COTTON 111 



neither check nor discourage her. She wants your 

 helping hand. If the soil has been robbed of its 

 humus, you must return this important element; 

 you must add chemical manures when needed ; you 

 must plow deeply and effectively that a good seed 

 bed be provided for the tender plants; legumes 

 must be grown that their strong, deep-growing roots 

 may add nitrogen and also penetrate and loosen the 

 sub-soil, and bring to the upper layers the rich 

 plant food of the fertile mines beneath. 



GOOD TILLAGE NEEDED 



Our Southern soils possess great possibilities for 

 improvement. They are not exhausted and dead 

 as generally supposed. Good tillage will help 

 many of them as it helps soils devoted to other crops. 



The plow will do much to restore virgin fertility. 

 It will assist nature in making plant food available 

 for the tiny fibrous roots. The plow will let air and 

 moisture into the soil that they may do their share 

 in rendering hitherto locked-up plant food avail- 

 able for the plant. 



Good tillage means more than turning a three or 

 four inch furrow, as is the usual practice through 

 most of the Cotton Belt. It means the gradual 

 deepening of the root bed until ten or a dozen 

 inches are turned to the air for purification and 

 rejuvenation. 



CROP ROTATION NEEDED FOR COTTON LANDS 



Not only do our cotton lands need more thorough 

 tillage, but through the greater part of the Cotton 

 Belt the one-crop system is practiced. From its 

 very nature it is a ruinous system, leading inevitably 

 to the deterioration of the land. 



