Soils Best Suited to Cotton Growing. Draft Animals Required by the Planter! “Plows, Wacons, Waborerss aviilke sy. fic). \ro-otayeta sleteieiers p-p. 9—16 CHEVAGE ST Wel yaelde PREPARATION OF THE SOIL AND PLANTING. Time for Plowing; Manner of Plowing. Laying-off the Cotton Beds. Time for Planting. Varieties of Seed. Errors in Keeping Seed. Im- mediate Preparation for and Manner of Planting. Amount of Seed Re- quired. Advantages of Precision in Making the Rows. The Old Mode of Planting. Improved Cotton Planter. Preparation of the Seed for PLAN EIN). e ain5.s reject clo orele Se Bae Plate Nineiners Haein enon eee p.p. 16—28 (Qish aN Ay ID IIE IS HOW THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED. First Appearance of the Plant. ‘‘Chopping Out.” Hoeing, Rapid Movement Required. Attention to Corn. Amount of Moisture Re- quired by Cotton. Lice Bred by Excess of Moisture and, at a Later Stage, Rust. Remedy for these Evils. Proper Shape of Plows for Cot- ton. 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, ete. 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. Sum- mary of the Best Mode of Planting and Cultivating the Cotton Crops ose ross «Se s foleiereyeve afc’ are. sieielete ale) stoverers:: stelereystafevetelatetcteletmtetereters p.p. 23—35 4 f TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vv CHALE Ty Rye. Tl Vi. COTTON PICKING. Time of Commencing. Utensils and Preparation. Picking Must be Done Mainly by Hand. Slow and Fast Picking ; Conveniences and En- ecouragements. 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 Unginned Cotton........ mrelchaneisiarevelaieisieisis« p.p. 86—45 ChHCASP Ty Eine Ve GINNING, BALING, AND MARKETING. Principle of the Whitney Gin; Description of Its Parts. The Gin- house. Plans of First and Second Stories. The Drying Scaffold. Im- provements 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 upaCrop. The Planter should bea Judge of the Market. Speedy and Direct Communication betweeneLroducerand. Constmmeltr. a esise) «acter loeiescieleicie oeite p.p. 45—59 CHE AVE ISH | Vers THE COTTON PLANTERS’ CALENDAR. January.—The Gin; the Market; Pressing. Clearing off the Fields. Filling up Washes and Gulches. Taking Care of Seed Cotton, Using the Remainder of the Cotton Seed for Manure. February.—Abvout 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. March.~The Garden; Melons; Plantation Roads; Circle Ditching and Circle Plowing; Beginning to Plant. ; April.—Caretul Planting; First Going Over; the Shanghai Plow; Cutting Away to a Stand. May.—Another Thorough Working; Best Mode of Plowing between Cotton Rows; the Sweep; Importance of Good Plowing. June.—Cultivation Varies 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 De- stroy them. September.—The Picking to be Pushed; Care for the Hands; Coffee in the Morning. October.—Keeping up the Spirits ; Sorting Cotton ; the Trasher. VI COTTON CULTURE. November.—Avoid Night Work; Ginning; Cotton Should Lie fora Time in the Seed. December.—Gathering of other Crops; Hauling Cotton to Market; Clearing the Fields for the following Crop............ istelsicle p. p. 59—68 PART IL CREASE isH pits welts QUALITY, EXTENT, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COTTON LANDS OF NORTH 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 Lands; Cotton Planting in the Hills ; the Tombigbee Lands. Alabama: Its Alluvial and Black Cane Brake Lands; Extent and Fertil- ity of its Richest Fields. Georgia: its Three Divisions, Southern, Mid- dle, 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 88°; Principal Dates ina Cotton Crop; Effect of Short- ening the Season; the Experiment of 1862................+. p.p. 69—84 (QUE AID NIB 1 AL Is ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF COTTON. The Cotton-louse and How to Get Rid of it. The Cut-worm; How to Prevent his Rayages. The Cotton-moth or Caterpillar; its Fearful Ray- ages Described. Full Account of, and Description of the Insect in its Dif- ferent 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 fhe 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 extermi- nating the Moth. Diseases of Cotton: Rust; What Produces it; Sore Shin; Rot, or Gangrene. Blue Cotton...........023.5....... p.p. 84—100 CHEAP AER, Seale: 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. vii . 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 Ditching; Detailed Instruc- - tions. Fertilizing Properties Removed from the Soil by Cotton. Anal- ysis of the Lint and of the Seed. Fertilizers which Best Restore the Elements Abstracted. Best Manure for Cotton Lands: Guano. Cotton Should not be Manured in the Drill. Dr. Cloud and his Improved Cul- ture. Reasons for not Manuring in the Hill. ‘High Farming”’ in Connection with Cotton; what it Consists in. The proper Rotation of Crops ona Cotton Farm. Most Suitable Arrangements for Making Large Amounts of Manure; Best Method of Applying it. Mode of Cul- tivation that Should Follow; the Results. Cotton Seed Better as a Ma- nure the Second Year than the First. The Length of Time for which this High Manuring is Felt. Contrast between “ High” and ‘‘ Low Farm- ing’’ in Cotton. Improvement of the Seed by the Use of Fertilizers ; Gypsum to be Applied with Guano............-..0c0..00 p.p. 100—119 CUHPACE CRRE Ree avis 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 Improying any Seed; Something Depends on Locality. Va- rious Seeds Developed from the Mexican and Petit Gulf. Mr. Phillips on the Varieties of Cotton Seed. Manner in which Choice Varieties De- teriorate; ‘‘ Banana’’ and ‘‘ Mastodon”’ instanced; Five Conclusions on the Subject. Sea Island Cotton;. 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; Low Cultivated; Method of Ginning and Preparing for Market. Mr. Chichester’s Invention. The Largest Crop of Sea Island. Other Statistics.............. p.p. 119—152 CEE AS Pa BRE V, « HOW 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. Adyantages of the Plan Proposed. Perfection of Ginning and Baling. Modifica- tions of the Proposed Plan for Different Localities. Associated Capital Compared with Individual Enterprise. The Plan Proposed Adapted to the Small Producer. Question of Operatives..............p.p. 133—141 Vill COTTON CULTURE. CRELEAGP THER. aviele OF THE VALUE OF COTTON AS A PLANT, AND THE USES TO WHICH IT MAY BE APPLIED. Cheapness of Cotton as an 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 asa Building Material. Cotton-stalk Hemp. Cotton Seed as Food for Animals; as Manure. A Medicine from the Root of the Cotton Plant.. ............. p.p. 141—149 CHGASP TOMER tay eel: 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 In- dia to Rome. Hindoo Mode of Weaying; 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 CAPAC Hine = mVeelsiole, 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 init. Suggestions to the Large Capitalist and Joint Stock Companies as to the Best Cotton Lands; the Advantages and Disadvan- tages 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 ee Rules for Keeping his Health. Con- Clusion. 2% che. fs20s eRe tee tc toler aera enio eet cerns p.p. 164—179 CHEGAS PMD GH) Ee) BiaXe: COTTON SEED OIL. COTTON SEED CAKE. The Diseoyery of Oil in Cotton Seed. Experiments. Process of Manufacture of Oil. Difficulties to be Overcome. Seed Hullers. Ma- chinery Required to Express Oil. How Oil is Expressed. How Refined. Its Uses. Cotton Seed Cake. Its Value in Stock-feeding. As a Fertil- azer. Ashes ofthe Hulls. i) ccices aaee eee semeeeee eres p.p. 180—190 A TREATISE ON COTTON CULTURE, jee teal oes Dae tA WHERE AND HOW THE PLANT IS RAISED.—A SERIES OF PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS AS TO THE ESTABLISHED ANNUAL ROUTINE IN COTTON PLANTING. CHAPTER. f. THE COTTON FARM; ITS STOCK, IMPLEMENTS AND LABORERS. Two general considerations must be regarded in ap- proaching 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 affords 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 westward from Philadelphia divides that part of the country where cotton will, in various degrees, reward the labor of culti- vation from those where its production is hopeless. But in the upper part of that belt, between 36° and 40°, it is an exotic, more than half its productive power being S) 1 10 COTTON CULTURE. entirely cut away 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 which its waters pour, is to be found the true secret of the rapid ascent of cotton toa 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 peculiar climate of the Cotton States I understand to be produced by the chain of mountains which intersects our country, the lower spurs of the Alleghany range passing off westward in the hills of northern Georgia, Ala- bama, and Mississippi. “On these the moisture brought mland by the sea- breezes from the Gulf and Gulfstream is condensed, and falls in many showers, but not often in long storms; these showers occur frequently in spring, but rarely in midsum- mer and autumn, thus giving dry seasons for gathering the crop. After it has attained a vigorous growth, the cotton plant may defy the drouth, 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 part 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, out 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, we come into COTTON CULTURE. 11 a region quite favorable to its growth, and in the section lying between the Tennessee and Cumberland, and drained _ by the Duck and Elk rivers, it has, in about half the counties, been for many years the staple. In the northern part of those valleys, below Fort Donel- son, 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 aline 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 achild of thesun. It does not 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 enor- mous poplars on the creek bottoms. From 1840 to 1850 probably two-thirds or three-fourths of all the cotton pro- duced grew on land of this description. For the ten years 11) COTTON CULTURE. preceding the war, there 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 cane- brake 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 with 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 Tom- bigbee and the Alabama rivers, were seldom sold at less than fifty dollars, and the price ranged from that to one hundred. Now, (1867,) large surfaces are in market at nbout half the price they commanded before the war. The alluvions or river bottoms are the third and most valuable class of cotton lands. Like river bottoms every- where, the valleys of the Santee, the Chattahoochee, the Alabama and Tombigbee, the Pearl, and, beyond all, the rast areas drained by the Mississippi and its lower tribut- aries have very little inclination, and that little is gener- COTTON CULTURE. 13 ally away from the bank rather than towards the stream. But the soil is admirably adapted to cotton and the under- drain 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 sub- soil. In dry seasons, a copious dew, which is rapidly evapo- rated by the hot morning sun, drenches the plants. The low lands are covered by a heavy growth of gum, magnolia, poplar and cypress, with, in many places, a thick under- growth of cane. The labor of clearing, and the vegetable miasms of swamp lands, render them less desirable for per- manent residence than the two classes above described, but their 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 draft 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 walk 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. 14 = COTTON CULTURE. 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 they 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 suc- cessfully 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 cultiva- tion. By small plows 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 gin 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-wheeled wagon will suftice for the hauling of a place such as we suppose. COTTON CULTURE. 15 But in the great majority of situations at least two large wagons will be found necessary. A gin house with machinery for griading 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 picking 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 hand is always good work. In employing laborers, regard should be had chiefly to their capacity as cotton pickers, and here the difference is astonishing. Two men will work together all the year, a match for each other in chopping, splitting rails, plowing, hoeing and harvesting corn, yet in September, when they go into the cotton field with sacks on their shoulders, one will bring out two hun- dred pounds, and the other one hundred. One is naturally quick in his motions, 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 fect six inches, or five feet eight inches, 16 COTTON CULTURE. 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 accus- tomed 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, CH A-Pit Evel: 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 COTTON CULTURE. Lee crop of the previous year. If the breadth was planted in cotton, all that is necessary is to keep a hand or two in ad- _ vance 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, and 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 be- comes 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 pur- sued. The rows or beds aré 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 bot- tom lands, and four or four and a half on light 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, leay- ing 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 18 COTTON CULTURE. 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 parlance, by throwing up 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 the course of cultivating the crop. On lands that have been thoroughly cultivated, this omission is probably im- material. At any rate, the very best of crops are produced year after year by this method. After this first plowing, the ridges or beds should remain a month or so, that the soil may be settled by the spring rains. Planting commences about the first of April, a _ week or two earlier, say by the fifteenth or twentieth of March, on dry lands, on the lower margin of the cotton belt, and may be delayed as late as the tenth or twentieth of April, in the latitude of Nashville. But any delay after the first of April must abridge that much from the cotton picking season, for four or four and a half months must be allowed for the growth of the cotton plant. Cotton that is well up on the first of April, will, in a favorable season, begin to open early in August, so that by the fifteenth a picker can come out of the rows with fifty pounds a day. Yet if the seed is put in the ground too soon, and a long cold rain follows, it is, like corn, lable to rot, and the plants, when they appear, will have a stunted and yellow look. The varieties of cotton, and the different kinds of seed, whose respective merits are discussed among planters, are fully treated of in a subsequent chapter. The two grand divisions of cotton in the United States are into Sea Island and Upland. The seed of the former is black and smooth, of the latter dark yellowish-green, and covered with a fine down. Botanists call the former “tree cotton” and the latter “shrub cotton.” The variety of COTTON CULTURE. 19 the shrub cotton most known in this country, is the West Indian, and the seed used on a great majority of the plan- tations is the Mexican or Petit Gulf. With a beginner in this branch of agriculture, the variety of Mexican seed which he uses is of much less importance than its age and the condition in which he finds it. Seed that has stood through the winter rains in a great pile near the gin house, as was the practice before the war on most plantations, has been heated by fermentation, and its germinating power destroyed. A very large number of planting enterprizes were dampened by irretrievable delay in the springs of 1865 and 1866 from the difficulty of ob- taining good seed. That first planted failed to sprout, was plowed up, and other seed planted in the middle and last of April, and often as late as the middle of May. A month of invaluable time was thus consumed, and to com- plete the mischief, the second planting was frequently no more fortunate than the first. There is nothing in the nature of the plant that should make seed two or more years old worthless, except the increasing probability that in keeping it for this length of time, it has become heated. Seed that has been kept a year or two, and well taken care of, will ensure a more vigorous stand of plants as the defective seeds perish in keeping over. If the beds or ridges have been thrown up for some time, and the surface baked by heavy rains, the soil should be leosened by running a light harrow on the top of the bed. The harrow should have a handle, so that the laborer ean walk behind, and keep it on the top of the ridge. A convenient and cheap arrangement for this purpose is made by bending a hickory pole an inch and a half in diameter, and six feet long, in the form of a big ox-bow, and inserting the ends a little behind the middle of each shaft or branch of the common V-shaped harrow. The harrow is followed by some instrument for making a shallow but very straight furrow for the seeds. Some 20 COTTON CULTURE. planters are so impressed with the importance of having the seed furrow straight, that they send a good hoe hand to draw a line with the edge of his blade. Where the beds are laid off in right lines, as is the case on level and slightly rolling lands, a good instrument can be extemporized by inserting a blunt wooden tooth, three inches long, in a stick, three inches in diameter, at intervals of four feet, if that is the distance of rows determined upon, as re- presented in Fig, 1. Shafts are inserted by which the mule is attached, and a big hickory bow for handling it, as in the harrow. Where the beds are curved, as is the practice in land that washes easily, a contrivance of this sort would be useless, and a light furrow is run with a small plow. Probably the corn planter in common use at the West might be adjusted so as to work well with cotton seed. The down or beard on the cotton seeds makes them wad together in little clumps or bunches, so they will not fall regularly, one at a time, like the polished and uniform kernels of corn. Thirty pounds of seed will plant an acre. Less will do it if confidence can be felt in their soundness, and if pains are taken to drop the seeds one at a time, at intervals oi from two to five inches. Some of the South Carolina planters use a triangular log, three feet long, armed at the front with a bit of iron, (a small horse-shoe will answer,) which they drag along the middle of the bed, keeping the sharp edge down, so as to make a narrow, smooth trench COTTON CULTURE. 21 for the seeds, and thus ensure a straight line of young plants. Any person of ingenuity can think of some con- _trivance by which this may be effected, and certainly no part of cotton planting will pay better than attention at this point. Remember that for three months your plows, scrapers, or cultivators, are to be kept running backwards and forwards between these cotton rows, and, if the line of plants is straight and even, the coulter or the outside tooth of the cultivator can be carried so close to the plants as almost to supersede the use of the hoe. Experience has shown that a hand can tend’an acre or two acres more, where the planting was done with care and the line of young plants is uniform and even, than where the planting was careless. One great reason why little attention was ever paid to the best and neatest modes of getting a crop into the ground, was the universal feeling that the force of laborers necessary to pick a crop could easily plant and cultivate one. This may be true, but it affords no apology for rude and careless work. If eight plow and hoe hands can raise as much cotton as twelve can pick, it only shows that a skillful planter can keep four hands at making im- provements, raising vegetables, and looking after stock during the months of April, May, June, and July, while his less thoughtful neighbor has every hand in the cotton field. Economy of labor always and everywhere pays. The following is the old established mode of planting, practiced on millions of acres annually. In the warm days of the latter part of March, the seed cotton was hauled to the fields, and dropped in piles of three or four bushels, at convenient distances. A harrow passed along on the top of the bed, followed by a light plow, and behind came a boy or a woman, generally the latter, with an apron full of seed, which was refilled, as often as empty, from the nearest heap. These were dashed by handfuls into the furrow with a quick downward jerk or fling of the right hand, the left meanwhile holding the apron. The seeds 92 COTTON CULTURE. were covered sometimes by a harrow, and sometimes by a board fastened to the lower part of a light plow. This board should be made of some hard wood, as oak or gum, an inch or an inch and a half thick, about eight inches broad, and thirty inches long, beveled on the lower edge, so as to be sharp, and cut away in a curve, so as to fit the ridge, This wooden scraper and coverer, when drawn over the row, covers the seed nicely, leaves a moderate eleva- tion in the middle, and dresses the whole surface of the bed neatly for the space of a foot or more on each side of the drill. Now what we want is an improved cotton planter, having -a few harrow teeth in front, which, with one hand and one or two horses, will go over the beds—a reliable and even working arrangement for dropping the seed in drills; and last, the scraper or coverer described above. There is no reason why the whole operation should not be per- formed by one implement. Ten acres can thus be planted in one day by one team; whereas in the old way it takes a gang of four laborers and three mules to go over the same ground. : In the northern parts of the cotton region, where cold spring rains often delay the planting till the last of April, or the first of May, it is desirable to roll the seed in a fer- tilizer that will hasten the germination. A compound of two parts of ashes to one of common salt is recommended by Dr. Cloud, a very successful planter in Alabama. Others soak first in salt dissolved in liquid stable manure, and, when damp, roll in plaster. The latter mode is preferable, as the plaster separates the seeds which otherwise tend to mat together, and when the dropping is by hand and care- fully done, the white balls are easily to be seen, and can be laid more readily in the bottom of the seed furrow. Cotton needs only a light covering; not more than peas. An inch is enough, and on damp, clayey soils, too much. It will sometimes happen that a heavy rain, followed by COTTON CULTURE. 23 a hot sun, will fall upon the field just after the planting is concluded. Unless the soil is quite sandy, the surface may bake in a firm crust over the seeds, and delay their sprouting. In this case it is a good plan to pass lightly over the beds with a harrow, taking care to draw up the teeth so as only to scratch the surface and crumble this crust. This is more important in swamp land than on the hills. Gol lle oe gee Bod Dydd So Lol HOW THE CROP IS TO BE CULTIVATED In ten days or two weeks from the time the seed was laid in its narrow bed, the planter, walking over his cotton field, may expect to see a row of tiny leaflets just bursting out of the moist earth. If the interval has been uncom- monly wet and cold, anxiety is mingled with his hopes, for so many of the seeds may have rotted as to give him only an uneven and ragged looking stand. The question of replanting must be decided in a day or two, for time is now precious, and every week lost at this end of the season is just so much subtracted from the length of the picking season. If he has planted thick, and the stand, in most places, is a fair one, the chilled seeds in the iene soils may yet come out and do well. He first sees two leaflets, and in about three days the third appears. Cotton has this advantage over many other crops, that it has not the least resemblance to any of the weeds which infest the field, so the most careless glance will decide as to whether a particular sprout is cotton or not. As soon as the third leaf is fairly developed, the cultivation begins, and here, at the very outset, the difference between careful and slovenly planting of the seed will appear. Where the 24 COTTON CULTURE. seeds are dashed carelessly into a wide and somewhat irreg- ular furrow, the line of plants will be correspondingly irregular. If, on the other hand, the furrow or drill was small and sharply defined, and the seeds laid neatly at the drill, and that drill quite straight, the work of thinning out and cutting away to a stand will be very much easier. Of course, the first thing to be done, where the sprouts are very thick, is to cut away the superfluous plants, and con- centrate all the fertilizing powers of the soil upon the most thrifty specimens. The usual practice is to “run around the stand,” as it is called, that is, to carry a small furrow close up to the crest of the bed on each side, cutting away and covering the grass and superfluous plants. Here very much depends upon the skill of the plowman. By keep- ing a firm grasp upon the handles, and a close rein on the mule, a good plowman will carry his coulter within two inches of the row of little plants, yet never disturb them, while an inexperienced hand will run a furrow that is sometimes a foot from the row, and sometimes throws a pile of dirt upon the plants and buries them. Where the plowing is well done, the thinning out, or “‘ chopping out,” as it is called, can be done rapidly. The hoe-gang pass along, and break up the line of young plants by “ chopping out” a gap of, say a foot or more, thus leaving the stand in clumps of three or four together, at intervals of from twelve to twenty or thirty inches according to the exuber- ance of the soil. When the plants have sprouted in great uniformity, this operation is almost wholly mechanical, and can be done very fast; but where the stand is irregular, considerable judgment must be constantly exercised in sparing only the most thrifty plants, and such as are most exactly in line. As a rule, it does not pay to be very particular this time over the crop. Let the hoes pass on rapidly, killing the grass that is nearest the plants, and calculating to get over the field in a week, if the weather is fair. COTTON CULTURE. 25 It may be here remarked that rapid movement, and a handling which is brisk, rather than dainty and particular, is the best on most soils. It will not doto linger. While . you are bestowing abundant care upon one side of your field, the other side may suffer a set-back from which it will never entirely recover. It is now the first of May, and you have been once over your crop, but there is no time for pausing. While the hoe-gang are in their last rows, let the plows go right back to the side where the planting began, and start in for another working. This time the dirt must be thrown up from the middles toward the plants, yet not so as to choke them or bury the roots too deeply. Let the hoes follow, cutting away all the plants but two, the most thrifty of each clump, and throw- ing a little soft, fresh earth around those that stand, and destroying all the grass and weeds. This working should be careful, the most so, in fact, of any which the crop re- ceives. Very much, however, depends upon the season. Tf, just at this time, say from the first to the twentieth of May, there are frequent rains, followed by sultry weather, the grass will grow apace, and the planter must use his discretion as to what part of his farm may be suffering most. His corn, too, needs attention about this time, but if he must neglect one or the other, experience has shown that corn is much the hardier of the two, at least in a struggle with grass and weeds. Cotton is jealous and exacting in its nature; it must have attention, and dies for want of it; or, if the plant does not die amid the grass, it soon looks yellow and sickly, and suffers a stunting which will abridge its bearing time three weeks or a month. By the twentieth or twenty-fifth of May, the industrious planter has probably been twice over his crop, and the plants are thinned out to the final or permanent stand. The rest is now comparatively easy. The plows must con- tinue to run until the middles are all broken out; but here 2 26 COTTON CULTURE. it may be remarked that the cultivation varies with the season, and with the situation of the land. In a summer blessed with the usual rainfail, the plowing goes on, the dirt being thrown up from the middles to the beds. If, however, the rainfall is excessive, so as to form a crust around the roots, it is advisable to carry a light plow near the stand so as to break up this crust, and allow the air and sun to strike upon the roots of the plant. Tf, on the other hand, the season is uncommonly dry, it is best to put a larger plow into the middles, and throw up a ridge of dirt that will to some extent protect the roots. But on these points, “doctors disagree,” and first- rate planters differ in practice. The opinion is almost uni- versal, however, especially in cultivating the alluvions and the black lands, that the tendency of the plowing should be constantly towards the ridge, and not away from it. Cotton is a plant that loves heat, and does not demand large supplies of moisture. The climate, or the distribu- tion of rain with sunshine, is a matter which the planter cannot control; he can only take it into account in choos- ing the region where he would have his farm located. After the plant is six inches high, it is really surprising how little rain will make a crop. An excess of moisture, or heavy rains followed by a fierce sun on flat lands, when the plant is young, is likely to breed lice upon it. This is the first enemy from the insect world that tbe planter has to meet. A few weeks later, the same state of things will produce rust upon cotton. The diseases and insects de- structive of the cotton plant are fully described in a sub- sequent part of this treatise, and all that need be said here is that brisk working is almost the only remedy in the planter’s power. Let him stir the earth actively, and raise the ridge so as to keep standing water away from the roots of the plant. As to the shape and weight of the plows that are used in cultivating a crop of cotton, there is much variety of ; COTTON CULTURE. 4 opinion, as well as much room for improvement. The ordinary light wooden plow, with a moulding board of oak faced with iron, of easy draught, and making a furrow two or three inches deep, answers all the purposes of the cotton grower quite well. Planters differ, also, as to the propriety of ever plowing deep, except the first time when the beds are made. Certain it is that very fine crops are habitually made by the use of small, shallow running plows. After the middles are brolsen out, it is clear that some form of implement which shall scrape or break up a con- siderable surface, may be used with advantage. A favorite plow, if such it may be called, among the planters in the Gulf States, is the sweep or Eagle. It is made by fitting flanks or wings to the side of the common scooter or bull = oe aa Fig. 2.—corTron swEeEp. tongue plow, in such a way as to carry a cutting edge about an inch beneath the surface. It displaces the earth very little, but is an excellent weed-killer, and tends to throw the earth from the middles up tothe rows. These Wings are made to extend so that in ordinary four-foot rows, once passing over the soil will be sufficient. The cotton sweep represented in Fig, 2, is one of those offered 28 COTTON CULTURE. in the market, and is constructed on much the same principle as here described. Some prefer the ordinary corn-cultivators, and on light lands where it is not im- portant to bed high, they are probably every way as good as the sweep. The principal thing is, that whatever tool you may select should be kept briskly moving. After the second working of the cotton crop, the hoe may to a great extent be dispensed with, but the plow can by no means be laid aside even though the weeds and grass are Fig. 3.—THE COTTON FLOWER.—(Sea Island.) subdued. During June and the early part of July it is important to press the growth of the plant, and nothing does this so effectively as frequent stirring of the soil. As arule, the planter should manage so as to get over COTTON CULTURE. 29 5 his crop once in two weeks in new, rough, and grassy lands, or when the season is uncommonly wet. In a favorable season, once in three weeks will suffice. A favorable season for cotton is one in which the principal rainfall comes in early spring, and the summer which follows has few rainy days, but short though frequent showers. In June and July, especially, a long wet spell is injurious, as also are all sudden and great variations in the amount of moisture. On cotton planted early in April and well tended, the blossoms begin to show in the first days of June. No crop cultivated in this country is so beautiful as cot- ton. During the month of June the cotton fields present the appearance of vast flower gardens. The blossom is something like that of the hollyhock, and its peculiarity is the change of color that takes place from day to day. A flower will open in the morning of a pale straw color, by noon it will be pure white, in the after- noon of a faint pink, and the next morn- ing aclear pink, Sea . Island cotton, how- ever, gives a bloom that is always a pale yellow. As the flowers fall off, the “forms,” as they are called, or the young bolls, be- gin to grow rapidly. At first they are somewhat angular in shape, and the en- veloping leaf forms a sort of tuft or ruffle at the base, As it swells, the lines grow rounder, though it never becomes Fig. 4.—THE BOLL NEARLY RIPE. 30 COTTON CULTURE. quite spherical. Great changes in the degree of moisture are now very mischievous. A copious rain, followed by hot sun in the latter part of June and in July, will cause the plant to throw out a great number of forms, and the planter’s prospects are flattering. But if the heat con- tinues for ten days or two weeks without timely showers, the plant seems to feel that it has undertaken too much, and sheds a great number of its forms. This shedding, however, will be checked by a moderate shower; but a copious rain, followed by drouth, will cause the same phenomenon again. When the plant approaches maturity in size, that is to say, when the branches are beginning to interlock across the middles, it is doubtful whether the plow can be of much benefit. Deep plowing at this stage is clearly injurious. Besides the principal or tap-root of the cotton plant, which runs directly down, it sends off side shoots or sprangles, not so many or so long as those of corn, but enough to be much mangled and broken by a plow, or any other implement, that runs more than two inches below the surface. The breaking of these roots, and putting out of new ones, checks the advance of the crop, and tends to produce a fresh or second growth, the bolls of which will be immature at the coming of frost. The true policy is to push the growth of cotton just as rapidly as possible until the branches interlock, and then let the vigor of the plant go to making and perfecting bolls. The old and established routine among the planters of the Gulf States is as described above, and may be condensed into a formula as follows: First.—In two weeks after planting bar off ; that is, run a light plow close to the young plants, cutting away the grass, and throwing dirt from the row.. The hoes follow and chop out, leaving clumps of five or six plants a foot and a half apart. Second.—Ten days or two weeks after, mould or dirt COTTON CULTURE. 3l the cotton; that is, let the plows throw the mould up to the row, the hoes to follow thinning the plants to a stand, and leaving everything clean and smooth. The plows keep running till the middles are all broken out. After this, from the last of May on, the cultivation is mainly with the plow, sweep or cultivator, the hoes going rapidly over and thinning out if the stand appears too thick. I have known excellent crops raised where this routine was very much modified, For instance, a planter near a great river may be occupied during April and a part of a May in building a levee to es the water off his fields. It may be the middle of May before he goes over his crop the first time. In that case he had better cut away to a stand the first time over, and at the same time break out his middles. Where the first cultivation is thus thorough, the subsequent workings may be very rapid, and one hoeing make a good clear crop. But this can only be on old Jand that has been carefully cultivated for many years, till the weeds and grass are well killed out. As a rule, and in four cases out of five, ten days of the moist, hot weather, characteristic of the Tee months in the Cotton States, will make afield look “ ae and the plows must be hastened into it. As the summer solstice approaches, and during the fierce heat of July and the early part of August, care must be taken for the comfort of both the laborer and his mule. The plowman cannot move to the field too early. At the first gleam of dawn, let him lay the plow-line over his neck, and get his animal between the cotton rows. But he should come in early from the midday heat. Unless the crop is suffering, let him knock off at eleven o’clock, and have a nooning of three or four hours, during which the horse or mule may cool off in the shade, and be in a con- dition to eat heartily of dry fodder with some corn. If possible, and with ten mules to a hundred acres, it can be 33) COTTON CULTURE, done, the plowman should shift his harness to another ani- mal in the afternoon, and thus keep the condition of his stock well up. A brisk pace before the plow should be insisted upon. As a general thing, the resistance of a small plow or sweep in the light friable soil where cotton flourishes, is not more than fifty pounds, often not more than twenty-five, so that when the rows are straight and even, 2 good animal can keep up a pace of three miles an hour. So with the hoes. Two rapid though somewhat careless workings are better than one that is slow and thorough; for until the plant is nearly grown, it cannot have the dirt stirred around it too often. The chief improvement on the old modes of culture that can be made is in the rapidity and evenness of planting, as mentioned in the foregoing chapter, and in the first working. Where the row of young plants is straight at the first working, that is, at the time of the appearance of the third leaf, it requires but little thought to see that some imple- ment could be devised to throw the dirt away, and kill the grass on each side at the same time. The Shanghai plow, as it is not very elegantly called, proposes to do this, and some planters who have used it, speak highly of the invention. It consists of two small plows fastened to one beam, one throwing a furrow to the right, the other to the left, and leaving a clear space of about six inches between them. It should be drawn by two horses walk- ing on each side of the row, while the plow moves on the crest, the line of young plants entirely guarded by the open space between the two shares. Some planters have found that the same result may be accomplished by taking out the forward hoes of a common cultivator, and keeping it astride the bed. We give here a cut and description of one of the Cot- ton-seed Planters that are before the public, and which promises well, though as yet it has been tested by but ia) COTTON CULTURE. 33 few cotton growers. Those who have used this speak emphatically in its praise. That implement which proves itself best adapted to the work to be done, will of course find favor, and there are several cotton-seed planters which have not yet been fairly tested. The accompanying cut represents a barrel-shaped re- volving seed-box, C, with a shaft or axle running through its centre, to which the wheels are attached, and the re- volving movement keeps the seed constantly in motion. It is distributed evenly, or properly separated in the row, i it NED Patented June 25th, 1867. through a series of inner openings and one outer opening on the under side, which is provided with a lever and slide, and the quantity of seed discharged is regulated by mov- ing the slide lever G. The distribution of the seed 1s thus accomplished by a mechanical movement, very sim- ple, effectual, and certain, and no complication of gear- work or springs to get out of order. The coulter, A, is used when necessary to clear away stalks, vines, etc., on the surface. The furring-wheel, #; marks the ground more or less deep where the seed is to fall. or 34. COTTON CULTURE, The drag-bar, D, has two adjustable covering shares, B&B B, which will run over obstructions without catching, and cover the seed well and evenly. The lever, 4, raises both furring-wheel and drag-bar off the ground, when not wanted. By reversing the form of the seed-box, so that the seed will fall from both ends, a machine is made by which two rows are planted at once. In this case, the horse travels between the rows, the man rides on the machine, the wheels running on the ridges, and the seed is dropped just inside of each, and covered as shown above. By this simple and desirable improvement, one man can plant 15 to 20 acres per day, and it isa matter of great importance that the planting be accomplished as soon as possible after the ground is ready for the seed. These machines are manufactured in a substantial and durable manner by Ingersoll & Dougherty, Green Point, Kings Co., L. I. Fig. 6.—FOSTER’S COTTON SEED PLANTER. Fig. 6 represents Foster’s Cotton Seed Planter, as sold by R. H. Allen & Co., of New York. The implement is the invention of Newton Foster, of Palmyra, N. Y., and COTTON CULTURE. 3D was put upon the market in 1860, when a few were sold. Orders now coming from localities where these were sent, in absence of other testimony, indicate that it gives some satisfaction. The seed, as it comes from the gin, is put into the conical hopper and distributed with considerable uniformity, though in rather large quantity, by curved arms revolving on the bottom and pressing the seeds out through openings in the base of the cone, whence they are conducted by a funnel to the drill, which is opened and covered by the machine in its passage. The besé mode of planting and cultivating a cotton crop, implements and all considered, may be briefly described as follows; it being understood that the land is capable of producing a bale to the acre with the season fi ee BP omak up the whole surface early in March, and bed up! for the rows, placing them four or four and a half feet apart. On the first of April, run a small harrow along the top of} the bed, follow it by a triangular piece of wood that will | make a straight, well defined trench, and drop the seeds, after bemg soaked in a fertilizmg mixture and rolled in ashes and plaster, at intervals of two or three inches; cover with a board that shail leave a smooth, rounded surface. When the third leaf appears, use a Shanghai plow or some similar implement that will straddle the row, and clean away the grass and weeds on both sides at once. Let the hoes follow, cutting out to a stand, and use sweeps or light plows in breaking out the middles. Go over the crop once in fifteen days with the plow, and - follow with the hoe, if necessary, till the plant is so far grown that the branches begin to interlock across the middles. Then “lay by.” Your crop is assured unless damaged or destroyed by the boll worm or the army worm, or killed by a premature frost. 36 COTTON CULTURE. CHAPTER AY. COTTON PICKING. Early in August the fortunate and enterprising planter will walk in from a survey of his crop with two or three open bolls in his hand. His harvest is approaching. He plans to have his fodder pulling done in a week, if not al- ready over, and he looks after his sacks and baskets. A yard and a half or two yards of strong Lowell, made into a wide-mouthed sack, and furnished with a broad double strap to go over the neck, is provided for every hand on the place. The mouth or opening should be made so as to hang open, convenient for the picker. A cord or rope, as big as the little finger, sewed all around the top on the outside, helps keep the bag open. The length of the strap and depth of the bag should be carefully adjusted to the size and figure of the laborer, for the planter can ill afford to waste the strength, or needlessly multiply the motions of a picker. Each hand should also have his basket. These are made of wide, white oak splits, coarse in texture, not very heavy, and capable of holding about four bushels.- It is very well to have each sack and each basket branded or otherwise marked with the name of the laborer, as it prevents confusion, and it is well known that a workman is always better satisfied to feel that he has absolute and certain control of his tools. As soon as you can look down between two rows of cotton, and count half a dozen open bolls, start in the pickers. They will get more than it seems likely that they would, and, if active, will probably come out with forty or fifty pounds. From this time on till nearly Christ- mas the one great business on a cotton plantation, to which everything else must yield, and in which every available finger should be employed, is picking. There is no crop COTTON CULTURE. oe known, at least in this country, of which the harvesting is so long and monotonous. One boll is just like another, one row the fac simile of its neighbor. There is no science or ingenuity that has been brought, or is likely to be made effectual in very much modifying, abridging or lightening a? | GA { Z Fig. 7.—THE COTTON PLANT. this labor. In the nature of things, it must be done by the fingers, and by the fingers only, in order to be done well. The green seed or Mexican and Petit Gulf cotton, which is the variety chiefly cultivated in this country, when fully ‘mature, opens its burr or shell quite wide, and the mass of cotton within gradually falls outward, and droops by the weight of the seeds. At some periods of the picking sea- 38 COTTON CULTURE. son, for instance during the month of October, these open bolls, with the handful of snowy fibre hanging loose and fleecy, sometimes six or eight inches downward from the stem, present a beautiful and interesting sight. It seems like very easy work to gather a material which shows itself in such abundance as fairly to whiten the field, but let the skeptic or the grumbler take a bag on his shoulder, and start in between a couple of rows. He will find, upon taking hold of the first boll, that the fibres are quite firmly attached to the interior lining of the pod, and if he makes a quick snatch, thinking to gather the entire lock, he will only tear it in two, or leave considerable adher- ing tothe pod. And yet he may notice that an experienced * picker will gather the cotton, and lay his fingers into the middle of the open pod with a certain expertness which only practice gives; the effect of which is to clear the whole pod with one movement of the hand. Even long practice does not enable every laborer to become a rapid picker, no more than every printer is a fast compositor. There is a knack in cotton picking as in type setting, which cannot be acquired by all. Women generally make the fastest pickers, and next to them will be found the small, compact young man, weighing about a hundred and forty pounds, and not more than five feet eight inches in height. Good pickers are generally quiet, sometimes not speaking a word from one end of the row to the other. They are persons who habitually keep their minds directly on the thing in hand, and who, by the constitution of their bodies, enjoy the intensity of swift motions, and naturally love to accomplish a good deal in what they are doing. When the bag attains the weight of, say twenty-five pounds or more, there should be a convenient arrangement for trans- ferring its contents to the basket. It is hére that the skill and calculation of a planter are manifested. For instance, if you set your baskets beside one of the plantation roads, and start your hands in-to go from there to the other side COTTON CULTURE. 39 of the field and back, they may gather twenty-five pounds in the outward trip. Then coming back to the baskets, they will gather twenty-five more. It is easy to see that the last half of the load will be collected with very much more fatigue and inconvenience than the first half; for, in addition to the labor of picking, the laborer has to carry on his homeward trip twenty-five pounds weight which is continually increasing until it becomes fifty before he is relieved of it. Picking, though not heavy work, is tire- some, and in the last degree monotonous, so that regard for the comfort of the laborer, as well as desire to advance the work, willsuggest that the planter make every possible arrangement to relieve and lighten the task, and. enable the picker to take his work at the very best advantage. Let the field be divided up by lanes and roads in such a way that the picker will never carry much weight in his bag. The bags are emptied into the basket as soon as filled, and it is desirable that the hands should keep along together so as to come out about the same time. In fact, it is policy to let the fast pickers work some on the rows of the young andslow pickers. This gives encouragement, keeps the gang of laborers together, and stimulates the slower ones to keep up. Nothing is more disheartening to a young or feeble picker, than to find himself two or three hundred yards in the rear of the main force, tired, with a heavy bag, all the time painfully conscious of his inferiority to the rest, and perhaps too frequently reminded of it by harsh and discouraging words. ‘Though too much talking and singing must interfere with labor, it is earn- estly recommended to every cotton grower to take care to secure cheerfulness if not hilarity in the field. Remember that it is a very severe strain upon the pa- tience and spirits of any one, to be urged to rapid labor of precisely the same description, day after day, week after week, month after month. Humanity, to say nothing of selfinterest, (and here humanity and self-interest are iden- 7 40 COTTON CULTURE. tical,) must suggest various cheap and harmless modes of relieving the tedium of this kind of labor. Fo: instance, let there be refreshments at the baskets, a dish of hot coffee in a cool morning, or a pail of buttermilk in a hot afternoon, or a tub of sweetened water, or a basket of apples, so that when the gang come out from between the rows, and empty their bags, they may for a few mo- ments enjoy themselves, take a little rest, and indulge in a harmless joke before setting in again. They will be cer- tain to more than make up the time by the swiftness with which their fingers will spring from one snowy boll to an- other, and swiftness of movement is, of all things, what you most need in order to harvest your crop in good time and in good condition. This cannot be expected where the spirits droop, and life is made to seem burdensome. Additional wages should also be paid to the largest pickers. It may be best, in some cases, to change the terms of labor in the picking time, and pay so many cents for every hundred pounds, but as the picking varies greatly, according to the openness of the bolls, this is not so good a plan as to give a bonus of so much for every ten pounds — over one hundred or one hundred and fifty or two hun- dred, which the picker brings in at night. Care should be taken also, to abridge all the labor that is done after the picking ceases at night. The health of your force re- quires this, for during the principal part of the picking season, the contrast between the temperature of midday and after nightfall is very great, and chill and fever must follow where a person is exposed to both without corres- ponding change of dress. The practice on a great number of the Pinna ene in the Gulf States, under the old regime, was decidedly faulty in this respect. The hands were expected to be in the field at early dawn, and commence picking as soon as they could see. In September, and much more so in October, and the fol- lowing months of autumn, the dews are heavy and cold. COTTON CULTURE. 41 The clothing becomes wet, and the frame chilled in the raw, morning air. But, soon after sunrise, the temperature begins to rise rapidly, and by ten o’clock the thermometer may stand between seventy and eighty degrees. This degree of heat continues for several hours, but declines very fast at sunset, so as to be as low as nee by the time the stars appear. The cotton field will naturally be situated on the lowest lands, and at night the malarious air falls, so as to make them the most unwholesome of any in the vicinity. The effect of exposing laborers daily to such vicissitudes can easily be imagined. About nine o’clock in the morning, one and another of a gang of laborers would come out of the field, sick with a violent chill. This would be followed by a high fever, and the hand kept from earning anything for three or four days, and often a week. There is no time in the year when the cotton grower can so ill afford to have his force diminished, as in the picking season, Labor is then everywhere in demand. Good pickers can always command high wages, and every- body that can work is then occupied. Let the planter remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Coffee is the most agreeable preventive of miasmatic disease, and quinine the most offective. In picking time, every plantation on low lands should be supplied with both, and should use the former with liberality, and the latter in moderation. Let the pickers have the sunlight upon them the whole time of their being at work. Kindle a fire at the baskets before they go out, set on a big pot or kettle of coffee, and have it boiling hefore sunrise. Give each hand a half pint of it, and with it a hard cracker, a roast potato, or a piece of bread. Then, at eight, provide breakfast. Let the work be brisk till nearly sunset, pausing only for dinner, and manage to have the day’s picking weighed and stored 42 COTTON CULTURE. away in the gin-house or in cribs, made for the purpose, before the dew falls upon it. Though such is not the custom, probably, there is no time so favorable for sorting and trashing cotton, as when it is first picked. It is less matted then than at any sub- sequent handling, and the particles of leaf and stalk and dirt are not entangled in the fibre, as they afterwards be- come. Instead of weighing the baskets, each hand, as he comes out, can hang his bag upon the hook of a spring balance before he empties it. Then let an invalid, an old person, or a woman, sit by the baskets, and sort over and trash the contents of each bag. Cotton of the Mexican, Petit Gulf, and Okra varieties, (all of which are “ green seed” cottons, differing very little in appearance,) will naturally class into four grades, as it comes from the field. First.—The fine, long stapled cotton, clean, dry, and silken to the touch. This will greatly predominate in the early pickings, before the frosts and the heavy fall rains occur. Second.—The short, kinky bolls, that have been bored by the boll worm, and not quite killed, or which came late, and were unclenched by the frost, or which grew under the disadvantage of excessive or irregular moisture. Third.—Trashy cotton. This abounds after the heavy frosts, and the trash consists of minute fragments of leaves and stems, that become hopelessly mixed with the fibres, so as never to be entirely removed. They cause the small black specks that abound in the coarser varieties of Lowells and Osnaburgs. Fourth.—Dirty cotton. This comes in after heavy rains, accompanied by winds, which have blown out the contents of the pods, and beaten it into the earth, or driven sand all through the fibres. During the months of September and October, there is no need of having much trashy or dirty cotton. That which COTTON CULTURE. 43 is kinky or imperfectly developed, should be carefully separated from the best, and either kept by itself or thrown with the other low grades. The manufacturer can use it in making strong, coarse fabrics. The cotton of long staple and high grade, should not be allowed to become damp with dew, but taken while still warm and dry, and stored in a shed or in the gin-house, and lie a month or two before it is ginned. This gives the oil in the seeds time to ascend into the fibres, thus impart- ing a fine, pale, straw color, which the manufacturer loves to see, and also increasing the weight. + is almost impossible, after the heavy frosts, to pick cotton free of trash, and where the crop is large, more than half of it may come under this description. In some con- ditions of the market, planters find the difference between trashy and clean cotton so little, as to discourage them from efforts to send a fine article to market. But, in gen- eral, moderate painstaking will enable the grower to com- mand from two to five cents more per pound. The thoughtful planter will also manage so as to have the cotton handled as few times as possible, both to econo- mize labor, finish work as early as possible, and prevent his staple from becoming matted and dirty. Where ten baskets are to be emptied twice a day, there is no need of pouring them into a great box wagon, stamping down, and then unloading, by filling the basket again at the crib or gin-house. When the work isin a remote field, and the weighing is done by torchlight, the hands about the wagons may not get their suppers till eight or nine o’clock. Where the roads are good, an excellent plan is to couple the fore and hind wheels of a wagon with a pole of proper length, lay two other poles or long planks on the axle- trees, set the basket on them, and empty at the gin-house. If the weighing is done in a bag, this is entirely practicable, and allows all the hands to get to their houses in half an hour after they came out from the rows. Where the num- | | - | | 44 COTTON CULTURE. ber of baskets is large, some other plan can easily be de- vised by one who is studying how to get the greatest amount of work done in the shortest time, and with the least wear of muscle. The month of October is the height of the pine season in the best cotton regions, Many fields that were rapidly picked early in September, are now literally “ white for the harvest.” Now the planter cannot urge his work too zealously. But let him not, in his pushing, encroach upon the hours of slkeoion and sleep. His rule should be: “Gather no cotton upon which the sun is not shining, and to pay high for fast picking rather than for night work.” At times, in the picking season, it will be advisable to divide the force, especially where it is large, into “fast pickers” and “the trash gang,” instructing the former to press along, and gather rapidly all the fair clean cotton that is hanging open on the upper branches of the bush, the others to follow, gleaning all that remains, the imper- fect bolls, that which has fallen to the anil or been trailed in the dirt. The picking season lasts from three to four months, in- cluding all of September, October, and November, and frequently a part of August and December. But where cotton opens early, there is no reason why it should not be nearly all gathered by the tenth of December. In the older regions of the South, as Georgia and South Carolina, it has been the usual practice to weigh but once a day, and to require a hundred and fifty pounds as a day’s work. In good open cotton, a fast hand will gather this amount in five or six hours, but in the beginning, as at the close of the season, the whole day will be consumed in picking this number of pounds. It requires rather more than three times the weight of lint to make a given amount of unginned cotton. Thus, from fifteen to eighteen hundred pounds of cotton in the | | COTTON CULTURE. 45 seed will be required in making a bale of the usual weight. Ten good hands can pick a bale per day. Hence, if ten hands have planted a hundred acres, which proves a good crop, they will consume a hundred days in picking it out. CELA PT HR Wy. GINNING, BALING AND MARKETING. Tn detailing, step by step, the process of cotton raising, we have hitherto been dealing, as it were, with fixed quan- tities. The directions given for the stock and implements of a cotton farm, the preparation of the soil, the selection of seed, the planting and cultivation, and, as in the last chapter, the picking and storing of cotton in the seed, apply with hardly any variations to the production of the crop wherever it is extensively raised in the United States. No material changes can be made in this routine, whether you have selected a warm and sunny slope in southern Illinois, or drop your seed into the rank and teeming soil of Louisiana, in fields bordered by rows of orange trees. We speak now not so much of what must be done, as of what may be done. The producer now has in his sheds, or, perhaps, in cribs in the field, a large amount of cotton in the seed. When the picking season comes toan end, to- ward the middle of December, he may have a hundred and forty thousand pounds; that is on the supposition that his ten hands have been successful in the cultivation of a hundred acres. Every thrifty planter, however, must be supposed to have anticipated the marketing of his crop, and to have made, at least, some preparation in the earlier part of the season for ginning and baling. If there was no gin on the place, it is fair to suppose that he bought one in August, while the crop was in the 46 COTTON CULTURE. interval between cultivation and harvest, and made arrange- ments, more or less complete, for the easy and rapid hand- ling of his crop when picked. These arrangements may be of various degrees of rudeness, from a simple open shed, sufficient only to shelter his machinery, or a big-walled tent, to a large, complete, and perfectly appointed gin- house, costing three or four thousand dollars. As a general thing, horse-power is employed in ginning American cotton. On very large plantations, where the amount raised approximates to a thousand bales, a steam gin is In most cases erected. These are matters that de- pend almost entirely upon the amount of capital that one brings to the business, the permanence with which the planter expects to be engaged in cotton-raising, and the depth and richness of the land he is cultivating. The principle of the cotton-gin is simple, and its mechan- ism is not complicated. The ingenuity and patience dis- played by Eli Whitney in inventing and perfecting this machine, and the wonderful effect it has had in the social and political economy of the world, are spoken of more fully in the closing chapter of this treatise. But at this point in cotton producing, every good planter must become, to some extent, a mechanic; for no person can successfully operate with a machine like the cotton-gin, who does not quite thoroughly understand the precise mode in which it operates, when it does the work well, and when imper- fectly, and how its different parts are to be adjusted so as to perform their office in the best manner. Take a wooden cylinder, say four feet long, and five inches in diameter. Fasten upon it a series of small cir- cular saws, say nine inches in diameter, so that the edge will rise two inches above the cylinder all around. Let there be eighty of these saws; they will be set upon the cylinder a fraction over half an inch apart. The teeth of these saws are filed, so as turn from you as you stand be- fore the cylinder. Now place your cylinder, thus armed COTTON CULTURE. 47 with its thousands of little saw teeth, upon bearings, and let it revolve, bringing a considerable mass of cotton in the seed to press against these teeth. It is easy to see that, if the cylinder revolves rapidly, the teeth must very soon pull off the lint from the seeds to which it is attached. These teeth play between steel bars, which allow the lint, but not the seed to pass. Now below the saws fit a set of stiff brushes upon an- other cylinder, and let them revolve in the opposite direc- tion. Their effect will be to brush off and clear away from the saw-teeth of the cylinder the lint which they have just pulled from the seed. You need now a fan, re- volving so as to make a blast of air, in order to throw the light and downy lint, which has thus been liberated, to a convenient distance from the revolving saws and brushes. These three are the essential parts of the Whitney cat- ton-gin. All the rest is cabinet work. A number of im- provements have, of late years, been made in‘this machine, the effect of which is to pick the cotton more perfectly from the seed, to prevent the teeth from cutting the staple, and to give greater regularity to its operations: But when you have purchased a gin, the principal consid- eration will be, how to place it in such a way that the cotton may be brought to it with the least labor, and how the lint may be taken to the screw, or other arrangement for pressing, with the greatest convenience. The power for driving the gin is produced by two or more horses acting on an upright, which revolves on an iron pivot. Horizontal arms extend, say, ten feet. There are, usually, four of these arms, to which the horses are attached. At the upper end of this vertical revolving shaft, is a large cog-wheel, say twenty feet in diameter, the teeth of which play into a ratchet wheel, to the axle of which a large drum is attached. This gearing gives sufficient rapidity of motion to the drum, from which a band passes directly to the gin. 48 COTTON CULTURE. A and B represent respectively the first and second stories of a gin-house. V S (Fig. 8) isa vertical shaft, with horizontal arms, to which horses are attached at A and h, which pull around in the dotted path. At the south end of the building, S represents an ‘iron screw working in a strong frame, and driven upward by a mule, m, towards P, the packing-box, which opens in the second story. G, in this story, (Fig. 9,) is the gin, which discharges gin- ned cotton into Z the lint room, where it is picked up by the Fig. 8 armful, and thrown into the packing-box; W, W, W, W, are windows, so placed as to throw strong light on G, the gin, and P, the press; the short lines, W/, J/, represent a double open staircase, up which the seed-cotton is carried on the shoulders of the laborers. They go up one flight, and down the other, so as not to interfere with each other. In the latter part of the picking season, after the fall rains set in, much of the cotton which comes from the COTTON CULTURE. 49 field will be damp, not to say wet, and much of that which was picked dry, and has been stored in cribs or sheds, will be too damp for the gin. The rule is that no cotton is fit to gin unless the seed snaps brittle between the teeth. Hence a necessary accom- paniment of every gin is a scaffolding, more or less exten- sive, upon which the cotton may be sunned. In most cases, this scaffolding consists of boards rudely supported on blocks or stakes driven in the earth, and, where the amount of cotton to be sunned is not large, a permanent and more expensive arrangement would hardly pay. But on the lower bottoms of the Cotton States, what with the heavy dews, frequent rains, and late picking, there is al- ways a great deal of cotton on the scaffold. Hence it be- comes important that it should be so arranged as to afford the utmost convenience in handling; for every laborer unnecessarily kept around the gin-house, is so much sub- tracted from the picking force. There is no reason why two hands, with a boy to drive the mules, should not con- duct all parts of the ginning process, but the practice has been to have three, four, and sometimes five hands, more or less, busy about a gin-house. The side view, presented on the next page, will give a tolerably clear conception of a very convenient arrange- ment for drying cotton. 7 The gin-house is presumed to stand north and south, giving at its southern end a sunny exposure, where the scaffold, S, is erected. It will be seen that this scaffold extends from the left, or third story, in a gradual slope to within six feet of the ground. It is supported by posts, which should be charred at the lower end to prevent decay. At the end next the building, it is high enough to enable _a loaded wagon to drive under, and discharge cotton that is perfectly dry into either story of the gin-house. The slope of the scaffold should be so gentle as to admit of easy walking upon it, and should he roofed with some 3 50 COTTON CULTURE. material as tin that has been sanded, or felt roofing covered with gravel, so as not to become slippery, which would be the case with shingles or boards. The shelter beneath this scaffolding affords ample and convenient room for storing a hundred bales of cotton. When a load of cotton comes in from the field wet or damp, it can be driven close alongside of this scaffold, and rapidly unloaded. If the day is clear, a few hours of sun will fit it for the gin, and the labor of putting it into bas- kets, and carrying up the gentle slope into the loft of the a iN Fig. 10.—GIN-HOUSE WITH SCAFFOLD. I gin-house is very moderate. C C represents a broad sheet of painted canvass, which is rolled around a pole after the manner of a street awning. In clear weather this canvass is kept snugly rolled at the upper end of the scaffolding, just under the threshold of the loft door. In case of a sud- den shower, instead of calling hands from the field to hurry the cotton under shelter, two hands can take hold of the opposite ends of the canvass pole, and in two minutes have everything on the scaffold securely protected from wet. An arrangement of this sort is evidently a great labor saver, and is almost equal to the addition of another hand to the picking force. These arrangements for ginning and baling cotton are COTTON CULTURE. Bl described, not as being in the nature of things the best that might be devised, but as those in common use throughout the South. None of the presses on the plantations are as effective as they might be, and the result is that all of the crop that is packed into the holds of ships at Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, and Galveston, three-fourths or four-fifths of all the staple grown has to be pressed and bound over again. The average expense of receiving, storing, pressing, and binding over, hauling down to the wharves and deliy- ering to the vessels, of a cotton crop, is two dollars per bale, and almost the whole of this is unnecessary. The number of bales received and shipped at New Orleans in 1860 was, in round numbers, a million. This million of bales paid to draymen, shipping clerks, cotton-press men and the owners of cotton sheds, and commission merchants, two millions of dollars, all of which came out of the plant- ers, and the greater part of which could have been avoided by sending the cotton to market in compact, square bales, thoroughly pressed, and well bound. Suppose, for in- stance, a cotton grower, in some part of the Mississippi Valley, produces annually five hundred bales, which he sends to market in the usual way. At a moderate calcu- lation he pays a dollar and a half a bale in New Orleans, for having his cotton pressed over and for the hauling, storing, and waste incident to that operation. Thus his defective packing costs him seven hundred and fifty dol- lars a year. Now, five hundred dollars would erect for him a strong press, operating on the hydraulic principle, in which he could make as small a bale as can be made in the powerful steam presses of New Orleans. But he need not resort to a hydraulic press. The patentees of several of the improved hay and cotton-presses in use throughout the Northern States, will agree for one hundred dollars more than the cost of the common iron or wooden screw arrangement, to put him up a press, simple in principle 52 COTTON CULTURE. and easy in its operation, that will put four hundred pounds of cotton into forty cubic feet, which is about the degree of compression given by the steam press. There is an- other important advantage to be gained by putting the cotton into small compact bales. Its freight will cost a third or a half less, whether by car or steamboat, it will waste less in handling, and, if bound with iron hoops, will be in far less danger of destruction by fire. Of late the iron hoop or tie has rapidly superseded the rope in former use, and it has the recommendation of being cheaper as well as every way better. It makes a neat, firm looking bale, not liable to burst from the untying or cutting of the ropes, and, as a grand advantage, the iron hoops hold the cotton so compactly that in case of a fire only the surface is scorched. In general, the hoop used among planters is too narrow, being less than an inch. If the cotton growers would use better presses, so as to force the usuxl number of pounds into a third or half less space than a four hundred-pound bale usually occupies, and then confine it with eight to ten hoops an inch or an inch and a quarter wide, the package would leave the gin-house in a condition to make the trip to Manchester or Lowell without damage from fire, water, or rough and frequent handling. Since the effect of the recent war in opening the South to free labor, and the application of Yankee ingenuity in overcoming the various problems and difficulties in cotton- growing, several cotton presses, new in their design and admirable in their principle, have been submitted to the cotton growing community. Among these one of the best is that patented in 1860, by P.G. Gardner. The cut of this admirable press which faces this page, needs but little explanation. The effect of turning the large cast iron wheels on each side of the press, is to move the screws ¢ and d@ with great force in the direction desired. These screws are fastened to @ and 8, cast iron COTTON CULTURE. 53 shafts, which move on the track laid for them by the wheels at their ends. At their upper ends, these shafts are eraneoted by a towele- joint, above which is the follower, which moves up and down in the packing-box. , This cut represents the TO AT hil SS = SS a HN i —= a SSSSan —— ii te: =o= = a mo oS