FIBER CROPS 357 



eighteen to thirty inches in width, and attached to a Georgia 

 stock, to the cultivator with 

 five comparatively small 

 shovels. In any case the 

 cultivation should not go 

 deeper than is necessary for 

 effective eradication of the 

 weeds. In Texas, the cul- 

 tural methods are not unlike 



. Georgia stock with different types of shovels 



those for maize where listing used ln cultivatlng cotton 



is practised. (C. A. 301) 



In Alabama a single deep cultivation at the second cultivation, 

 all others being shallow, decreased the yield of seed cotton 85 

 pounds on prairie soil and 105 pounds on sandy soil. There 

 appears to be no advantage in late cultivation unless made neces- 

 sary by the growth of weeds. It is possible that late cultivation 

 may be in some cases injurious by inducing increased growth 

 of plant, or as the planters say, weed, and a corresponding de- 

 crease in fruiting. 



451. Topping. Sometimes the extreme top of the cotton 

 plant is removed late in the summer, with the idea of checking 

 the growth of the plants and inducing a greater development of 

 bolls. Tests at several stations fail to show any advantage in 

 this operation. 



452. Picking. Thus far cotton is picked almost exclusively 

 by hand, although several machines have been invented and 

 tried for this purpose. One of the several difficulties involved 

 in producing a successful picking machine is the fact that the 

 successive ripening of the bolls necessitates several pickings, 

 and the passage of a machine over the fields injures the plants 

 more or less extensively. 



Cotton is picked by men, women and children, payment usually 

 being made by the pound, ordinarily forty cents per hundred 



