CULTIVATION OF COTTON 



449 



the rows, this process being known as ''chopping out." 

 The distance between the plants varies with the width of 

 the rows and the fertiUty of the soil. Where the plants 

 make only a small growth, they should be much closer to- 

 gether than where the growth is strong and rank. The 



Figure 147. — Field of cotton ready for picking. Usually the first picking is 

 Imade before so much of the crop has opened. 



usual distance between the plants is from 1 to 2 feet. Later 

 cultivation is usually shallow, for deep plowing cuts off many 

 of the feeding roots. In some cases, however, particularly 

 in weedy fields, the ''turning plow," a small moldboard plow, 

 is used for some of these later cultivations^ often with dis- 

 astrous results to the crops. From three to five cultivations 

 and from one to three hoeings are ordinarily given. 



Better cultivation is now generally given to the cotton 

 crop than was the case a few years ago. Two-horse culti- 

 vators are replacing the one-horse ones so long in use, and 

 the harrow and the weeder are more generally used early in 



