154 COTTON 



heaping the top soil to the center, which leaves 

 the row two to three inches higher than the soil 

 on either side of and between the rows. 



In bedding up many people who grow cotton 

 wisely include simple tillage operations as well. It 

 Is not enough to make the bed only; the entire 

 surface of the soil must be plowed and then 

 harrowed and re-harrowed until the ideal seed bed 

 is obtained. Only when this is done are you 

 ready for bedding up the land. A week, perhaps 

 a longer time, now passes before seeds are planted. 

 But what of weeds and grass? Now don't 

 deceive yourself, for they are the ever present 

 enemy of cotton, and unless you wage war early 

 and fiercely, your cotton crop will be sorely 

 troubled, if not permanently injured. Your best 

 weapon for some time on will be a light, fine-tooth 

 harrow or weeder. This will not only destroy 

 millions of weeds and grass seed that are germi- 

 nating and fast gaining foothold at the surface of 

 the soil, but will prove the very tool needed for 

 conserving the moisture in the land. Team labor 

 expended at this time of the year is hand labor 

 saved later on in the season. 



DISTANCE BETWEEN ROWS AND PLANTS 



You already know that rich lands require less 

 seed and a fewer number of plants than do thin 

 and infertile soils. Why? Because fertile soils 

 naturally produce heavier and larger cotton stalks, 

 which naturally call for fewer plants to the acre, 

 and greater distance between them in the row. 



Four feet is the usually accepted distance 

 between rows, although on the lighter kinds of 



