where it is compressed in large boxes. From the box it is swung around to the baler, further compressed, covered with coarse burlap and bound with metal straps. Each bale weighing about 500 lbs. is marked for identification and with its actual weight.
HOW COTTON IS BOUGHT
Cotton, the fibers of which are not over 1⅛ inches long is known as short cotton and is sold by grade from samples taken from each bale. Grading is based on color and relative amount of trash and stained fibers present. Short cotton constitutes the great bulk of that produced in this country and is used in making the cheaper grades of goods. Additional factors of length, strength and uniformity of fiber enter into the value of long staple cottons, premiums generally being given for each 114 inch in length. The finer fabrics, including muslins and laces (q. v.) are made from long staple cotton.
The linters or fuzz remaining on the seed of Upland cotton after ginning yields batting, wadding, stuffing for pads, etc., and “lambs wool” for fleece-lined underwear. The hulls are used in cattle feed, fertilizers and paper stock. From the seed oil is made, which is used in lard compounds, cooking and salad oils and soap stocks, while the “cake” (residue after pressing the oil from the kernels) is used in fertilizers, dye stuffs, cattle and poultry feed, confectionery and flour.
ENEMIES OF COTTON
Cotton is subject to diseases, such as leaf blight, shedding of bolls, root, and boll rot and root galls.
The principal insect enemies are the cotton worm, the boll worm, and the Mexican boll weevil. Of these, the weevil is the worst, but by community effort the number of early weevils may generally be so reduced that a crop may be well advanced before the insects become hopelessly abundant.
Cotton, John (1585-1652), an eminent Puritan minister, was for 20 years pastor of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and for almost as long in Boston, New England. Cotton, whose Puritan leanings made him an object of suspicion under the primacy of Laud, was to have been brought before the Court of High Commission for trial. He escaped, however, to London and, later, to Boston, New England. Both in England and in New England, the reputation of Cotton for learning was of the highest. He had an absolute command of Latin, Greek and Hebrew; and loved “to sweeten his mouth with a piece of Calvin” at the close of his day of twelve hours' study. Cotton opposed Anne Hutchinson, whom he had at first been disposed to favor; and disputed also with Roger Williams. Among his many works was the catechism Milk for Babes.
Cottonworm, the larva of a moth doing great damage to the cotton-plant by eating the foliage. It is estimated by officials of the United States government that the loss occasioned by this insect in a year of great abundance of cotton-plants amounts to 30 million dollars. The average loss is placed at 15 million dollars. The perfect insect is a small, brownish moth, which flies at night and deposits eggs on the under side of the leaves of the cotton-plant. These eggs hatch in mid-summer within three days, and at once is begun the destruction of the leaves. The larva, when full-grown, is about an inch and three fourths in length, of a light-green color, striped with white and black and spotted with black and yellow. When through feeding, the caterpillar folds a leaf about itself, spins a cocoon and pupates; shortly after emerging, the moth lays her eggs. There may be seven broods in a single season. A related species destroys cotton in the ball. See Riley: Entomological Commission's 4th Report (Washington, 1885); Bulletin No. 18, New Series (Washington, 1898).
Cotyledon (kŏt′ĭ-lē′dŏn), the first leaf or leaves developed by an embryo. In seed-plants the cotyledons are developed in the seed, and are more or less different from the usual leaf-form, often being fleshy from containing stored food, as in the bean and acorn. Generally the cotyledons escape from the seed during its germination, but in some cases, as in the acorn, they never leave the seed. See Embryo.
Couch, Darius Nash, an American general, was born on July 23, 1822, in Putnam County, New York; and died at Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 12, 1897. After graduating at West Point, he served in the Mexican War as lieutenant of artillery. He entered the Civil War as colonel of the 7th Massachusetts. He took part in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He was made major-general in 1862, and was in command of a division in the battle of Nashville.
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| ELLIOTT COUES |
Coues (kouz), Elliott, a notable American ornithologist, was born at Portsmouth, N.H., Sept. 9, 1842; and died at Baltimore, Md., Dec. 25, 1899. After graduating at Columbian University, Washington, D. C., in 1861, he entered the military medical service, and was for a time surgeon and naturalist on the U. S. northern-boundary commission. He was
