Identifier: birdsnature111902chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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e of Pharaoh cotton was yet a rarearticle since it is recorded that thiseminent ruler presented Joseph with acostly coat made of this material, as amemento of high esteem. It is also anotable fact that the Egyptian mummiesare swathed in linen instead of cottoncloth. No cotton seeds have ever beenfound in the ancient tombs of Egypt, noris the plant represented upon the ancientmural paintings of that country. In the eastern continent India was nodoubt the principal cotton growing coun-try ; even China obtained its principalsupply from that source. Not until aboutthe ninth century of our era was cottonextensively cultivated in China. Aboutthe second centum- Arabian merchantslirought ccnion fn^m India and began tocultivate it in the vicinity of the Red sea,and from thence it gradually found itswa\- int(^ Sixain al)out the sixteenth cen-tury, and from S)\\in into Italy andGreece. No one knows exactly when cottonbegan to l)e used and cultivated in thew estern continent; we know that it nmst
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FHOM KaHLKHS M( UICINAL-PPLAN2CN. 490 COTTON,((iossypium b:irTKidtuise.) liave been used a long time before thediscovery of America by Columbus, forreasons already given. Mexican andSouth American mummy cloth is foundto consist largely of cotton. Cotton is now extensively cultivatedin the warmer countries of both hemi-spheres—in the southern United Statessince the sixteenth century. The cottonplant is in reality a perennial, becomingquite shrubby with age, but in cultivationit is treated as an annual, being grownfrom seeds planted each spring. Threeor four seeds are planted to each hill, thehills being about three feet apart. Aftersprouting the weaker individuals are re-moved, and at the end of three or fourmonths the remaining carefully culti-vated plants are pruned to make themmore spreading and give a better yieldof cotton. The plants grow quite rapidly,the cotton maturing about five monthsafter planting. With the exception of thepruning, the planting and cultivation ofcotton in

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