Of course if I find that it succeeds, and pays well, I shall
take on more hands, get proper machinery, and extend the
cultivation. I intend to plant the rows rather wide apart, so as to
use the light plow with the ridge boards between them, instead of
hoeing, to save labor."
"How much cotton do they get from an acre?" Mrs. Hardy asked.
"In the Southern States they expect twelve hundred pounds upon new
ground--that is, twelve hundred pounds of pods, which make about
three hundred of cleaned cotton. When I have got the cotton fairly
in the ground I mean to plant an acre or two of tobacco, and the
same quantity of sugar cane, as an experiment. But before I do that
we must make a garden up at the house: that is a really urgent
need."
"Couldn't we grow rice here, papa?"
"No doubt we could, Hubert; but I do not mean to try it. To succeed
with rice, we should have to keep the ground on which it grew in a
state of swamp, which would be very unhealthy. That is why I do not
irrigate the fields oftener than is absolutely necessary. Anything
approaching swampy, or even wet lands, in a climate like this,
would be almost certain to breed malaria. Besides, we should be
eaten alive by mosquitoes. No, I shall certainly not try rice.
Other tropical productions I shall some day give a trial to.
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