ion.

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. Tell what you can about Lincoln's early life. What kind of boy was he?

2. What was the Emancipation Proclamation? Why did not Lincoln set the
slaves free when he became President? What do you admire about him?

3. Why did Lee go with Virginia when this State seceded?

4. Tell as much as you can about Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Sherman, and
Sheridan.

5. What kind of boy was Grant? What kind of man? What do you admire about
him?

6. What were some of the important results of the Civil War?

7. When did this war begin, and when did it end?

8. Are you locating every event upon the map?

CHAPTER XVII

FOUR GREAT INDUSTRIES

COTTON

Thus far we have been considering mainly the men engaged in exploration,
in invention, or in the great national struggles through which our country
has passed. But while only a small fraction of the people, as a rule, take
an active and prominent part in the stirring events of history, many more
work hard and faithfully to furnish all with food, clothing, and other
things needful in every-day living. What these many laborers accomplish in
the fields of industry, therefore, has a most important bearing upon the
life and work of men, leaders and followers alike, in other fields of
action. With this thought in mind, let us take a brief glance at a few of
our great industries.

First, go with me in thought to the South, where the cotton, from which we
make much of our clothing, is raised. Owing to the favorable climate of
the Southern States, it being warm and moist, the United States produces
more cotton and cotton of a better quality than any other country in the
world.

No crop, it is said, is so beautiful as growing cotton. The plants are
low, with dark-green leaves, the flowers, which are yellow at first,
changing by degrees to white, and then to deep pink. The cotton-fields
look like great flower-gardens.

As the blossoms die they are replaced by the young bolls, or pods, which
contain the seeds. From the seeds grow long vegetable hairs, which form
white locks in the pods. These fibres are the cotton. When the pods become
ripe and open, the cotton bursts out and covers them with a puff of soft,
white down.

[Illustration: Cotton-Field in Blossom.]

The height of the picking season is in October. As no satisfactory machine
for picking cotton has been invented, it is usually done by hand, and
negroes for the most part are employe