New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-12
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE.
BY soLoN ROBINSON.

TIE s)iTs-YARIETiEs or COrroN-rHE sEED-
Firsr COTTON CLoru MADE ~ AMERICA.
Very few persons at the North have ever
ecen cotton GIN and those who have no, of c0ur.e
have very vague ideas abou. its construction or
work A cotton gin machine is not as bulky as N
ordinary tanning mill Il IS called " saw giu1
because circular saws. about foot across are st
upon a wooden cylinder, perhaps haf or three.
fourihs Of an inch auart. For largest sized gins,
the cylinder is five feet long. The saws ran between
steel CRATES set w the back Of the feeding hopper 50
that the teeth reach just beyond the bars and catch
the fbres. which adhere strongly % tie seed. and
pull them Though the openings between the mate
bars, leaving tho seed behind The lint is cleared
from the teeth by revolving brushes, and is either
blown By fan through spout 30 the lint room,
else by an improved process is famed into large
bats, which can be taken up and put one after
another into pile 10 form tho bale LARGE cn,
run by about SIX mule power, go revolutions ?
minute, wiz gin 80 pounds OF lint ia an hour.
Sometimes c.roiessuess design sends o friction
match through the GIN Then there is a dash, and
an end OF that years work.
COTTON PRESSES.
Plantation cotton presses, as well as gin houses,
are rude Affairs. long wooden screw, running
through the beam Oh a stout gaiiOws frame, stand
ing unsheltered, Is turned by a double sweep cx-
tending like two raftors from the tip of the screw
so low that two mules can be attached Thus tho
ba'e is sufficiently compressed to be sent 10 MARKET
where, at the shipping port, it Is represscd into half
its original bulk.
Cotton seed, which forms such a large portion Of
the gathered crop. has been extensively wasted,
particularly upon plantations where manuring WAS
not necessary, and very frequently where IL was
necessary, and where It would have paid well 10
save and use all the seed to promote future growth
OF cotton or corn.
Wherever there is q market for seed to oil manu-
facturers it viii bring much more than It's value for
manure or Tor cattle feed, to which use it is some
time, applied, the cattle being forced by starvation
to learn to eat IT, have seen butter made from
milk OF cows fed upon cotton seed, which bad 10
more color than the clean fibre, some OF which
seemed to me present IN the butter it had such an
adhesive tendency. / consider it almcs, wasted
when used in the rough state for cattle feed. Cot
ton seed meal does better, but wiz hardly pay Tor
grinding upon plantation by mule power.
ETFECr or COTTON OK THE SOIL.
Exhaustion of the soil is sure to tolow where cot
ton Is continuously planted. This is fact that
must be duly considered by al who think of trying
cotton growing as new business. have ire
ouently heard old planters declare that "seven
years from the stump" was the fuli length Of time
il would pay to cultivate ordinary upland cotton;
and as that was a. long ~. q pine rail fence would
last. il was the best way to throw ont the old field
and take in q new one. in few instances il has
been discovered that deeper blowing and menurug
on old field would pay better than clearing new
land, and these old-heId plantations can often DO
bought at extremely low prices.
The cotton caterpillar has been in some parts
of the cotton region almost as severe pest aS
Ire prasshoppcr in housekeeping a field Of
every green leaf about the time of blossominR he
boil worm is another pest boring holes through
and through the bols just before the time for OPEN
ing.
Cotton blossoms resemble those Of althea and
hollyhock IN size and shape. The color is a creamy
white the first day, light yellow the second, a pur-
phsh red on the third, when the blossoms drop.
The bolls are egg-shape and one OF goose-egg size
would be called extraordinarily large As they
mature they turn brown and open into four parts.
so that cotton field after the frost has stripped of
the leaves looks like a field o. white roses Cotton
plants should be grown in Northern gardens for
their beauty.
One hundred years ago cotton cloth was manufac-
turod from cotton grown IN the United States. In
177s-70 a Mr.. Burden, living upon Johns Island,
= c., grew enough cotton TO max some coarse
clotn for his slaves. Ii was picked by their fingers
from the seed and spun upOn their rude plant ail0n
wheels. Two hundred years ago or more cotton
was spun BY hand IN Manchester, England Az
least. In 1911, The Treasure OF Traffic" says
. The people of Manchester buy cotton wool in
London which comes from Cyprus and Smyrna
which they spin by hand and work INTO tustlans
and dlmeties which sometimes sent into foreign
parts" There has been some change since then.
VARIETIES OF COTTON.
There are two distinct varieties of cotton grown
in tins country That OF which | have been writ
ing the GOSSypiun krSesIm, is generally called up
land, or green seed cotton the tibres appearing to
grow out of the seed and therefore adhering closely
al, ioh Ia
small crop by hand, aud but for the invention Of
Eli Whitney, who was born in Westborough, Mass.
December :, 1863 cotton culture never could have
been extended beyond supplying family manuiac-
lures The first shipment IF cotton from this coun-
try was one small bag of Sea Island sent from
Charleston in 1910, see if there would be any re-
muneratiye market in England for an article pro-
duced by much patient hand labor; for II was
days work 10 pick five pounds OF lint from the seed
It was fifty years to the next shipment.
Sea Island cotton (Gossypinm her6grura was so
called because it was grown upon the islands near
Charleston and took that name to distinguish II
from the other the seed of which was introduced
INTO Georgia from the West Indies about 1873.
Previous to that, and for after, the only
kind grown TO any extent was what is now ealei
Sea Island the lint of which adberes to the seed but
slightly. This is also sometimes called black seed
cotton. Ii will grow upon upland away from the
sea- but it loses the fine silky character of its Dre,
which IL has upon the Sea Islands, or near the sea,
where it seems to be fortified by the salt air. This
fine cotton has been often sold at - a pound. lt
noyer cun be grown at the price of upland, because
it is not rs productive and requires more careful
cultivation, and It's growth is restricted to limited
area, but mostly because il cannot he separated
from the seed by the ordinary mode of ginning tho
upland variety without injury TO the hbrc nor can