=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 entire belt would curtail the size of the crop by 500,000 bales in a season, as was the case in 1909 when about 32,000,000 acres were planted. Light frosts and late frosts do little harm to the cotton-plant; in fact it is contended that the late frosts do much good under certain conditions of the crop, by opening the bolls that otherwise would not open, and thus adding to the quantity of the late pickings. The effect of frost upon the lint so picked is to produce tinged and stained cotton. Early killing frosts occur in some seasons in the early part of November, when much of the yield may be curtailed. When killing frosts occur late in the season, when the fruiting is practically over, it has little or no effect upon the yield except as regards the color.