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AGRICULTURE
Carolina, Tennessee, or Florida phosphates; and the potash salts are imported from Germany. These are commonly mixed to produce a fertilizer containing about 21 per cent, of nitrogen, 9 per cent, of soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, and 2 per cent, of potash. Such a fertilizer can usually be laid down upon the farms in the cotton country for about $5.00 per acre for the above amounts. Five dollars invested in this kind and amount of fertilizer will, upon land of the character described, with favourable weather, produce an increase in the crop amounting to $10.00 to $15.00. Fertilizers are gradually being introduced throughout the cotton country, Avith the exception of the rich bottoms of the Mississippi and the black prairies of Texas, where they have so far never been needed. Great improvements have also been made in the implements and in the methods of cultivation. This crop, Avhich under the slave system was cultivated almost entirely with the hoe, is now cultivated wholly with machines. On many plantations the hoe is used only once, to thin the cotton. The culture is carried out with horse cultivators and is prosecuted as long as the growth of the plant continues, or until the actual fruiting begins. According to the reports to the Department of Agriculture the percentage of each item in the total average cost of cultivating a crop of cotton is as follows :—Rent of land, 19; ploughing, 18; seed, 1; planting, 2; fertilizers and distributing, 9; thinning and hoeing, 8; picking, 22; ginning and pressing, bagging and ties, 11 ; wear and tear on implements, 3; marketing and other expenses, 7 per cent. It will be seen that picking is much the most expensive item in cotton cultivation. The great desideratum still is the cotton-picking machine. The cotton-plant has undergone a remarkable development since its introduction in the southern States. The Varieties cu^vated cottons of to-day differ much from the original form of Gossypium kerbaceum, which produced seed cotton, whose lint was only 25 per cent, of its weight, and had a staple only 20 to 30 mm. long. Under the influence of the climate, soils, and cultivation of these States the proportion of lint has been greatly increased, reaching as high as 36 and even 40 per cent, in some varieties ; while the length of the staple has increased correspondingly, reaching in a few varieties a length of 50 or even 60 mm. In only a few varieties, however, have we obtained this great increase in both percentage of lint and length of staple. Usually, when the length and fineness of the staple are increased the weight is reduced, and vice versa. In cases where both length of fibre and weight have been increased the cotton runs down again very rapidly, first usually in the weight produced. Cotton is a plant which supports easily and responds quickly to differences in environment, soil, climate, treatment, and manures, and can thus be greatly modified in form and habit in a few successive generations. The flowers are open; the pollen is produced in great abundance, and is borne upon the slightest breeze. The stigmas are well above the anthers, so that cross-fertilization is easy and common. Seeds from the earlier maturing bolls produce plants yielding a longer lint than those from the laterripened bolls on the same plant. Some varieties produce a long, silky fibre when grown in rich, moist soil, but soon lose these qualities when grown on the poorer hill lands. A variety which has been grown for years in the northern belt of the cotton region will mature its whole crop at the same time, while the same variety grown for a few years in the southern part of the belt will continue to ripen through several weeks, though the total yield will be no greater. With this natural tendency to vary, and with all these forces to impel the plant to change its form
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or habit, varieties are multiplied indefinitely, even without the help of the cultivator. Of true botanical varieties, however, there are few, if any; while the agricultural varieties, so called, are almost innumerable. The result of this natural tendency of the plant is that the names of agricultural varieties are in great confusion, and there is a good deal of humbugging connected with the business of selling cotton-seed for planting. The natural tendency of this variation is always back towards its original form. Unusual fruitfulness always results in loss of vitality, and the original form, yielding a small crop, always has the greater vitality, and so a greater prepotency in crossfertilization. As a result of this law, constant care in the selection of seed is essential in order even to keep an improved variety up to its present standard. Only the seed from the finest typical plants should be saved and used. The neglect of these principles leads surely to degeneration of the so-called improved variety. In this way planters are often disappointed with the results secured from highpriced seed of new varieties, for which great claims are made by their originators, and large prices paid. The old method of saving seed for planting was to take a sufficient number of bushels just as they came from the gin. The new method of selecting the best plants only of the typical form is resulting in the steady improvement of the cottonplant. If it is intelligently pursued by a large number of planters for another century, or even a score or two of years, it will certainly result in the still further improvement of this wonderful plant. The great desire, of course, is to secure a cotton-plant which will yield a maximum amount of fibre of the longest and finest staple. It is believed by experts that cotton will be improved steadily until this end is reached. The culture of cotton must be a clean one. It is not necessarily deep culture, and during the growing season the cultivation is preferably very shallow. The u result of this is a great destruction of the humus of the soil, and great leaching and washing, especially in the light loams of the hill country. The main object, therefore, of the cotton-planter is to prevent erosion. Wherever the planters have failed to guard their fields by hillside ploughing and terracing, these have been extensively denuded of soil, rendering them barren, and devastating other fields lying at a lower level, which are covered. The hillsides have to be gradually terraced with the plough upon almost an exact level. On the better farms this is done with a spirit-level or compass from time to time, and hillside ditches put in at the proper places. In the moist bottom-lands along the rivers it is the custom to throw the soil up in high beds with the plough, and then to cultivate them deep. This is the more common method of drainage, but it is an expensive one, as it has to be renewed every few years. More intelligent planters drain their bottoms with underground or open drains. In the case of small plantations the difficulties of adjusting a right-of-way for outlet ditches have interfered seriously with this plan. Many planters question the wisdom of deep-breaking and subsoiling. There is no question that a deep soil is better for the cotton-plant; but the expense of obtaining it, the risk of injuring the soil through leaching, and the danger of bringing poor soil to the surface, have led many planters to oppose this plan. Sandy soils are made thereby too dry and leachy, and it is a questionable proceeding to turn the heavy clays up upon the top. Planters are, as a result, divided in opinion as to the wisdom of subsoiling. Nothing definite can be said with regard to a rotation of crops upon the cotton plantation. Planters appreciate generally the value of broad-leaved and narrow-leaved plants and root crops, but there is an absence of exact knowledge, with the result that their
