20 CIECULAE NO. 110, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



PREPARING COTTON OR GRAIN LAND. 



In preparing cotton land for again planting to cotton a stalk cutter 

 should be used to chop the stems into small pieces; then the land 

 should be plowed, disked, and harrowed until in perfect tilth, when 

 it may be left until planting time. In the absence of a stalk cutter 

 the plants can be dragged down with a heavy drag after a hard 

 freeze. A great many of the stalks will be pulled out, and those 

 remaining in the ground must be dug up with a mattock. This 

 operation is inexpensive, costing only $1 or $1.25 per acre. After 

 all the plants are pulled out of the ground the field should be raked 

 crosswise with a hayrake and the stalks put into windrows, where 

 they can be easily burned. 



Land previously in cotton or grain if irrigated before plowing can 

 be put in perfect condition with one plowing. Land previously in 

 alfalfa should be plowed twice. Last year one farmer plowed his 

 land and leveled it veiy poorly, and instead of disking several times 

 after the irrigation just before planting the seed made small furrows 

 and planted the seed with the idea of pulverizing the land when cul- 

 tivating. This piece of cotton had to be hoed twice and cultivated 

 several times more than a near-by field which was double disked 

 and harrowed until it was in perfect condition before the seed was 

 planted. A farmer planting cotton will make a very great mistake 

 if he does not thoroughly prepare his land before planting the seed. 

 It depends upon the kind of soil and the condition it is in whether a 

 double plowing is necessary to put the land in good tilth or whether 

 this can be done with a single plowing and double disking and double 

 harrowing. No amount of labor within reason expended during the 

 whiter in preparing the seed bed will be regretted, since if this is 

 thoroughly done a great deal less work during the summer will be 

 required to grow the crop, and the yield will be correspondingly 

 better. 



[Cir. 110] 



