38 FOR BETTER CROPS IN THE SOUTH' 



to cotton. You may plant bottom land, hill land, rich land or 

 poor land, but the land must be quick-making land. Late land 

 will not make cotton in the weevil territory. Where the soil 

 responds to commercial fertilizers, apply from three to eight 

 hundred pounds per acre to hasten maturity and increase the 

 yield. Thoroughly pulverize the soil before planting. Work 

 the soil until it is like an ash heap for three or four inches deep. 

 Plant early, rapid-fruiting, prolific cotton seed. Plant as early 

 as the season will permit in rows a little wider than the cotton 

 usually grows tall. 



Commence to work the cotton as soon as possible and never 

 permit a crust to form or the field to become grassy. Continue 

 till the cotton begins to open. 



Fertilizers— On rich lands use mainly fertilizers that stim- 

 ulate the fruit and not the stalk growth. High grade sixteen 

 per cent acid phosphate is the basis for increasing fruit and 

 hastening maturity. Cotton-seed meal is the basis for stimu- 

 lating stalk growth. A mixture of two parts of sixteen per cent 

 acid phosphate and one part of six per cent cotton-seed meal is 

 a good mixture for poor land. It is best to lay off the rows, 

 distribute the fertilizers in the furrows and bed on it. 



Selection of Seed — The production of an early crop of cotton 

 is now absolutely necessary. We must either buy early, rapid- 

 fruiting, prolific cotton seed or select seed from cotton plants 

 with low fruit limbs and short joints on the main stem and fruit 

 limbs. The results obtained by experiment stations have proven 

 conclusively that we may develop early, rapid-fruiting strains 

 of cotton by selecting seed from early, rapid-fruiting, prolific 

 cotton plants. The results obtained show that one selection 

 increases the earliness and productiveness to a surprising 

 extent. 



Cultivation— This should begin before the cotton comes up. 

 It is best done by running two sections of a peg-tooth steel 

 harrow across the rows. The loosening of the surface soil with 

 peg-tooth steel harrow helps to let the young plants through, 

 and kills millions of tiny weeds and grass plants just as they are 

 coming up. The cotton should also be harrowed broadcast with 

 the peg-tooth harrow after it comes up. This early cultivation 

 with the harrow kills the little grass and weeds in the sprout 

 and does away with the necessity of "barring off," forms a soil 

 mulch all over the field which holds the moisture in the ground, 

 and causes the young plants to grow rapidly. Broadcast harrow- 

 ing with a two-horse team is quickly done and is the best kind 

 of cultivation until the cotton is large enough to be thinned and 

 worked with a disk harrow, heel sweeps and walking and riding 

 cultivators without covering it. The use of the harrow before 



