Cotton plant

“ The cotton plant grows over a wide area in the United States, including all of the southern states and extending into southern Virginia, southern Kentucky, southern Missouri, and Oklahoma. In former years the cotton plant was cultivated solely for its fiber. It is only in the last quarter of a century that the high value of its seed for many purposes has been realized. The seed of the cotton plant is preëminently rich in oil and protein. ”

“ The Cotton plant most readily responds to any changes of climate, methods of cultivation, change of soil or of fertilizers. So that it is easy to understand in a plant so susceptible and prone to vary as is the cotton, that new species may in a few years be brought into existence, and especially by means of proper selection of the seed, and careful cultivation. ”

“ The cotton fiber is subjected to further processes of cleaning, carding, etc., before it is ready to be manufactured into cloth fabrics, thread, etc.
Nearly all parts of the cotton plant find a use. After the cotton is picked, the stalks are burnt upon the fields or “plowed under” to serve as a fertilizer for the soil, which would otherwise become impoverished very rapidly. The bark of the root is collected and employed medicinally, its medicinal properties being highly lauded by the negroes of the South. The seeds yield the cottonseed oil, which is not unlike olive oil. ”

“ It is clear that when a seed is ready to be set free, and is provided by a tuft of hair, such as is seen on the cotton seed, dandelion and willow herb, it becomes a very easy matter for it to be carried ever so far, when a good breeze is blowing. Most of us have blown, when children, at the crown of white feathery matter in the dandelion, and have been delighted to see the tiny parachutes carrying off its tiny seed to be afterward deposited, and ultimately take root and appear as a new plant. Much in the same way, before it was cultivated, the Cotton plant perpetuated its own species. ”

“ The cotton plant is in reality a perennial, becoming quite shrubby with age, but in cultivation it is treated as an annual, being grown from seeds planted each spring. Three or four seeds are planted to each hill, the hills being about three feet apart. After sprouting the weaker individuals are removed, and at the end of three or four months the remaining carefully cultivated plants are pruned to make them more spreading and give a better yield of cotton. The plants grow quite rapidly, the cotton maturing about five months after planting. ”

“ The appearance of a well-cultivated cotton-field, if it has escaped the ravages of insects and the destruction of the elements, is of singular beauty. Although it may be a mile in extent, still it is as carefully wrought as is the mold of the limited garden of the coldest climate. The cotton-leaf is of a delicate green, large and luxuriant; the stalk indicates rapid growth, yet it has a healthy and firm look. Viewed from a distance, the perfecting plant has a warm and glowing expression. ”

“ In connection with this he further says "that even when the seed is taken away along with the lint, cotton still removes smaller amounts of fertilising materials from the soil than either oats or corn." It should be borne in mind that the soil upon which cotton is cultivated lies fallow for a greater part of the year, and the fact of absence of cultivation, with consequent non-fertilising and non-enriching of land, must tend in the direction of soil exhaustion by the Cotton plant. ”

“ It is found to be especially well adapted to the culture of coffee, and likewise 101well adapted to the growth of corn and beans, while the experiment made thus far with the cotton plant promises also an abundant yield. There is, however, a somewhat sandy level soil in parts, interspersed with these dark red lands, which present to my view very favorable indications for the culture of cotton, and the experience of planters will soon develop whether the former or the latter can be cultivated to best advantage in this crop. ”

“ No sooner does the cotton pod arrive at maturity than its swollen capsules burst with an elastic force, in gaping segments, in order, as it were, to display to the most careless eye their white fleecy treasure, and to invite the hand of the observer to pluck it from the seeds, and to work it up into a light and beautiful robe. ”

“ The cotton plant is indigenous to many tropical countries, in which it is often found in a wild state. The product of the wild plant is, however, quite unsuitable for manufacturing purposes, and, even in cases where cotton is produced by cultivation, the value of the fibre varies very largely. ”

“ This description by Theophrastus is remarkably correct as applied to the herbaceous variety of the cotton-plant, from which the chief supply of cotton for spinning and weaving into cloth has always been obtained. In its mode of growth—branched, spreading, and flexible—it may well be likened to the dog-rose; and its palmate leaves bear a close resemblance to those of the black mulberry, which differ little from the leaves of some varieties of the vine. ”

“ From what has already been said, it will be quite clear that the Cotton plant will only successfully thrive in those regions on the earth's surface where there are suitable temperature and soil, and a proper and adequate supply of moisture both in the atmosphere and soil. ”

“ These were the works of men who lived thousands of years before the times of the Incas, and amongst their manufactures was that of cotton.
In 1831, Lord Colchester brought from ancient tombs at Arica, in Peru, and placed in the British Museum, some mummy-cloths woven of cotton, the fibres of which seen under the microscope are very tortuous, and resemble those of Gossypium hirsutum, which is probably the primitive cotton plant of South America. The cultivation and manufacture of cotton, therefore, in the “New World [87] ” seems to have been at least coeval with the similar use of it in India. ”

“ The shrub cotton grows in almost every country where the annual herbaceous cotton is found. Its duration varies according to the climate. In some places, as in the West Indies, it is biennial or triennial; in others, as in India, Egypt, &c., it lasts from six to ten years; in the hottest climates it is perennial; and in the cooler countries it becomes an annual.
The tree-cotton, Gossypium arboreum, grows in India, Egypt, China, the interior and western coast of Africa, and in some parts of America. ”

“ Five centuries ago cotton was imported from China, and one sees on every hand the influence of the Celestials. The cultivated plant is of the perennial type, though it is planted annually, the old plants being dug up and burned, the ash being used as a fertiliser. Statistics at present are not to be relied upon, though it is supposed that something like three quarters of a million acres are now under cultivation, giving on the average about 250 pounds of cotton lint. ”

“ This plant may be cultivated in lands newly cleared, and not yet proper for tobacco, much less for indigo, which requires a ground well worked like a garden. The seeds of cotton are planted three feet asunder, more or less according to the quality of the soil: the field is weeded at the proper season, in order to clear it of the noxious weeds, and fresh earth laid to the root of the plant, to secure it against the winds. The cotton requires weeding, neither so often, nor so carefully as other plants; and the care of gathering is the employment of young people, incapable of harder labour. ”

“ The process of taking the longer fibre from the seed must be very carefully watched, as it becomes a troublesome matter to remove the shorter fibre when once it has come away from the seed with the longer. Hence great care should be taken in gathering this class of cotton. Another point which should not be lost sight of is, that the herbaceous type of Cotton plant readily hybridises with some other varieties and the result is a strain of much better quality. ”

“ At the point of connection each seed bears a small light brown patch. This form is generally known to the officers at the British Cotton Growing Association plantation as “Kidney.” All these varieties are cultivated throughout the forest country, and extend to some distance beyond; being replaced in the drier parts of the Northern Territories by a small plant with a white woolly seed. No cotton in a wild state has been seen in the country, and isolated plants, found springing up in open places surrounded by forest, are generally easily traceable to formerly existing cultivation. ”

“ The type of plant most generally cultivated is the herbaceous, and the cotton resulting is only poor in quality. Little or no preparation is made before sowing seed, which is generally done broadcast. As a result there is much overcrowding, and as is inevitable, there is produced a stubby plant with small bolls [Pg 61] and much unripe cotton. On the terraces of the hillsides something approaching cultivation is pursued, with the result of a better crop. ”

“ There is much conflict of opinion in localising the primitive habitat of this type, and it is now thought that the present stock is probably the result of hybridisation of several species more or less related to each other. However, the areas in which this class of cotton grows are very numerous and extensive, for we find it growing in India, China, Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, and Africa. A very characteristic feature of this plant is that it quickly decays after podding, when cultivated as an annual. ”

“ We can seldom trust early botanists and travellers on this head. The cotton plant grows sometimes in the neighbourhood of plantations, and becomes more or less naturalized, as the down on the seeds facilitates accidental transport. ”

“ The bed should be disked or harrowed just before planting the cotton seed, but it is seldom advisable to re-bed the land just before planting. Cotton comes up quicker, grows off faster and begins bearing sooner on a well settled, firm seed bed. It is not wise to plant the cotton on freshly prepared land. ”

“ COTTON, a soft downy substance; the production of the gossypium, L. or cotton-tree, a genus of plants comprising twelve species, all of which are natives of warm climates, though four only are cultivated in fields to a very considerable extent. This plant is propagated by seeds, and when reared in Britain, requires to be kept in a hot-house, where it will produce both seeds and its peculiar down.
The cotton used in the manufactures of Britain, is chiefly obtained from the West Indian plantations. It is, in general, of a pale red, but sometimes so short as to be unfit for spinning. ”

“ Cotton requires six or seven months of favorable growing weather between spring and fall frost to mature, but picking may extend far into the winter. It thrives in a very warm or even hot temperature, provided the atmosphere is moist, but it will mature a crop on less water than any other crop plant. Any sudden change in temperature, moisture or cultural methods is apt to cause an abortion of the young fruit and flowers.
Usually cotton is planted on ridges or “beds.” Fertilizers, when used, are generally drilled into the beds just before planting. ”

“ The cotton plant. On the river Derwent near Matlock in Derbyshire, Sir RICHARD ARKWRIGHT has created his curious and magnificent machinery for spinning cotton; which had been in vain attempted by many ingenious artists before him. The cotton-wool is first picked from the pods and seeds by women. ”

“ The plant grows in abundance and of good quality, especially if the best kinds of seeds are procured from the Coromandel Coast and the Isle of France. The cultivation of cotton is not at all injurious to any other branch, for after the rice harvest is the best season for planting the cotton, and before the rains, when the fields are again ploughed for rice, the cotton is ripe and gathered. ”

“ The sliver of cotton, as it leaves the card, is by no means sufficiently uniform in weight per yard for the production of a uniform and strong finished thread. It will easily be conceived by the readers of this story of the cotton plant that the strength of any thread is only that of its weakest portions. ”

“ It is customary to plant cotton in a slightly raised bed, in order that thinning may be more easily done, and that the soil may be more quickly warmed. Much planting is still done by hand, one man dropping the seeds in the long straight furrow and another following close behind him with a hoe, covering them up; but of late years the one-horse planter and the two-horse combined lister and planter have come into vogue, and, now that the tractor is both cheap and serviceable, it is possible to plant two or more rows at a time. ”

“ But no matter whether perennial or annual, the cotton plant must have a hot, humid climate to thrive, and if the land is not naturally moist it must be irrigated as it is in Egypt."
"I thought things like cotton just grew wild, Uncle Frederick," said Tim.
"No, indeed," laughed his uncle. "You cannot gather big crops of anything unless you are willing to work for them. The Lord does not mean to make life too easy for us. ”

“ It is doubtful whether cotton is indigenous to any part of this country, as we have no authentic record of the precise time of its introduction. Cotton seed was brought in from all quarters of the globe, and the American plant, the result of innumerable crossings, remains, as to its origin, a puzzle to botanists. ”

“ There is nothing in the cultivation of cotton involving harder work than that of corn. In the early stages of its growth it is more tender than corn, and requires more care,—which it does not get, since we find Southern writers deploring that the cut-worm and the louse are charged with many sins which are caused by careless cultivation and the bruises inflicted by the clumsy negro hoes. The soil is very light, and most of the work might be done by the plow and cultivator. Except upon very poor soil there is only one plant allowed to eight and even ten square feet. ”