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Show J'.i' 8 EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. the roots differ in nothing essentially from the highest twig. If each were planted in the same orchard, if taken from the same tree, their 1 roduce would be similar in quality. Potatoes exhibit the same phenomena, and though, comparatively with th.eir rapid growth, their decadence is more slow, it is not less certain. After those vegetables necessary to human subsistence, ~he most important that man has appropriated to his use i5 COTTON. There is no known veaetable capable of being brought to perfection on so great variety of soil. Being brought from within the tropics, its fibres are tenoer, but its growth is rapid. The great value ?f cotten will justify some detail r spP.r.ling pl:mting, prorlucP.. and pnce. The time of planting cotton varies with the particular climate. In the neighbourhood of New-Orleans it is planted early in April ; at ..... atchez, and on Red river, about the middle of. that month; in Tennessee and l\fissouri Territory, about the first of May. The cotton, in the first stages of its growth, is a remarkably tender plant ; the slightest frost destroys it, and even cold rains sen ibly check its growth. 1t is planted either in drills or squares ; the former is generaJly considered the most productive mode. In all cases a much greater quantity of seed is planted than rs sup· posed to produce stalks. The numher of stalks permitted to remain, depends upon the strength of the soil; Lut from the branching nature of the plant, the stalks are, on every kind of land, left at a very con-iJerable distance from each other. ·.The man.ner of planting, ploughing, hoeing and weelliHg cottou, d1ffe rs but httle from the same necessary· rou tine of labour in cu1tiva· tig~ maize. The former, from its humbl er height, su tTers more from weeds than the latte r. Cotton is also in its first stages much more slow of growth than maize. ~he time that elapses from planting fo the commencement of gatheru:~ g cotton, does not vary very much from four months, or about one hundred and twenty days. · If the extremes between the spring and fall frosts of any given place are ascertained, its fitness for the culture of cotton is determined. It has been observed in this treatise, and may be again' repeated, that cotton will grow upon every variety of land upon which any useful vegetable can be cultivated. The botanical characters of the cotton are curious to those unac· quainted with the family to which it belongs. Upon the same stalk ar~ seen, ~t the same time, the fruit and flowers in all stages of vegfltatwn. Like other plants of the class M onodelphia, such as holly~ hock, marsh mallows, ockra, and hibiscus, cotton continues to pro· ~!uce flowers as long as frost permits. Of the flowers, most common m the northern states, the large white holly hock resembles the herbaceous cotton of Louisiana most. . Cotton grows with an upright herbaceous stalk, from which are nregularly protruded a number of stems. The flowers are produced UJ:~on the stalks, and are followed by an oval, green, pointed capsule, ~Ith three cells, in which are enclosed a number of seed~, eJJveloped 111 the ~oft 5ilky dol'Vn, that has been appropriated by man to so many EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 179 uses of convenience and ele~ance. The down adheres to the seed with great tenacity, but is easily detached from the capsule. G tl · g the cotton is entirely done by the hand, and demands :~a 1enn . · 1 h' f reat care in the operation. A circumstance m the natura Istor,r o ~otton contributes to render its collection, free of dead _leaves, dtfficult a~d tedious. Its calyi: is an abiding peryanth, ~vh1ch often becomes dry long before the cotton ripe ns , and envelopm.g the capsule, its broken fragments are very liable to be dragg~d out '~Jth the cotton. The bl ack specks seen in m~st cotton are p1eces of the peryanth, intermingled in this manner wtth the down. . . , The capsule of cotton continues about the stze of a p1gcon s egg, until nearly the time of ripenir.1g the seed, when the sutures of th , capsule open, and expm;e the snow-whit~ down. The down appears to be a provision of nature for the protectiOn of the see~, and as m all known cases of the same kind, comes to .full perfectiOn before .the fruit. From this reason it arises, th3t fr?st an.n~al!y destroys an •n:· mense quantity of seed, without matenally ll1JUrmg the down, u which this seed is enveloped. The quantity of cotton that can be 0 made upon? and collected from an acre, differs greatly. :Below .33 north lattt~de, ~ne thousan wei~ht is considered about a medtum. The relative we1ght of seed and down is about three-fourths of the latter, to one-fourth of the former; therefore, two hundred and fifty lbs. of clean cottoa would be the medium produce of an acre. . A labourer will cultivate, with ease, more than twice as much cotton as he can collect. There is no manual .labour done b~ man, where the quantum that is performed by dtfferent m~n, of equal strength, differs so greatly as picking cot~on. Th~ ordmary amount allowed for a day's labo ur, is betvveen fitty and sixty pounds : two hundred has been collected by one person in one day. The author has seen children collect into baskets more cotton than they wer_e able to carry to the place of d~posi:. It may indeed be justly c.on~Idercu as one of the excellenctes o[ the culture of cotton, that Ja Its collection no manua] labour is lost. Neither age nor childhoou, if in health, is prevented from giving ihi aid in this innocent and useful pur-uit. Chilcren from eight years old caH be crnploy~d t6 advantage: At Natchez and south of that place, the gathermg season begms about the first of September, and continues, in an ordinary season, between three and four months. Allowing for stormy weather, Sundays,. and other interruptions, ni,ety days is abou~ a l~cdiu~ harvest ~ and allowing an average for forty lb~. per day, will gtve 4~0 0 Ibs .. as the amount that one person will collect in a season. Th1s quant1ty has been e~ceeded but seldom, particularly if the number of hands on the farms were numerous. There is always a decrement of protluce foll owing the increase of labourers. . . The bale varies in weight: 320 lbs. Is about a med1~m.. That farm produces well where three and ahalf bales of th1s s1ze are made to each hand ; four such bales is an exce1Ient. crop. . It must be understood, however, that the same labourers ratse .~aJze,, potatoes, and other vegetabl~s for nourishment. · rom the ahJlJty o! / |