-half inches), owing to the development of fine spinning.

=Cotton Raising.= Cotton is planted with a machine, which puts it
under the ground about one and one-half to two inches. It is not
planted as corn is, that is, dropped so far apart, but is planted in a
continuous stream. After the cotton comes up out of the ground, when
it is about three inches high, it is hoed by ordinary labor with a
hoe, and is cut out or, rather, thinned. This is called "chopping out"
and is for the purpose of removing the inferior or weak plants until
only one strong plant is left. The distance between the plants depends
on the nature of the plant, frequently about twelve inches being left
between them.

=The American Crop.= The first step taken is the preparation of the
ground for planting. This begins in the southern part of Texas as
early as the middle of January, in Florida about the third week; in
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, about the beginning of
February; in Arkansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina from about the
middle of February to the beginning of March. Actual planting begins
according to latitude, principally from the middle of March to the
middle of April, and ends in the first half of May. These dates,
however, are dependent upon the state of the weather. When the weather
is unusually wet the start is late. The plant suffers from the rank
growth of grass and weeds, and extra labor is required to keep the
fields clean. In abnormally hot weather, especially after rains, the
plant sheds its leaves, thus exposing the bolls, which fall off,
whereupon replanting becomes necessary. In addition to injuries by the
weather the cotton-plant is subject to depredations by insects. Of
late years the greatest pest has been the Mexican boll weevil.

The cotton-plant blooms ten or eleven weeks after planting. An early
bloom is taken as a sign of good crops. When the crop is an early one,
picking may commence in the districts in which it ripens first in the
latter half of July; but the usual date is the beginning of August,
following on in the various districts in succession until the early
part of September. The plant goes on fruiting as long as the weather
is mild and open. It finishes in the early regions about the beginning
of December, the others following through December and closing in the
later regions about the middle of January. Frosts play an important
part in the ultimate yield. An early killing frost over the en