158 COTTON 



investigators. He is successful, of course. He 

 follows modern methods, and reads about and 

 studies his business. 



AT CHOPPING TIME 



The imperfect method of planting cotton makes 

 work with the hoe necessary in order to secure a 

 proper stand and correct the excessively large 

 number of plants to the acre. The present-day 

 planter drops seed in a continuous chain, using 

 from ten to fifteen times as many seeds as are 

 needed. To get rid of these extra plants and so to 

 thin them in the row that the desired number only 

 shall be left, calls for the practice of " chopping. " 



As young cotton plants slowly come out of their 

 beds in the ground and raise their little bodies 

 into air and sunlight, the laborer comes into the 

 field "to chop" the cotton and arrange it in an 

 orderly manner for the growing campaign now 

 before it. 



As a rule now, all planters chop their cotton, but 

 when a more perfect planter comes this will not be 

 so necessary. A few good farmers, even now are 

 depending less on the hoe and more on the weeder 

 and harrow for this work. Either one or both of 

 these tools when run a couple of times crosswise 

 across the rows do rather effective work in thin- 

 ning the crop; and at the same time the practice 

 warms the soil, mellows the surface, destroys weeds 

 and grass, and puts the land into good physical 

 condition for the growing crop. 



The first step in cotton culture then is this early 

 work with the weeder, or peg-tooth harrow. It is, 

 in fact, the most important ever made, surpassing 

 in value all subsequent workings. 



