to see what price its staple is bringing. From its
bounty a vast army of toilers, who plant its seed, who pick its bolls,
who gin its staple, who spin and weave its lint, who grind its seed, who
refine its oil, draw daily bread. Does not its proper production deserve
the best thought that can be given it?

In the cotton belt almost any well-drained soil will produce cotton. The
following kinds of soil are admirably suited to this plant: red and gray
loams with good clay subsoil; sandy soils over clay and sandstone and
limestone; rich, well-drained bottom-lands. The safest soils are medium
loams. Cotton land must always be well drained.

Cotton was originally a tropical plant, but, strange to say, it seems to
thrive best in temperate zones. The cotton plant does best, according to
Newman, in climates which have (1) six months of freedom from frost; (2)
a moderate, well-distributed rainfall during the plant's growing period;
and (3) abundant sunshine and little rain during the plant's maturing
period.

[Illustration: FIG. 183. GROWTH OF COTTON FROM DAY TO DAY

In America the Southern states from Virginia to Texas have these
climatic qualities, and it is in these states that the cotton industry
has been developed until it is one of the giant industries of the world.
This development has been very rapid. As late as 1736 the cotton plant
was grown as an ornamental flowering plant in many front yards; in
1911, 16,250,276 bales of cotton were grown in the South. In recent
years the soil and climate of lower California and parts of Arizona and
New Mexico have been found well adapted to cotton.

[Illustration: FIG. 184. COTTON IN THE GROWING SEASON]

There are a great many varieties of cotton. Two types are mainly grown
by the practical American farmer. These are the short-stapled, upland
variety most commonly grown in all the Southern states, and the
beautiful, long-stapled, black-seeded sea-island type that grows upon
the islands and a portion of the mainland of Georgia, South Carolina,
and Florida. The air of the coast seems necessary for the production of
this latter variety. The seeds of the sea-island cotton are small,
smooth, and black. They are so smooth and stick so loosely to the lint
that they are separated from it by roller-gins instead of by saw-gins.
When these seeds are planted away from the soil and air of their ocean
home, the plant does not thrive.

Many attempts have been made and are still being made t