p with us, I generally persuaded them to sell their
saddle animals. Thus, hiring negroes and buying mules, I gradually put
the plantation in a presentable condition. While the cotton was being
picked the blacksmith was repairing the plows, the harness-maker
was fitting up the harnesses for the mules, and every thing was
progressing satisfactorily. The gin-house was cleaned and made ready
for the last work of preparing cotton for the market. Mr. Colburn
arrived from the North after I had been a planter of only ten days'
standing. He was enthusiastic at the prospect, and manifested an
energy that was the envy of his neighbors.

It required about three weeks to pick our cotton. Before it was all
gathered we commenced "ginning" the quantity on hand, in order to make
as little delay as possible in shipping our "crop" to market.

The process of ginning cotton is pretty to look upon, though not
agreeable to engage in. The seed-cotton (as the article is called
when it comes from the field) is fed in a sort of hopper, where it is
brought in contact with a series of small and very sharp saws. From
sixty to a hundred of these saws are set on a shaft, about half an
inch apart. The teeth of these saws tear the fiber from the seed, but
do not catch the seed itself. A brush which revolves against the saws
removes the fiber from them at every revolution. The position of the
gin is generally at the end of a large room, and into this room the
detached fiber is thrown from the revolving brush.

This apartment is technically known as the "lint-room," and presents
an interesting scene while the process of ginning is going on. The air
is full of the flying lint, and forcibly reminds a Northerner of a New
England snow-storm. The lint falls, like the snow-flakes, with most
wonderful lightness, but, unlike the snow-flakes, it does not melt.
When the cotton is picked late in the season, there is usually a dense
cloud of dust in the lint-room, which settles in and among the fiber.
The person who watches the lint-room has a position far from enviable.
His lungs become filled with dust, and, very often, the fine, floating
fiber is drawn into his nostrils. Two persons are generally permitted
to divide this labor. There were none of the men on our plantation who
craved it. Some of the mischievous boys would watch their opportunity
to steal into the lint-room, where they greatly enjoyed rolling upon
the soft cotton. Their amusement was only stopped