160 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



with a two-horse planter which both smooths the top of the 

 bed and drops the seed. 9 



As in the East, these rows are from three to four feet 

 apart and require about a bushel of seed to the acre. 



The contrast between upland and prairie land cotton 

 culture is essentially that between a walking and riding 

 cultivation. In the East the "cotton growing syndicate," 

 in Tompkin's phrase, is a Negro behind a mule and a 

 Georgia stock ; in the West it is a white farmer riding a 

 two to four-mule cultivator. Records of the Department 

 show that the planting process for upland lands in 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas 

 requires fourteen to eighteen hours of man labor plus an 

 average of twenty-two hours of mule labor per acre in 

 cotton. In the Texas Black Land the farmer spends five 

 hours of work to fifteen hours for his horse per acre. 10 



Cotton planting is general throughout the whole belt 

 during April. It ends usually by May 21 in the northern 

 areas, the process requiring about a month. Given the 

 right amount of moisture, spring warmth, and no frost, 

 the cotton farmer has not long to wait for the little plants 

 to show just above the ground. The bare clean fields with 

 the rows of tiny two-leaved plants stretching away into 

 the distance are a sight to gladden the heart of any vet- 

 eran cotton planter. 



As soon as the small plants are up to a stand, about a 

 month after planting, the farmer begins to "chop out" 

 his cotton. The first cotton chopping begins in Texas 

 May 1 and reaches North Carolina by May 21. The 

 plants are thinned out to furnish better growing condi- 



9 Ibid., p. 14. The description is of Ellis County, Texas. 

 10 Baker, op. cit., pp. 36, 37. 



