three years. The smooth, black seeds of the crioulo[1] cling so firmly to each other that they separate only when pressed very strongly between the fingers, and the fiber can be stripped from them without their being separated and without leaving any lint upon them. The cotton, when ripe, clings firmly and compactly within the boll, and it is for this reason more difficult to pick.
The variety known as the quebradinho is distinguished from the preceding by having seeds which readily separate from each other. The seeds are fewer in number and the bolls smaller than in the crioulo. Both of these varieties, and the yellow variety mentioned below, are known as "tree cotton." One occasionally hears of tree cotton lasting from five to ten years; but, while this may be literally true, the crops borne by these old plants are hardly worth the picking.
The herbaceous variety (called herbaceo) is an annual plant, growing from three to five feet high, and is identical with that generally cultivated in the United States. The seeds separate in the bolls, and the ripe cotton hangs from them in large flocks. This species produces more fiber, sometimes from five to six times as much as either of the preceding kinds, but the quality is considered much inferior. The yield on a given piece of ground of the herbaceous cotton is four times as large as that of tree cotton, and in picking one can gather twice as much from the herbaceous in a given time. Herbaceous cotton is said to have been introduced from the United States, and there is no doubt about its having been taken to Brazil within a comparatively short period.
The only other variety deserving attention is the yellow or light brown, which, however, is not grown in any considerable quantities, owing undoubtedly to its color and to Its small yield of fiber. The color is not generally considered an attractive one, but it is valued for certain household articles, such as hammocks, in which neutral tints and fast colors are desirable.
Cultivation.—Substantially the same system of cultivation is used to-day that was in vogue three hundred years ago. Auguste de Saint-Hilare wrote in 1812, "All the planter has to do is to burn off the woods and plant his seed at the proper season." This is the whole story. There is no uprooting of stumps, no digging out of sprouts, no breaking up with the plow, no preparation of the soil, no laying out of furrows, no cultivation other than the occasional chopping out with the hoe of weeds or sprouts.
Rotation of crops is almost entirely unknown. Fields are seldom laid out with any definite forms, as they would be if the
- ↑ This variety takes its name from the black color of the seeds, the word crioulo being sometimes applied to negroes in Brazil.
