THE COAST REGION. . 35 



while the listing with the hoe costs eighty cents, although the latter has 

 the great advantage of bringing all the vegetable mould and humus di- 

 rectly to the spot where the roots of the plant are to grow. Over the 

 mass of dirt, weeds, manure, etc., thus collected in the old alley, a double 

 roller, five feet from centre to centre, and weighing about eight hundred 

 pounds, is passed to press together and compact the whole, completing 

 two rows at a time. All this should be completed by the first to the mid- 

 dle of March, and the bed is then built up by lapping in two more fur- 

 rows on a side, with a single or double horse turning plow. 



The land is now ready for planting, which may begin any time after 

 the 20th of March ; but the 1st to the 10th of April is the time preferred. 

 Cotton planters are not used. Three hands do this work ; the one ahead 

 chops a hole with a hoe on the top of the bed at intervals of twelve to 

 eighteen inches ; another hand drops eight or ten seed in each hole, and 

 the third follows and covers carefully with the hoe. Three to four pecks 

 of seed are used to the acre. The seed makes its appearance above ground 

 in eight to twelve days after being planted, and the stand is perfected 

 from the second week in April to the first week in May. Hoeing begins 

 about the first of Ma}'. The second hoeing takes place the last of May. 

 The plows then break out the middles (the spaces between the new beds 

 where the old beds stood). The hoe hands follow, and pull up the loose 

 dirt left by the plow to the foot of the cotton. This is called hauling ; 

 by it the new bed is completed, the cotton is kept from " flagging " (falling 

 down), and the grass is kept under. It costs eighty cents per acre. At 

 the second hoeing some stalks are thinned from the bunch in which the 

 seed breaks the ground, and at each succeeding hoeing and hauling other 

 stalks are removed, until in July only one stalk of each bunch is left. 

 There are four hocings and four haulings by the last week in July, one 

 or more furrows with a sweep plow being run through the middles pre- 

 vious to each hauling. By the last of July the culture is completed, 

 except to run a furrow with the sweep between the rows in August, to 

 destroy grass and keep the cotton growing. 



The first blossoms appear about the middle of June, when the cotton 

 is fifteen inches Righ, and the bolls open towards the end of August, when 

 the plants have attained a growth of four to five feet. Cotton picking 

 commences from the last week in August to the second week in Septem- 

 ber. For the first picking, while the cotton is thin, one and a half cents 

 per pound seed cotton is paid. Subsequently the price is one cent per 

 pound, never less, until the last of November, when it rises again to one 

 and a half to two cents. By the 15th December the crop is gathered. 



Mr. W. E. Fripp, a progressive planter on John's island, remarks in 

 concluding his report : " No improved implements are used or needed 



