Thirty Years a Slave | Page 8

under the most favorable circumstances, for cotton to attain its
full growth. It was usually planted about the 1st of April, or from
March 20th to April 10th, bloomed about the 1st of June and the first
balls opened about August 15th, when picking commenced. The
blooms come out in the morning and are fully developed by noon,
when they are a pure white. Soon after meridian they begin to exhibit
reddish streaks, and next morning are a clear pink. They fall off by
noon of the second day.
* * * * *
THE COTTON WORM.
A cut worm was troublesome sometimes; but the plants were watched
very carefully, and as soon as any signs of worms were seen work for
their destruction was commenced. The majority of the eggs were laid
upon the calyx and involucre. The worm, after gnawing through its
enclosed shell, makes its first meal upon the part of the plant upon
which the egg was laid, be it leaf, stem or involucre. If it were laid
upon the leaf, as was usually the case, it might be three days before the
worm reached the boll; but were the eggs laid upon the involucre the

worm pierced through within twenty-four hours after hatching. The
newly hatched boll worm walks like a geometrical larva or looper, a
measuring worm as it was called. This is easily explained by the fact
that while in the full grown worm the abdominal legs, or pro legs, are
nearly equal in length, in the newly hatched worm the second pair are
slightly shorter than the third, and the first pair are shorter and slenderer
than the second--a state of things approaching that in the full grown
cotton worm, though the difference in size in the former case is not
nearly so marked as in the latter. This method of walking is lost with
the first or second molt. There is nothing remarkable about these young
larvae. They seem to be thicker in proportion to their length than the
young cotton worms, and they have not so delicate and transparent an
appearance. Their heads are black and their bodies seem already to
have begun to vary in color. The body above is furnished with sparse,
stiff hairs, each arising from a tubercle. I have often watched the newly
hatched boll while in the cotton fields. When hatched from an egg
which had been deposited upon a leaf, they invariably made their first
meal on the substance of the leaf, and then wandered about for a longer
or shorter space of time, evidently seeking a boll or flower bud. It was
always interesting to watch this seemingly aimless search of the young
worm, crawling first down the leaf stem and then back, then dropping a
few inches by a silken thread and then painfully working its way back
again, until, at last, it found the object of its search, or fell to the ground
where it was destroyed by ants. As the boll worms increase in size a
most wonderful diversity of color and marking becomes apparent. In
color different worms will vary from a brilliant green to a deep pink or
dark brown, exhibiting almost every conceivable intermediate stage
from an immaculate, unstriped specimen to one with regular spots and
many stripes. The green worms were more common than those of any
other color--a common variety was a very light green. When these
worms put in an appearance it raised a great excitement among the
planters. We did not use any poison to destroy them, as I learn is the
method now employed.
* * * * *
THE COTTON HARVEST.

The cotton harvest, or picking season, began about the latter part of
August or first of September, and lasted till Christmas or after, but in
the latter part of July picking commenced for "the first bale" to go into
the market at Memphis. This picking was done by children from nine to
twelve years of age and by women who were known as "sucklers," that
is, women with infants. The pickers would pass through the rows
getting very little, as the cotton was not yet in full bloom. From the
lower part of the stalk where it opened first is where they got the first
pickings. The season of first picking was always a great time, for the
planter who brought the first bale of cotton into market at Memphis
was presented with a basket of champagne by the commission
merchants. This was a custom established throughout Mississippi. After
the first pickings were secured the cotton developed very fast,
continuing to bud and bloom all over the stalk until the frost falls. The
season of picking was exciting to all planters, every one was zealous in
pushing his slaves in order that