Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-08-23
How Cotton Grows.
The Curious Changes in the Color OF
the BloOm---the Formation of the
Roils---a sun-Loving Plant.


the BIoom---the Formation Of the
BoIls---a sun-LovinE Plant.
From the y. Evening Post.
A cotton field is a pleasure-giving sight
from the very beginning of it, cultivation.
First, the prm little green plants, ranged
in such long straight rows, or curved in
equi-distant circles round some hilly slope,
the ground between kept soft and lOamy,
and every hint Of encroachng grass or
weeds strangled in the birth. Again, when
grown larger. the field appears one level
expanse Of luxurious green, the broad
leaves having reached out to each other,
as if agreeing with one accord TO cover all
intervening space. When the blossoms
come the broad acres resemble a big flower
garden dotted with color, and when Au-
gust arrives and woolly bloom. as white
as the driven snow, appears in place Of
each flower. the harvest is as beautiful as
the anticipation.
The negroes admire cotton greatly and
often extend the rows of their cotton
patch up to within a few feet of their door
step. one afternoon young girl who
was visiting a cotton plantation walked in
among the rows in front of a negro cabin
in order 10 examine the plants.
81 don't see any white blossoms, she
exclaimed to the woman of the house,
who stood near with a piggin OF water
balanced on her head and a spent tobacco
pipe between her lips. The woman re-
moved the pipe TO answer.
"Defe amt no white blossoms dis time
| o day" she said, pleasantly.
"This time of day. repeated the girl
"Why, what has become OF them? ! was
always told that a cotton bloom was
white"
"Dey all done turn red by now eX-
| planned the woman, glancinc up at the
| sun. "Soon cen de mawnin dey is white,
/ de first day dey open, and when De hands
| knock of work T. o'clock, dey leaves dem
white vet; but when We 90 back cen de
| field. "a couple oh hours later, DE blossom
/ all is turnn'.'
GLOW strange said the visitor who
/ had a turn for investigation. 81 mean TO
| tie something on a blossom tomorrow
/ morning. So that | can tell it again, and
| watch how il changes. Some OF these
/ blooms are purple, she continued DO
/ they open purple?'
40. honey said the woman, grinning
| broadly, pleased az beiu. able TO give in
| formation "Dey neber turns purple till
/ dey been out gwiue on tree days. Dem
/ purple blossoms soon 1wiue fade way and
/ drap OF.
And she turned away to settle a dispute
/ between two plckauinnles whose play had
come to blows.
The first cotton blossom appears about
the 18th of june and from the ''germiug
/ of the embryo boil % the time of its full
| maturity cotton passes through many
phases. The forms first appear-curi-
Gus. triangular little boX-like affairs, seem
/ ingly formed by the joint contribution of
several fringy-edged green leaves cement
ed together The forms are eemmed
thickly along the sprays which branch out
from the main stalk. In the depths OF the
| form the bud is Germed, and when the
form has grown 10 sufh 'ient size, the
blossom springs up out Of its centre sup
ported by the green fringe a. IL held IN
| natural vase.
The cotton blossom is shaped like a lily
and is delicate in texture. The first morn
ing that it opens it is a pale cream color
/ and CLEANS pure and spo,less amid the TO
liagc. Twelve o'clock finds 1t still gazing
| up az the sun without hint OF color stain
ing its petals An hour later delicate
/ flush steals over il. like the blush that
comes suddenly to a fair girls cheek
/ Brighter and brighter the blush deepens as
| the hours 90 by. and the sunset OF the day
that saw its birth finds the pure white BIOS
som transformed into a rose-colored flower
that reflects the glow of the western sky
1t Is wonderful, this laying on Of color by
| invisible hands even as We gaze into the
heart of the bloom. The next morning the
pink flower remains unchanged, but by al
ternoOn it is streaked and veined with the
purplish hues of the morniAg-glory The
following day more pronounced purple
has come over it, and so il goes on deep
ening and darkening in tint until. bereft
OF its fresh beauty. its mission fulfilled. il
falls from the reluctant grasp of the
form"
IF a drap of rain fall cen de heart of a
| cotton blossom cen de mawnin', while its
white, dat blossom nebeI gwine mex cot
ton says a negro cotton-grower and a
white neighbor of his who experimental
with the plant to satisfy himself as to the
truth of this assertion found 1t TO be cor
rect. The negro is very observant and
notes little things that escape people whose
minds are better furnished. Certain cot
ton blooms that had opened for the first
time on a morning during which there was
a shower were marked to note results, and
were found never to mature, dampness at
that early stage evidently having a fatal
effect.
The cotton and the okra blossom closely
resemble each other in shape and color
indeed, the plants are very similar in char
acter and appearance, and okra tiourshes
finely in cotton-patch or in soil that has
been prepared for cotton The difference
between the blossoms is that the stamen
of the cotton bloom is feathery looking and
is tinted just a shade deeper than the flow
er itself, whereas the heart of the okra
blossom is lined with ruby velvet and the
stamen is dyed with the same rich hue.
After the withered cotton bloom has
fallen away from the "form," the frnged
edges close again to shield the new treas
ure nesting in its heart, the embryo boil
that all the time has been forming beneath
the blossoms tender beauty. When the
young boil has become large enough. it
thrusts aside the protecting leaves of the
form and discloses itself, a small green
globe, smooth and shining, with meridian
like lines marked upon its oval rind. As
time goes on, these lines become threadlike
crevices which separate the boil into four
or five equal divisions or plugs. Gradually
these crevices open wider and a glimpse
may be had of the tough, tightly packed
mass within, yellow and sticky looking.
Soon the fattening rains and maturing
suns cause the contents of the boil to swell
in bulk and force the divided plugs farther
and farther apart, until, in Just six weeks
from the day that the lily-lke blossom made
! its appearance these plugs have rolled