Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-05-20

/ meut for making the seed bed is frequently
! used to advantage, instead Of a plow. An
exercise of common inventive ingenuity,
| would construct a machine for opening,
! dropping seed and covering, all at the same
| operation.
| The distance between ridges aud between
plants, must depend upon the probable
/ size of the plants, which varies from eigh-
| teen inches to half as many feet in hight
The largest yield is secured by so gradua-
I ting the distance that the plants will cover
the ground and slightly interlock their
/ branches. In good soils the ridges should
| be tour feet apart, and the plants fifteen
inches in lighter, three and half feet, and
twelve inches; in very rich lands the ridges
might be four and half feet, and the
plants fifteen to eighteen inches. This
direction ia for good cotton soils. If
stin!ed growth only is expected, plants
may be set nearer-some of our amateur
| planters think six inches will do-but
counsels so extreme should not be needed.
PLANTING AND CULTURE.
Planting in the North should be com
menced rs early as is compatible with the
safety of the young cotton, which is very
| tender at first, but when well rooted is
| quite as hardy as corn. Seed should be
/
/ when seed is abundant A less quantity
| may DO if the distance between the plants
is regulated by dibble, and three or four
seeds dropped in each spot so marked, care
| being taken not to cover too deep.
| II has been usual, in the South, to put in
a half dozen bushels of seed per acre,
| partly 10 secure "stand, ;" and partly to
manure the crop. There is disadvantage
in sowing so thick. The plants are thus
! crowded, as in hot-bed, and are tender
and puuy. This drawback, with the pres
ent scarcity of seed, makes such q course
| very undesirable in northern latitudes.
The seed should be soaked in a brine
made by soaking stable manure in saltand
water and dried with lime, plaster, and
ashes Ii is more necessary to secure
early termination, and vigorous FIRST
! growth, where the season is short, than in
the South
The plant makes its appearance in about
ten days after planting, if the weather is
favorable. With too early planting, n cold
storm succeeding, there is danger that th e
seed will rot. 1t should be put in as soon
after corn as possible, looking only at the
danger from frost and from failure in GER
miuauon.
AS soon as the third leaf appears, th e
process of "scraping" commences, which
consists ofcleaniug the ridge, with hoes, OF
supe TtuOus plants and all weeds and grass
OF which narrow plows, known as " bull
tongue" piows, turn a little loose earth
around the cotton, and cover up any loose
grass not totally destroyed by the hoes
If the surface is very rough, as it will not
he with sufficient ploWing and narrowing,
the hoes follow instead ofprecede theploWs,
to uuearth those plants they may be parti-
ally covered. Some experimenters, during
the past season, have reported that with
them hoes are not necessary That NAV
be- if their lands can be kept perfectly
clean with blowing, which must be done
with such skill aud care as never to touch
the plants or cover them with earth. But
if they depend on such culture as corn en-
duresr producing weeds breast-high in
tangled masses, and an abundant crep of
corn besides, their disappointment will be
bitter and deserved.
The negroes of the cotton States often
acquire great skill in these operations,
running plows with two inches of the stalks
and striking down weeds within half an
inch with their hoes vers rarely touching
eysn a leaf of cotton.
! Subsequent plowing, alternating with
hoeing, mot to hill up but to keep down
the weeds) usually occurs once in twenty
days. For higher latitudes the soil should
be worked once in two weeks, or, better
still, ouce in ten days in the early part of
the season, to induce rapid growth and
early maturity. Aud the crop should also
be "isiu by" very early, if clear of weeds.
The object in working often, however, is
quite as much to destroy the grass as to
stir the soil, although light surface culture
facilitates rapid growth.
There is danger in deep plowiug of inju.
ring the roots. It should therefore be
Layoided, except in the middle of the rows,
it wet seasons, when tits necessary to bury
and more etfectually to kill the grass. The
sloVeuly, dilatory cotton planter is liable
to be, in technical parlance, ''in the grass, /"
condition securing the commiseration OF
more industrious neighbors, and awakfug
his own spprehensious for the safety and
profit of the crop. Nothing is more intol-
Grant than King Cotton Of the least en-
eroachment on his domain Nothing, as a
field crop, demands cleaner culture.
great variety of implements is used fol-
; this culture, according to differing circum.
stances Of soil and season, and possibly the
whims OF planters. Among them are
"sweeps,' shovel plows, occasionally
turning p,ows, cultiyators and hsrroWs.
It requires four months for cotton to at
! tain its growth under the most favorable
conditions. 1t is usually planted about the
: Ist of April il the Gulf Ststes Tor from
March 10th to April 1O'h,) blooms aboul
the 1st of June, and the first balls oper
about the 18th of August, when the frat
picking commences as soon as fifty pound,
(. per hour can be gathered daily.
The blooms come out in the morning
! are developed fully by noon, when they ar,
I pure white. Soon after meridian the,
/. begin to exhibit reddish streaks, aud -tb,
next morning are a clear pink. They fal
8 off by noon of the second day. The Sc,
2 Island variety is yellow at first
If weeds and grass abound, late ploHini
: is of doubtful utility. An early t'layin,
J, byn of the crop il prohablv mora irrSnrt