begin as soon as they are through the ground. While the plants are small the middles may be kept mellow and free from weeds by the use of harrows and cultivators with narrow shovels. Wider shovels may be substituted for the narrow as the season advances. Many successful planters use the narrow shovel, however, during the entire period of cultivation, with satisfactory results. The cultivation should be thorough, and the soil should be kept mellow and free from weeds.

It is much easier to remove plants when they stand too thick in the row than to supply plants that may be missing. For this reason the seeds are usually drilled close together, and when the plants are a few inches high they are thinned until they stand one in a place, and from eight to twelve inches apart in the row. Formerly the surplus plants were cut out with a hoe and the process was called "chopping" the cotton. In many localities this work is now done with machines drawn I by horses.

When the cotton is ripe it is picked from the pods and put into sacks. It is then carted to the cotton gin, where the seeds are separated from the cotton fiber. The fiber is then pressed into large bundles called bales. Each bale weighs about five hundred pounds.

The bales are sent to mills,

where the cotton is spun into threads and woven into cloth.

Coarse muslins, tentings, etc., are made from the coarser grades. Fine muslins, calicoes, etc., are made from the finer grades. Sea-island thread, fine laces, and fabrics are made from the very fine quality of cotton which is grown on the low sandy islands along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and which grows to some extent on a part of the mainland of these states.

3. NOTES.

1. America produces more cotton than any other country. Strangely enough, much of the cotton produced in this country, and nearly all that is grown in Egypt, India, China, Brazil, and other cotton-growing countries, is shipped to England, France, or Germany to be manufactured into thread and fabrics. New York, Boston, Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, and Galveston are leading ports from which cotton is exported.

2. It is only of late years that the seed of cotton. has been utilized. The lard, the lubricating oils, the stock foods, and the fertilizers now made from them give them a commercial value of from twenty to forty cents per bushel. The stems of the plants make a fine grade of linen paper.

3. Following are the distinct types of cotton: (1) cluster; (2) long limbed; (3) long staple; (4) short staple. There are many varieties of each type. The short staple is best adapted to upland. The long staple requires a special soil and a favorable season.

LESSON XX.

WHEAT.

I.

Wheat will grow well in many kinds of soil, and in cold, temperate, and warm climates. The grain supplies food for both man and beast. The bran, as the wheat hull is called, is a good food for animals; while the straw is not only a stock food, but is used in making paper, in making straw hats, strawboard, and many other useful things. These facts make it clear why wheat is grown by the people of so many countries and in climates differing so widely.

Some farms will produce many more bushels of wheat to the area than others. This difference in yield depends chiefly upon difference in soil, difference in climate, and difference in the methods employed by those who plant and harvest this useful crop. A heavy growth of straw sometimes bears. a small supply of imperfect grain. The wise farmer knows there is a reason or cause for this. He knows that his soil needs minerals.

To supply these, he has loads of bones ground to meal and spreads this over his fields. He knows that in Florida and the Carolinas there are great beds of glassy-looking rocks called phosphoric rocks

or phosphoric beds.

These rocks contain phos

phoric acid, and when pulverized they form a good mineral fertilizer which is shipped to all parts of the country. From bones, and from phosphoric rocks, then, he knows that one of the minerals (phosphoric acid) needed by his soil can be obtained.

Potash is the other mineral that plants use largely, and this he knows is contained in wood ashes, which he also hauls and spreads on his soil.

On the other hand, if the plant shows a small blade or spindling stem, if it lacks in vigor and color, he knows that nitrogen should be added to the soil, and he spreads barnyard manure, cottonseed meal, dried blood, etc., over it, for these all contain the needed nitrogen.

Barnyard manure not only contains nitrogen stored in its vegetable matter (humus), but it also contains a small amount of phosphoric acid and potash, and is an excellent fertilizer for thin or badly worn soil. It is well to cover this fertilizer by plowing it under.

Some fertilizers may be scattered over the surface of the field and covered by harrowing, or they may be drilled in the earth near the grain.

Every farmer finds it profitable to study the character of the soil he is cultivating and the character of the fertilizer it may require.