210 now TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



three years ; aud as cotton is not an exhaustive crop, with a few 

 fertilizers, this might be made sufficient. 



A satisfactory rule is one mule and one hand for every ten 

 acres of cotton. The best mules for the purpose are fast walk- 

 inc' mules, and quickness of movement is more desirable than 

 great strength. The same is true of hands — a rather small but 

 active hand is the best on the cotton plantation. 



The best mode of preparing for planting and cultivating a 

 cotton crop is briefly as follows : 



Plow early; the last of February, if the soil will admit. 

 Mark off the rows. Give the soil a month to settle. Eun a 

 light harrow along the ridges. Follow with a marker, soak the 

 seeds in some fertilizer, drop evenly two or three inches apart 

 if by hand, four to six inches if by a drill ; cover one inch deep. 

 As soon as the third leaf appears, with a shanghai plow, or a 

 cultivator that can be run astride the rows, clean away the 

 grass and weeds from both sides at once. Follow with the 

 hoes, " chopping out " weeds and superfluous plants. Cultivate 

 once in two weeks with plows and hoes till the plants interlock 

 across the middles. 



Plowing. The planter of one hundred acres of cotton, with 

 the necessary grain and roots, requires four or five large plows 

 for preparing his grain land, and for making the ridges for his 

 cotton. Cotton requires a deep soft bed for its long tap root ; 

 but deep cultivation between the rows has been proved injuri- 

 ous. At least ten small plows of different patterns are de- 

 sirable. The scooter or bull tongue, for marking the rows 

 where a drill is not used ; the scraper or sweep, for cultivat- 

 ing the middles ; the shanghai, for clearing the rows at the 

 first cultivation where a cultivator is not used; the shovel 

 plow and the mould plow. In Chapter IV. will be found a 

 description of the hest large plows, and Messrs. E. E. Allen & 



