Note 31 — HUNTING A HOME IN BRAZIL. (continued 7)
Reading edition
A considerable lot of cotton gathered from these stalks lies in the seed at the residence, and does not give evidence of nice handling, but the fibre is good. Even with the spirit of progress which Senor Miguel manifests in his appliances generally, the little hand-roller is his only reliance for picking cotton, and hence this seed cotton remains on hand.
He has attempted to use an English apparatus with a roughened roller, but apart from the insufficiency of size it is totally unfitted for accomplishing any satisfactory results. He is now impressed with the necessity of supplying himself with a good cotton-gin to meet the demands of his forthcoming crops here and at Ponto-Grosso.
The want of information as to the conditions for proper culture of cotton is shown in the planting of sugar-cane among the cotton, and yet I counted upon a single limb of one branch of a large stalk in that field twenty-two bolls, the entire stalk having certainly over two hundred bolls.