156 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



moisture and often prevents damage to the roots. In 

 some sections, however, where the land is flat and full of 

 moisture, ridging seems necessary. 



The cheapest way of cultivating a crop is to prevent grass 

 and weeds from rooting, not to wait to destroy them after 

 they are well rooted. To do this, it is well to run the two- 

 horse smoothing-harrow over the land, across the rows, a 

 few days after the young plants are up. Repeat the har- 

 rowing in six or eight days. In addition to destroying the 

 young grass and weeds, this harrowing also removes many 

 of the young cotton plants and thereby saves much hoe- 

 ing at " chopping out " time. When the plants are about 

 two inches high, they are " chopped out " to secure an 

 evenly distributed stand. It is customary to leave two 

 stalks to a hill. 



The number of times the crop has to be worked depends 

 upon the soil and season. If the soil is dry and porous, 

 cultivate as often as possible, and especially after each 

 rain. Never allow a crust to form after a rain; the roots 

 of plants must have air. Cultivation after each rain forms 

 a dry mulch on the top of the soil and thus prevents the 

 rapid evaporation of moisture. 



If the fiber (the lint) only is removed from the land on 

 which cotton is grown, cotton is the least exhaustive of the 

 great crops grown in the United States. According to 

 some recent experiments, an average crop of cotton removes 

 in the lint only 2.75 pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 

 potash, lime, and magnesia per acre, while a crop of ten 

 bushels of wheat per acre removes 32.36 pounds of the 

 same elements of plant food. Inasmuch as this crop takes 

 so little plant food from the soil, the cotton farmer has 



