THE PIEDMONT REGION. 159 



MANURING 



has for its basis cotton seed. About one thousand pounds of cotton seed 

 are obtained from each bale of cotton, which makes 137,000 tons the 

 supply of this region. Of this, 25,000 tons, at two bushels per acre, is 

 used for j^lanting; a small amount is fed to stock. None is carried to the 

 oil mills, and very little is sold, the price being ten to fifteen cents per 

 bushel ; the balance, about 100,000 tons, is returned to the soil as manure. 

 For small grain, it is sown broadcast, and plowed in with the seed in the 

 fall. For corn, it is killed by heating, and applied in the hill. For cotton, 

 it is becoming the practice to compost it with acid phosphates and stable 

 manure, sometimes with the addition of other litter and lime. It is ap- 

 plied in the drill, at the rate of a ton to two to four acres. This leaves a 

 large portion of tilled land to be supplied with manure from other sources. 

 Corn rarely receives any manure, and the deficiency for the cotton lands, 

 when cotton seed and stable manures are exhausted, is supplied by the pur- 

 chase of ^commercial fertilizers. The amount purchased in this region 

 reaches an aggregate cost of nearly one-half million of dollars, or $1.98 

 for each acre planted in cotton. It varies, from a maximum in Spartan- 

 burg of §3.33 per acre in cotton, to a minimum of .92 cents in Abbeville. 

 It is used most extensively in Spartanburg, Greenville, York and Ander- 

 son, to stimulate the grow^th and maturity of the cotton plant in these 

 counties, which, being more elevated and nearer the mountains, have a 

 shorter growing season. In Newberry, the county most productive in 

 cotton of the region, the average is $1.02 per acre in cotton. Green 

 ntanuring has been practiced only as an experiment. Such experiments 

 with pea vines have had a very promising success, but it has been found 

 better to allow the vines to wither before turning them under. 



CULTIVATION. 



Fallow lands or lands that have been in other crops, and sometimes the 

 heavy red lands, are broken up broadcast during the winter and spring. 

 The great body of the lands, however, being plant-ed year after year 

 in cotton, the usual method is to lay off in the alley with a shovel plow, 

 drill in the manure, and bed to it with a turning plow. Three to five 

 furrows complete the bed, and the land is ready for planting. On the 

 thinnest lands, the rows are two and one-half feet apart — generally they 

 are three feet to three and one-half feet — and on the strongest lands they 

 are four feet. Planting commences on and after 10th April, and is com- 

 pleted on or before the 10th of May. The seed used is the short liinbed 



