bush, is from two to five or six feet high. It is
unlike any plant with which we are familiar in the North. It resembles
a large currant-bush more nearly than any thing else I can think of.
Where the branches are widest the plant is three or four feet from
side to side. The lowest branches are the longest, and the plant,
standing by itself, has a shape similar to that of the Northern
spruce. The stalk is sometimes an inch and a half in diameter where
it leaves the ground. Before the leaves have fallen, the rows in
a cotton-field bear a strong resemblance to a series of untrimmed
hedges.

When fully opened, the cotton-bolls almost envelop the plant in their
snow-white fiber. At a distance a cotton-field ready for the pickers
forcibly reminds a Northerner of an expanse covered with snow. Our
Northern expression, "white as snow," is not in use in the Gulf
States. "White as cotton" is the form of comparison which takes its
place.

The pickers walk between the rows, and gather the cotton from the
stalks on either side. Each one gathers half the cotton from the row
on his right, and half of that on his left. Sometimes, when the stalks
are low, one person takes an entire row to himself, and gathers from
both sides of it. A bag is suspended by a strap over the shoulder, the
end of the bag reaching the ground, so that its weight may not be
an inconvenience. The open boll is somewhat like a fully bloomed
water-lily. The skill in picking lies in thrusting the fingers
into the boll so as to remove all the cotton with a single motion.
Ordinary-pickers grasp the boll with one hand and pluck out the cotton
with the other. Skillful pickers work with both hands, never touching
the bolls, but removing the cotton by a single dextrous twist of the
fingers. They can thus operate with great rapidity.

As fast as the bags are filled, they are emptied into large baskets,
which are placed at a corner of the field or at the ends of the rows.
When the day's work is ended the cotton is weighed. The amount
brought forward by each person is noted on a slate, from which it is
subsequently recorded on the account-book of the plantation.

From one to four hundred pounds, according to the state of the plants,
is the proper allowance for each hand per day.

In the days of slavery the "stint" was fixed by the overseer, and was
required to be picked under severe penalties. It is needless to say
that this stint was sufficiently large to allow of no lo