The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-24
COTTON BLOOMING TIME.
New BIcomings Coming in, Figuring
at Wedding-Hint OF Good
Times i'm the Fall.

l
| About this time of year, look out
| for tho first cotton bloom.
| For the past few weeks the county
] newspapers have been in a Midget OF
! mpatience the young green fields
Ihave been as closely watched as
though the importation of the boil
wccviI had not been myth OF the
whole cloth Suddenly there comes
rumOr that farmer so and so, of Hall
fax has = bloom. The county week
lies deny in chorus. The next week
and there is glad acclaim. The bloom
| has come! Half dozen counties con-
test the honor of having been first up
with the goods. There is a revel of
proof and denial. The subject is top
| Of column, next to reading matter.
And about the time the whole con-
troversy has died down, there walks
laround the street a big, -boned
farmer who has been too busy to read
/ his paper, in town on a wednesday,
| with a happy grin on his weather
beaten features and tWiddling be-
| tween a massive thumb and fore
finger a sure enough bloom, the first
! flower of the stalk, yellow as Mare
chal Neil rose. blushing in faint pinks
and delicate puppies like sweet-pea
! set in cup Of living green as tender
and as fresh as the first otf-ShoOting
of youngest spring. And this in late
June! The carnival of the first bloom
is a happy time in lands where hearts
center in the end on the cotton patch
Just now there is in this office the
first bloom which has SO far found its
way here this year. 1t comes from
| Mr. j. d. Adams, OF Clayton, in john
ston county, and it is a beauty, large
| full-blown and healthy. 1t is unde-
niably the first from these parts,
though what has happened in the far
East is yet a matter largely of con-
| lecture. Mr. Adams is to be congrat-
uated. He heads the procession.
And, hardly had that paragraph
been pcnncd when there came this
letter, also from Clayton:
News and Observer, Raleigh, n. c.;
Gcntlemen l am sending you
cotton bloom. 1 saw several more in
my field this morning, but send only
one as | want the others to make cot
ton.
Very truly
G. NJ. THOMAS.
OF course he does. That's what the
bloom says. pretty as il is.
Three other blooms. however. have
sprung into even earlier aud more in
tercsting note. They grew on the
plantation of General w. II. Cox in
| E,dEccOmbc county, and fastened to
maturity for purposes of sentiment.
| When on June 21St General Cox led to
the altar in Richmond, Mrs kathrine
Cabcll Claiborne. they formed part
of a special bouquet composed Of
magnolaS and cape jessa mines gath
| cred from General CoX'S farm and
| sent to the bride by his manager Mr..
! j. r. Brasswcll. The bride. though
| a Southern woman. had never seen a
cotton bloom and of all the flowers
that graced her wedding none were
more nrized than the blooms from the
farm of the groom. Nor, to South
| ern eyes, could any have been NOR
beautiful and none more appropriate
| for wedding in the land of sunshine,
| at Richmond to which one of the con-
tracing parties was the States illus
trious soldier. jurist and statesman.
Rightly is there sentiment about
| the FIRST bloom. Is IS the initial
promise of the harvest. 1t is peculiar
! ly natures first positive utterance as
to the crop. 1t is the exquisite fore
| runner of tho most utilitarian of
yields The life of cotton field COM
| menccs to take on personality when
the first bloom dashcs the dead green
rows with color Heretofore, it's pro-
| ductiOn has been q solid round of Ia
Dor and of faith. The plows have
| harried the ground, the cultiVat tors
have worried it still moro, it has bcen
'dsCOlorcd with fertilizers. 1t has at
| last bristled with beard of tiny, con-
sumptivc looking shoots. struggling
with the grass Choppers, on daily
rounds Of unrcmitting labor, have
| further torn and worked it to dis
! tant end. But now it is getting n
start in the world. The plants are
taller, unbeautiful still. but with
| branching arms in full leaf. The
| breeze has begun to take notice of the
| no RI 1.t,1 To ,.t1fl IG oil
| ter on the foliage in the carly morn
/ ingS Tho sun beating down makes
! limp the nlants while it makes them
grow. Still, the field is in way
desolate thing consigned to be labor
ed on.
| Suddenly among the green a bloom
! flashes out, uncurlcd by the first dews
/ Of the night, smoothed and straight
ened and flung out like flag by the
| first touch of the sun. 1t is as con-
| spiCuous as passion flower in Il
| swamp. But not for long. other
| blooms spring 70 life about it. Every
| morning swels the ranks of the flow
ers. The field quivcrs with them.
! They nod in dozens from every stalk,
yellow and white and deep pink and
J purple as they go to fill their destiny.
! In a week the field is a flower garden,
waving its blossoms in the breezcs,
shimmering it's colors in the sun. A
| cotton field in bloom! Young
! troubles arc over. Those that follow,
| come at q disadvantage.
From now on the work is more or
| less perfunctCry, more precautionary
| than needful waiting through the
| forming Of the bo!l5 for their ripen-
! ing, watching more and more the
! prices of the markets, fearing too ear
ly frost, figuring on the number of