One kind is called "sea-island" cotton.
This is because it grows well upon the low, sandy islands of the
sea.
Some such islands are found near South Carolina.
This cotton likes the salt which it finds in the soil.
The herb cotton grows to a height of from eighteen to twenty-four
inches.
The land is made ready for the seed during the winter.
As soon as the frost is gone Mother Earth is given her baby seeds to
care for.
Soon the beautiful plantlets appear.
The leaves are of a dark green.
Then later come the pale yellow flowers.
The plants must then be well cared for.
Toward autumn the fruit is seen.
This looks like a walnut still in its rough coat.
[Illustration: COTTON BALLS.]
Then the pods burst.
The field is then beautiful.
It looks as if it were covered with snow.
Then comes the hard work of the picking.
All hands upon the plantation must then work in the fields.
The slaves of long ago were kept very busy during this season.
The women and children worked.
They have to be careful that the cotton is quite dry when picked.
If it were damp the cotton would mould.
This would spoil it for use.
Can you imagine a snow-white field dotted with black people?
Their bright eyes must have shone still more brightly there.
The cotton does not all ripen at one time.
But it must be gathered soon after the pods are burst.
[Illustration]
This is because the sun injures the color of the cotton.
Or the rain and dews injure it.
Or the winds may blow it away.
So the cotton pickers were kept busy from August until the frost
came.
They went over the same fields many times.
Then, after a busy day in the field, other work remained to be done.
The cotton pickers sat upon the ground in a circle.
From the midst of the cotton they took the black seeds.
These seeds were very troublesome.
They are covered with hairs.
They cling fast to the cotton.
These naughty children of the plant love their mother.
So fast do they cling to her, that a person could clean but one
pound of cotton in a whole day.
So you may understand why so little was raised.
In 1784, eight bags of cotton were taken from the United States to
England.
These were seized by the custom officers.
These officers are those who look after goods sent in or out of a
country.
If money is to be paid upon the goods, it is called a duty.
The custom officers must see that the duty is paid.
These men said that this cotton could not have come from America.
During the next two years less than one hundred-twenty bags were
sent there from our country.
The treaty of peace with England was made in 1794.
None of the treaty-makers then knew that any cotton was raised in
America.
Would you like to know why, fifty years later, a million bales were
sent from America?
This is the story:
In the war with England, America had some brave generals.
One of these was General Nathaniel Greene.
He had helped to win victories in the South.
The State of Georgia gave him a tract of land.
General Greene lived with his family upon this land.
He at last died there.
Mrs. Greene was very lonely.
She went to the North to visit her friends.
On her voyage home she met a pleasant gentleman.
He was a young man, only twenty-seven years of age.
He, too, was going to Georgia.
His name was Eli Whitney.
And now you must know something of his story.
Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765.
His people were farmers.
They were not rich people.
Eli's father had a workshop.
In this shop he worked upon rainy days.
He made wheels and chairs.
Eli grew up like other farm boys.
He helped on the farm.
He attended the district school.
He took care of the cattle and horses.
But very early in his life he became fond of tools.
He used to creep into his father's shop.
He could scarcely wait to be old enough to use the tools there.
One of the interesting tools was a lathe for turning chair posts.
His father allowed him the use of all these as soon as he was large
enough to take care of them.
After that, he was always at work at something.
He liked work in the shop much more than work upon the farm.
Eli's mother died when he was a little boy.
This is a sad event in any boy's life.
When Eli was about twelve years old, his father took a journey from
home.
He was gone two or three days.
When he returned, he called the housekeeper.
He asked her what the boys had been doing.
She told him what the elder boys had done.
"But what has Eli been doing?" said he.
"He has been making a fiddle," was the answer.
"Ah!" said the father, "I fear Eli will take his portion in
fiddles."
The fiddle was finished like a common violin.
It made pretty good music.
Many people came to see it.
They said it was a fine piece of work for a boy.
Afterwards people brought him their violins to mend.
He did the mending nicely.
Every one was surprised.
They brought him other work to do.
Eli's father had a nice watch.
Eli loved to look at it.
It was a great wonder to him.
He wished to see the inside of it.
His father would not allow this.
One Sunday the family were getting ready for church.
Eli noticed that his father intended leaving his watch at home.
He could not lose such a good chance.
So he pretended to be quite sick.
His father allowed him to stay at home.
Soon he was alone with the wonderful little watch.
He hurried to the room where it hung.
He took it down carefully.
His hands shook, but he managed to open it.
How delightful was the motion of those wheels!
It seemed a living thing.
Eli forgot his father.
He thought only of the wonderful machinery.
He must know just how it went.
He took the watch all to pieces before he remembered how wrong it
was to do so.
Then he began to be frightened.
What if he couldn't put it together!
He knew his father was a very stern man.
Slowly and carefully the boy went to work.
And so bright was he that he succeeded in getting it together all
right.
His father did not find out the mischief.
Several years afterward Eli told him about it.
When Eli was thirteen years old his father married a second time.
Eli's stepmother had a handsome set of table knives.
She valued them highly.
One day Eli said, "I could make as good knives as those if I had
tools.
"And I could make the tools if I had common tools to begin with."
His mother laughed at him.
But soon after one of the knives was broken.
Eli made a blade exactly like the broken one, except its stamp.
Soon Eli was fifteen years of age.
He wished to go into the nail-making business.
It was during the Revolution.
Nails were made almost entirely by hand.
They were in great demand.
They brought good prices.
Eli asked his father to bring him a few tools.
His father consented.
The work was begun.
Eli was very industrious.
He made good nails.
He also found time to make more tools for his own use.
He put in knife blades.
He repaired broken machinery.
He did many other things beyond the skill of country workmen.
Eli worked in this way two winters.
He made money.
He worked on the farm in the summer.
At one time Eli took a journey of forty miles.
He visited every workshop on the way.
These visits taught him much.
He found a man who could go back with him and help him in his
business.
At the close of the war it did not pay to go on with the
nail-making.
The ladies began a new fashion about that time.
This was the use of long pins for fastening on their bonnets.
He made very nearly all the pins used.
Eli made these pins with great skill.
This work was done in the time spared from his farm work.
He also made excellent walking canes.
During all these years Eli's schooling had been received at
different times at the district school.
He was very fond of arithmetic.
During his nineteenth year he made up his mind to have a college
education.
His step-mother did not wish him to do this.
But he worked hard and saved his money.
A part of the time he taught school.
He was twenty-three when he entered Yale College.
He borrowed some money, for which he gave his note.
At one time one of the college teachers wished to show his pupils
some experiments. But some of the things to be used were broken.
Eli offered to mend them.
This he did, and succeeded in surprising every one.
A carpenter lived near his boarding place.
Eli asked for the loan of some of his tools.
The careful carpenter did not wish to lend them.