MISCELLANEOUS CROPS. 203 



sometimes a common field roller is used in threshing it, the cir- 

 cle being made large enough so that the horses can draw the 

 roller over it. When threshed in the field it should at once be 

 cleaned up, or if left over night should be piled and carefully 

 protected from possible rain. 



Cotton. The cotton belt of the United States extends from 

 the Gulf to the fortieth parallel of latitude, but between 3C 

 and 40 the crop is often cut short by a cold wet spring or 

 early autumn frosts. There are three classes of soil on which 

 the plant flourishes. First, the soft limestone, or what is called 

 the rotten limestone and red lands, which are found in Georgia, 

 South Carolina, parts of Alabama and Mississippi, and a small 

 part of Texas. Second, the rich, black, cane-break lands of mid- 

 dle Alabama, and the black, rolling prairies of Texas. These 

 black lands can not be surpassed for the certainty with which 

 they produce crops, their freedom from insect enemies, and 

 natural drainage. The third and most valuable class of lands 

 are the river bottoms, as they possess almost unbounded fer- 

 tility, and being made up of vegetable mold and sand are easily 

 worked and dry off quickly after heavy rains. 



Mules are better than horses for working the crop, as they 

 endure the heat much better. The usual allowance of help is 

 one mule and one hand for each ten acres of cotton, but in the 

 picking season, extra help will be required. Plowing begins 

 early in February, and the land is plowed into beds from four 

 and a half to seven feet wide, the richer the land the wider the 

 rows. Many careless cultivators simply lap the furrows to- 

 gether, leaving the soil unbroken underneath, but the bet- 

 ter way is to first plow out a furrow and then turn the 

 soil back so as to give a greater depth of mellow earth. It 

 is desirable that this plowing should be done several weeks be- 

 fore planting, so as to give time for the weeds to start, which 

 will then be destroyed by the harrowing, laying off, and plant- 

 ing, and also because a mellower seed-bed can be made after 

 the land has been settled by rains. 



The planting season begins the middle of March and contin- 

 ues till past the middle of April, but the chances for a good 



