"Having finished or relinquished the miscellaneous business of winter,
such as clearing, building, ditching, and splitting rails, the hands are
actively employed in making preparation for another crop. The first
thing to be attended to, is the repairing of all the fences, with the
light force, such as boys and women; while the strong hands are employed
in chopping, and log-rolling in the new grounds. These operations are
commenced generally about the middle of February, and continued two or
three weeks, unless the farm is mostly new; in which case the clearing
of the new ground continues four or five weeks until it is time to plant
corn, generally from the first to the twentieth of March. During all
this time several ploughs, in a well opened place, are kept constantly
running (unless prevented by rain), in "listing up" corn and cotton
ground. The distance between the ridges for cotton varies according to
the strength of the soil, and the consequent size to which the plant
grows. In the rich bottoms the distance between the middle or tops of
the ridges must be from five to seven feet; while in the thin upland
soil, a space of three or four feet is amply sufficient. In the latter
soil, the cotton plant attains the height of three or four feet, and
branches laterally about half that distance. But in the rich alluvial
lands, the stalk not unfrequently shoots up to six and eight feet, and
branches so as to interlock with the other rows six or eight feet apart.
Early in April, and sometimes even in the last days of March, the
cotton-planting commences. To open the ridges, a narrow plough is run by
one horse along the middle of the ridge, so as to open a narrow shallow
furrow, in the mellow ground first ploughed. Immediately behind the
opening plough, follows the sower, with his sack of cotton-seed
suspended from his neck, walking at the same pace with the plough-man
before. At every step or two he throws the seed so as to strew it four
or five feet ahead in the furrow, at each dash of the hand. The
quantity sown is often unnecessarily large, being frequently twenty
times more numerous than the stalks permitted to remain growing. This
profusion of seed is sown for the purpose of obtaining a "good stand,"
after allowing for defective seeds as well as some which may not be
covered, and others that may be covered too deep, and also for many
plants that may sicken and die after they have vegetated and come above
the ground. This latter circumstance frequently occurs: a stand may be
amply sufficient when first up, but from drought, excessive rain, or
chilling winds, one half in the rows, and sometimes whole acres
together, die with the "rust," "sore skin," or "yellow fever."
After the sower another hand follows closely with a light horse harrow,
drawn over the furrow, for the purpose of covering the seed. This throws
in the loose earth over the seed, and covers them so lightly that often
one-third of them are still visible, yet this covering is sufficient,
for no seeds require less covering than cotton-seed. They will sprout
and take root, when left on the surface of the ground, if a slight
shower follows.
On a large plantation where there are, say, fifty effective hands, there
will probably be three or four sets of hands engaged at the same time in
planting; each set, however, not in any way interfering with the other;
but all pushing on with a constant brisk motion. As a medium task, each
set, of three hands, will very easily plant ten acres, but oftener
fifteen in old well broken land. During the planting season, or between
the first of April and the middle of May, there are always from one to
three wet or rainy spells, continuing from one to four days each, so
that the planting is necessarily interrupted. This, however, is an
advantage which none complain of, as it facilitates and expedites the
vegetation of the seed already planted; while it causes the several
portions of the crop to vary eight or ten days in age, and thereby
renders the working more convenient. Twenty planting days are sufficient
to put in the whole cotton crop, or at least as much as can be properly
tended and secured. On the rich bottom lands, when the growth of the
cotton is very luxuriant, it is desirable to finish planting always
before the first of May; but in the hills, especially where the soil is
thin, and the cotton plant attains but a small comparative size, it is
preferable to plant between the fifteenth of April and the twentieth of
May. Cotton thus planted in thin soil, will mature and open as soon as
that which has been planted three weeks sooner in bottom lands.
When the earth is moist and warm, cotton-seed will sprout, and be up in
about five or six days; but if the soil be dry it takes much longer--or
until there is rain sufficient to saturate the loose earth: for the
seed, being covered with a thick coat of coarse wool, is not so readily,
as some other seeds, acted upon by slight moisture. As the plant first
comes out of the ground, it has somewhat the appearance of a young bean,
or of the okra plant, being composed at first of two lobate leaflets,
which continue, gradually enlarging, until about the end of the first
week, when a leaf or two begins to put out between the lobules. The
young cotton-plant is extremely tender, and sensible to the most
moderate degrees of cold: the slightest frost cuts it off--while it
withers and dies from the effects of a few hours of chilling winds.
From the profusion of seed planted, the cotton plant of course comes up
very thick and crowded in the row; in which condition it is allowed to
remain a week or ten days, and often of necessity much longer, when it
is thinned out, or as it is called, "scraped." During scraping time
there is one constant rush, and every hand that can use a hoe is brought
into the field. The process of scraping commences by running a light
furrow close on each side of the row of young cotton, with the share of
the plough next it, so as to throw the dirt from the cotton and trim off
the scattering plants: the space left unbroken between these two furrows
is about eight or ten inches wide, ready for the hoes. If there are many
hoe-hands there are several ploughs "barring off" as it is called. The
hoe hands follow close upon the ploughs, each hand upon a separate row,
and with hoes sharp, and set particularly for "scraping." Experienced
cotton hands run over the rows with great rapidity, and evince great
dexterity in striking out all to a single stalk, which is left at the
distance, from its next neighbour, of at least the width of the hoe; and
in bottom land, at double that distance. Thus, in thin land, the stalks
are desired to be ten or twelve inches apart, and in the rich lands
about eighteen or twenty inches, in the row. The cotton plant thus
thinned out, continues to grow slowly until the hot weather of June sets
in, when it begins to grow rapidly, putting out a blossom at each new
joint formed on the branches. This successive florescence continues
until frost puts a stop to the growth of the plant, which is generally
in October. The pericarp or boll of cotton, from the first bloom, is
generally matured in eight or ten weeks, when it begins to crack at the
four seams in the bolls, until the four valves spread wide open,
remaining attached only at the base or extremity next the _stem_. When
the valves are thus open, the cotton with the seed, to which it adheres
in a kind of cluster, hangs down from one to four inches. From June
until October, the cotton exhibits a successive and continued
florescence, while the plant is loading itself with green bolls, from
the size of a young peach, having just dropped its blossom, to that of a
small hen's egg. About the last of August the matured bolls begin to
burst or open their valves and suspend their cotton; and from that time
the plant exhibits at the same time, blossoms, and bolls of every size,
and every stage of maturity. Toward fall, when the heat of the sun is
constant and intense, the bolls will mature and open in six weeks from
the blossom.
After the first "scraping out," the cultivation is carried on much in
the same manner as in the cultivation of corn, until about the first of
August, when it ceases, and the crop is laid by. The same kind of
cultivation that would make good corn would make good cotton. In this
however there is a difference of opinion: some will hill, or heap the
earth up in high ridges with both corn and cotton, while others will
keep the soil loose and level about both; the latter is decidedly the
proper mode for either.
When the blossom is first unfolded, which generally occurs in the night,
in form it resembles the white hollyhock, but is smaller, and is of a
faint yellowish white colour, which it retains until about noon; the
heat of the sun then being intense, the corolla partially closes, not
unlike the four-o'clock-flower, and at the same time its hue is changed
to a delicate rose, or lilac. On the following day the flowers become
more deeply tinged; toward the close of the second evening they are of a
deep crimson, or violet hue. During the succeeding night, and morning,
that is, about forty-eight hours after they first open, they always drop
off while of a deep violet colour, leaving the young capsule or boll.
The blossoms generally open, as well as fall off, during the night, and
early in the morning. Thus a cotton field in July, August, September,
and October, exhibits the singular appearance of a continued crop of
opening, closing, and falling blossoms, with an almost equal mixture of
white, lilac, and purple flowers; while each morning the ground is seen
covered with the latter, and the branches replenished with the white.
As the ploughing generally ceases and the crop is "laid by" about the
last of July, when the plant is large and brittle, there is but little
done in the field during the first three weeks in August, except that a
few light hands are kept employed in cutting, or pulling up the
"tie-vines" which are sometimes very troublesome: the tie-vine is
nothing more or less than the morning-glory, so carefully cultivated in
gardens at the north, for the purpose of shading arbours and summer
houses.
Toward the last of August, or as soon as there is sufficient open cotton
for a hand to pick fifteen or twenty pounds during the day, the light
force, consisting of women and children, is put to picking for a week or
ten days; when there being sufficient cotton opened, to make a full
day's work, all hands are engaged without exception. Then begins another
push, which continues until the whole crop is gathered and housed.
During "picking time" which continues where full crops are made until
the first of December, and in river lands, until the first of January,
the hands are regularly roused, by a large bell or horn, about the first
dawn of day, or earlier so that they are ready to enter the field as
soon as there is sufficient light to distinguish the bolls. As the dews
are extremely heavy and cool, each hand is provided with a blanket coat
or wrapper, which is kept close around him until the dew is partially
evaporated by the sun. Without this protection they would be completely
wet from head to feet, in a very short time; and as they would be in the
field at least two hours before the sun's rays would be felt, they would
be perfectly chilled, if no worse consequence attended. The hands remain
in the field until it is too dark to distinguish the cotton, having
brought their meals with them. For the purpose of collecting the cotton,
each hand is furnished with a large basket, and two coarse cotton bags
about the size of a pillow case, with a strong strap to suspend them
from the neck or shoulders. The basket is left at the end of a row, and
both bags taken along: when one bag is as full as it can well be
crammed, it is laid down in the row, and the hand begins to fill the
second in the same way. As soon as the second is full, he returns to the
basket, taking the other bag as he passes it, and empties both into the
basket, treading it down well, to make it contain his whole day's work.
The same process is repeated until night; when the basket is taken upon
his head and carried to the scaffold-yard, to be weighed. There the
overseer meets all hands at the scales, with the lamp, slate, and whip.
On the left hand margin of the slate is pasted a strip of paper, with
the name of each written in fair large hand. As soon as their baskets
are set upon the ground, the weighing commences. Each basket is
carefully weighed, and the nett weight of cotton set down upon the
slate, opposite the name of the picker. The negroes stand round, to
remove and replace the baskets as they are weighed; and occasionally the
countenance of an idler may be seen to fall. Then is the time for the
overseer to watch close or he may be greatly imposed upon by the cunning
and lazy, who are apt, in the crowd, to prevent their baskets from being
weighed, by substituting a heavier one which has been passed, or they
may fill up their baskets from one already weighed. Sometimes a negro,
known to be lazy, will have heavy weight and will probably extort from
the overseer expressions of praise and encouragement, unless he examines
the basket, when perchance he may find one of his sacks full of moist
earth snugly covered up at the bottom; such tricks as these will be
continually practised upon an overseer, who is careless or "soft;" a
quality or character, which none can more readily and properly
appreciate than the negro. It is not an uncommon occurrence for an
overseer, who is even vigilant, amid the crowd of negroes and baskets,
with only one lamp, held close to the scales and slate, to weigh some of
the heavier baskets several times, their exact weight being changed by
taking out, or putting in a few pounds; while the lighter ones pass
entirely unnoticed. No inconvenience arises to any one from such
incidents, except that the crop is not gathered in as good time as it
might otherwise have been, and a portion consequently is wasted.
After the weighing is over, and the baskets are emptied, or turned
bottom upward, upon the scaffolds, the overseer takes the slate, and
examines the weights attached to each name. Those who are found to have
brought in less than their usual quantity, unless for good reasons, are
called in the order of their names: the individual advances, and if his
reasons are insufficient, he is ordered to lie down upon his face, with
his back exposed; when he receives ten, twenty, or fifty stripes with
the whip, according to his deserts. In this way the overseer goes over
the list, punishing only those who have idled away their time.
No one knows that he is to be punished until his name is called, when he
has an opportunity of giving his reasons for his imperfect day's work.
As to the quantity which a hand can pick in a day, there is a great
difference; some will pick only from 75 to 100 lbs., others from 150 to
200 lbs., while some extraordinary pickers can pick as high as 4 or 500
lbs. in one day. But to pick these last weights requires such brisk and
incessant motion, that it could not be done two days in succession
without danger of life or health; and is only attempted for a wager, or
such like reason. The average weight picked by all the hands on a place,
will seldom exceed 150 or 160 lbs., in good picking. Children from ten
to fifteen years of age generally pick nearly as much as grown hands.
The scaffolds for drying cotton are mostly temporary, being made anew
every summer, of common boards or plank. Upon these the cotton is
suffered to lie spread out to the sun, at least one day to dry; while
some old or decrepit hand stays at the scaffold, to turn and spread it,
as well as to pick out leaves and trash.
It may not be improper to make a remark or two relative to whipping.
This is generally performed with as much care and humanity as the nature
of the case will admit. A person standing at the distance of two hundred
yards, being unacquainted with the mode, and hearing the loud sharp
crack of the whip upon the naked skin, would almost tremble for the life
of the poor sufferer. But what would be his surprise, after hearing
fifty or one hundred stripes thus laid on, to go up and examine the poor
fellow, and find the skin not broken, and not a drop of blood drawn from
him! Yet this is the way in which the whip is generally used here upon
slaves: very few planters would permit them to be whipped on the bare
back with a raw-hide, or cow-skin, as it is called. Though, as in every
thing else, there is a great difference in the degree of severity
exercised by different masters: yet we must take the general rule, as
applicable to the great class of planters. The common overseer's whip
consists of a stout flexible stalk, large at the handle, tapering
rapidly to the distance of about eighteen inches, and thence continued
with cord or leather; the whole is covered with a leather plat, which
continues tapering into, and forms the lash--the whole together being
about three feet and a half long. To the end of the lash is attached a
soft, dry, buckskin cracker, about three eighths of an inch wide and ten
or twelve inches long, which is the only part allowed to strike, in
whipping on the bare skin. So soft is the cracker, that a person who has
not the sleight of using the whip, could scarcely hurt a child with it.
When it is used by an experienced hand it makes a very loud report, and
stings, or "burns" the skin smartly, but does not bruise it. One hundred
lashes well laid on with it, would not injure the skin as much as ten
moderate stripes with a cow-skin.
But to return from this digression:--Every day, when the weather will
admit, beholds a repetition of the ceremony of picking, weighing, and
drying, as before detailed. Those who have gins, as all planters should
have, generally keep the stand running during the picking season, so as
to gin out the cotton as fast as it is picked. If there are forty or
fifty good pickers, it requires one stand to be kept running constantly
to keep up with them. In such cases, during wet weather, when the hands
cannot pick cotton, the ablest of them are kept baling the cotton which
has been ginned since the last rain, or within the last eight or ten
days. When there are not more than twenty, or twenty-five, the gin will
be able to keep up, by ginning the last three days in the week, in
addition to all rainy weather; and the able-bodied hands will be able to
do all the pressing and baling during the wet days.
Gin, in the common acceptation, signifies the house and all the
machinery required to separate the _lint_ from the seed, and to press it
into large bales, weighing generally from 400 to 500 pounds. The house
is a large enclosed roof, resting upon blocks or posts, which support it
at about eight or nine feet from the ground. The common area covered is
about forty by sixty feet, the rafters resting upon plates, and the
plates upon flooring beams, or joists, upon which the floor is laid.
About the distance of one-third the length of the house, two gearing
beams are laid across, for supporting the machinery. These rest upon the
top of the blocks, or on posts framed into them. On the ground floor is
the horse-path for drawing the main wheel and counter wheel; the last of
which carries a broad band, which passes over and turns the cylinder and
brush of the gin-stand alone. The large plantations are adopting steam
engines, and erect for the purpose very large and expensive buildings,
in which are placed two, three, or four stands. A gin-stand is a frame,
in which runs a wooden cylinder with an iron shaft running through it;
this cylinder is encircled at every inch by a very thin circular saw,
with sharp hooked teeth, upon which the seed cotton is thrown, running
through parallel grates. The teeth of the saws catch and carry through
the lint from the seed. Just behind the cylinder is a fly-wheel
brush--that is, a fan, with a brush on its extreme circumference; this
brush, running considerably faster than the cylinder, takes off the
cotton from the teeth, and blows it back. The space or room above is
divided into two apartments; one for the stand and seed cotton, and the
other for ginned cotton; the latter of which will contain cotton for
twenty or thirty bales. A good gin-stand, with sixty or sixty-five saws,
running constantly from daybreak in the morning until eight or nine
o'clock at night, will gin out as much as will make three or four bales.
At the other end of the house, and immediately under the room containing
ginned cotton, is the press. It consists of two large wooden screws,
twelve or sixteen inches in diameter, with reversed threads cut on each
end to within eighteen inches or two feet of the middle, through which
there is a mortice for the lever. These screws stand perpendicularly,
and about ten feet apart, and work into a large heavy beam above, and
into another firmly secured below. The upper moves up or down (when the
screws are turned), between four strong upright posts, framed together,
two on each side, so as to come down strait and steady when pressing.
The lower sides of the press are composed of very strong batten doors;
when the beam is brought sufficiently low, a spring is struck, and they
fly open; when they are removed, leaving the naked bale standing on its
edge under the press. A piece of bagging, cut to the proper size and
shape, was put in the bottom of the press-box, before filling in the
cotton, and another on top, immediately under the follower. These two
pieces are brought together in such manner as to cover the cotton
neatly, and there sewed with twine. The rope passed under and over it,
through the grooves left in the bed-sill and in the follower, by means
of a windlass, is drawn extremely tight and tied with double loop knots.
When all is finished, the screws are turned backward, the beam rises,
and the bale is rolled out. Notwithstanding there are seven bands of
strong rope around it, the bale will swell and stretch the rope, until
its breadth is at least two or three inches more than when in the press.
To press and bale expeditiously requires at least four or five hands and
one horse. When the box has been sufficiently filled, generally eight or
nine feet deep, the men bring down the beam by turning the screws with
hand levers as long as they can turn them; then a large lever is placed
in the screw, with a strong horse attached to one end, and a few turns
of the screws by the horse bring the beam down to the proper point,
within thirty or thirty-four inches of the sill.
The requisite number of hands will put up and bale with a common press
about ten or twelve bales a day, by pushing. After the bales are
properly put up, the next thing is to mark and number them on one end.
For this purpose a plate of copper, with the initials, or such mark as
is fancied, cut in it, is applied to the end of the bale and the letters
and figures painted through it with black marking ink.
The next trouble is to haul them to market, or the nearest landing for
boats; sometimes this is a very troublesome and difficult task,
especially in wet weather, when the roads, from the immense quantity of
heavy hauling, in getting the crops to market, are much cut up, and
often almost impassable. The planter who is careful to take all proper
advantages of season and weather, will have his cotton hauled early in
the fall, as fast as it is ginned, when the roads are almost certainly
good.
The quantity of cotton produced to the acre, varies with the quality of
the soil and the season. The best kind of river and alluvial lands, when
in a complete state of cultivation, and with a good season, will produce
on an average from 1500 to 2000 lbs. of cotton in the seed per acre;
while new land of the same quality will not yield more than 1200 or 1400
lbs. per acre. The highlands, where the soil is fertile, will yield
under the most favourable circumstances about 1400 lbs., while those
lands which have been many years in cultivation, where the soil is thin,
will not yield more than from 800 to 1000 lbs. per acre; and some not
more than 600 lbs. As a general rule 1300 or 1400 lbs. of seed cotton,
will, when ginned out, make a bale of 400 lbs. or more. This is
according to the correct weight of the daily picking in the cotton book;
although after being weighed, it must lose some weight by drying.
The quantity of cotton raised and secured by good management most
commonly averages about five or six bales to the hand: and the quantity,
among the mass of planters, more frequently falls below, than rises
above this estimate. Some, with a few choice hands, may sometimes
average nine or ten bales to the hand by picking until January.
When the crop is all secured, which, as we observed before, varies from
the first of December until some time in January, according to the
season, hands, and extent of the crop, the hands are employed during the
winter in clearing, chopping logs in the field, splitting rails, or
ditching, if necessary. About the middle of February they resume
preparations for "another crop."