The seeds should be soaked in a mixture of cow-dung and water, or in a dilute solution of salt petre, and then be sun-dried for about an hour, before sowing. Upland seeds are not only furred by the cotton lint still remaining on them, but they stick so together, that their delivery by drilling-machine is uncertain and unsatisfactory.
Weeding and Thinning.—The seed being sown, the greatest possible care is taken to prevent the growth of weeds, for these may seriously injure, perhaps entirely destroy, the crop. The weeding gangs, with light sharp hoes, also from time to time cut out the weakly plants, until at length only two, and these the strongest, are left in each hole. Supplying, or resowing the holes that have failed to produce plants, likewise occupies attention ; and the soil washed down from the ridges should occasionally be drawn up round the plants, as before. It is always the object of the planter to do as much work as possible by horses, mules, ploughs, sweeps, &c., and as little as he can by hand-labour ; but the weeding of the very young and tender plants is too delicate an opera tion to be performed with any safety or nicety altogether by ploughs or sweeps; although some never use a hoe in the cotton-fields.
Topping.—When the plants exhibit an inclination to produce wood and leaves, at the expense of flowers and seeds, their tops should be nipped off when the podding commences.
Pioking.—The whole cultivation of the cotton-plant, up to the period of its first "picking," is termed "making the crop." If the season has been forward and favourable, the picking may begin (in America) in August ; but if backward, the first general picking may be delayed until Sep tember ; in uncommon cases, in some districts it may begin as early as July. Whenever it does commence, the chief dread of the American planter is an early frost; for until a killing frost does occur, the plants continue to produce and ripen their bolls. Each picker takes a bag (tied round the breast or waist) and a good-sized cotton sheet ; the former he fills with the cotton he picks, which he then lays out on the latter to dry, whilst he is refilling his bag, and so on until the sheet will hold no more, when it is carried to the weighing-house.
A good careful hand will pick in a fair field 200 lb. of seed cotton in a day ; to accomplish tio
greater quantity, the cotton must be unusually thick on the bushes. On most plantations, the average does not exceed 100 lb. a hand.
Successive pickings, each being less in quantity, at length so exhaust the cotton on the bushes, that there is no longer any left to pay for further picking; the cattle are then turned in, and speedily destroy the bushes, and the land is left in this condition until required again.
Produce.—In the valley of the Mississippi, the common average yield per acre of ginned cotton is one bale of 400 lb., whereas in S. Carolina, Georgia, &o., 200 lb. is considered an excellent return, much of the land not giving 100 lb. an sore. There is, however, abundance of rich land in all these states, which will yield 400 lb. an acre ; but being low lying, the cotton is liable to mildew, to be injured by wet, and to be killed by early frosts; hence such lands are preferred for corn and rice. Some Upland cotton-plants, under favourable circumstances, are wonderfully prolific+, pro ducing 300-400 bolls a tree, weighing 4i lb. of seed cotton, equal to about If lb. of ginned cotton. Indeed, the produce per acre may be much increased by a good selection of seed, and by a careful attention to the due preparation and manuring of the land.
The average yield from native cultivation in India is about 50-60 lb. of ginned cotton to the acre ; yet the result of careful scientific experiment has been an average of 267 lb. an acre.
To pick cotton properly is a very nice and delicate business, inasmuch as it is essential to with draw every particle of cotton from the boll at one pull, without getting any leaf, scraps of leaves, or other foreign matter clinging to it. By dexterous management, so as to grasp lightly with the fingers the five sections comprising the boll, and withdraw all at once the cotton in it, the rapidity of the picking is ensured ; whereas, by making two, three, or four efforts, but a small quantity would be gathered in the day's work. By obtaining it free from fragments of leaves, and of the boll itself, the cotton is clean, and consequently entails little or no trouble in getting rid of extra neous matters prior to being ginned.