AROUND THE YEAR WITH COTTON 161 



tions. The old plantation rule of "once a week and one 

 in a row" sums up current practices. The working in of 

 fertilizer also produces better results. Hoeing cotton for- 

 bids the use of machinery to any great extent and must 

 be done by hand. Next to picking it is the most laborious 

 process in the cultivation. Except in the western area 

 such weeds as crab grass and Johnson grass grow rank 

 throughout the South. After chopping out, which lasts 

 from four to five weeks, it may be necessary to continue 

 cultivation. In the East, chopping cotton requires from 

 fifteen to twenty-five hours of farmer's labor per acre. 

 Texas, however, on the average demands only eleven hours 

 of work for the same process. 11 If he cultivates by plow, 

 the farmer must avoid deep plowing alongside the plant, 

 for this practice causes the early bolls to shed. The 

 average cotton farmer has one answer to the cotton 

 plant's demand for hand tillage, and that is to put his 

 wife and children in the field. If he were able to pay the 

 bills he would find but little agricultural labor to hire, 

 for all his neighbors are busy chopping their own cotton. 

 Except for Mexicans in Texas there have developed no 

 migratory laborers in cotton as in wheat. The cultivation 

 of his corn acreage requires almost two and a half days 

 per acre and comes at the time cotton most needs atten- 

 tion. Accordingly, the farmer drafts his family. It is true 

 that the women and children, white and black, of the 

 small cotton growers are more accustomed to work in the 

 fields than those of any other farming group in the United 

 States. Travelers through the South for the first time 

 carry away vivid memories of tired women, leaning on 

 cotton hoes, staring at the passing train. By those reared 



" Ibid., p. 38. 



