158 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



ary unless he has burned the stalks just after harvest in 

 an attempt to prevent the hibernation of the weevil. At 

 the same period the corn stalks if left in the field can be 

 cut. The disposal of the old stalk is often left until plant- 

 ing time. The farmer is able at the usual rate to clear 

 about seven and a half acres a day. The stalks may be 

 turned under. It is becoming more the practice, espe- 

 cially in the Western Belt, for the farmer to plow up the 

 stalks, rake them up with a hay rake, and burn them. 6 



Cotton planting begins about the middle of March in 

 southern Texas and moves upward through the belt to 

 reach North Carolina and the northern margin about 

 April 21. By the first of April, cultivation is under way 

 in the Black Waxy Prairie of Texas and in central belts 

 of Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. 7 



In order come the processes of plowing, bedding, har- 

 rowing, and planting the fields. The following descrip- 

 tion refers to the cultural practices in the Eastern Belt: 



A one-horse plow is run along the side of the old row 

 and the dirt is thrown toward the middle by running one 

 or two furrows on each side of the row. This leaves the old 

 cotton stubs standing on a balk or small ridge, which is 

 broken out with a one-horse shovel plow, leaving a furrow 

 in which the fertilizer is distributed with a one-horse fer- 

 tilizer distributor. The land is bedded back on the fertilizer 

 with a plow taking from two to four trips per row. This 

 leaves another "balk" between the two old rows, which may 

 be left until the cotton is cultivated. The top of the bed is 

 leveled off with a harrow or a board and the cotton planted 



6 Cotton Alias, p. 15. 



7 Baker, Seedtime and Harvest, Dept. of Agriculture Circular 

 183, p. 36. 



