34 THE COAST REGION. 



CULTRMTION. 



A mule can do tlic plowing nHjuired in the cultivation of thirty acres 

 in sea island cotton, and can, in addition, cultivate a sufiicicncy of land to 

 supply corn for its own feed, perhaps something over. The first step in 

 the preparation of the land is to hoe off the weeds (" hurricane "), cut up 

 the cotton stalks, and pile and burn this litter. This costs forty cents per 

 acre. Bushes are grubbed up at a cost of seven cents per acre. The land 

 is not broken up broadcast with the plow, but early in February two fur- 

 rows of a single-horse turning plow are run in the old alleys, making a 

 trench seven or eight inches deep. In this furrow a subsoil plow may or 

 may not be run, according to the character of the subsoil. Wherever un- 

 der drainage is practised, as on James island, the furrow is generally used. 

 Before plows came into use this trench was never made, and even now it 

 is omitted by some of the most successful planters. Into this trench, or 

 into the middle of the alley, where there is no trench, the manure is 

 placed. This consists usually of about twenty cart loads of marsh mud 

 and one thousand to one thousand four hundred pounds of cotton seed. 

 Stable and lot manure, together with composts of marsh mud and rushes, 

 are also applied in the furrow at the rate of forty cart loads per acre on 

 such a portion of the land as the limited number of stock enables the 

 farmer to treat in this method. On the lines of manure thus laid doAvn, 

 a certain quantity of commercial fertilizer is drilled. This practice, 

 wholly unknown former!}', is very common now, even the smallest negro 

 farmers often going heavily in debt to obtain these fertilizers from the 

 store-keepers. They are handy, obviate the labor and care of stock and 

 the forethought and toil of collecting and manipulating composts. On 

 James island and John's island a mixture consisting of two hundred and 

 fifty pounds acid phosphate, two hundred pounds kainit (German potash 

 salt) and two hundred pounds calcined marl is applied per acre. On 

 Edisto island they use two hundred poun<ls fish scrap (half dry in bar- 

 rels), two hundred pounds kainit and two hundred pounds acid phosphate 

 per acre. On St. Helena island little fertilizer is used. Cotton seed is 

 worth $15 to $20 per ton, and the commercial fertilizers from $15 to $30, 

 which would make $15 an acre the cost of the manure among the best 

 farmers. 



The land is now ready for listing, which is done by hauling on to the 

 manure with a hoc the soil from the tops and sides of the old bed. A 

 more recent practice is to lap in with two furrows of a turning plow on 

 the manure. This costs oidy seventeen and one-half cents per acre, 



