156 



AGRICULTURE 



The hulls and meal left from the process are used as fertilizer or 

 stock feed. 



Place in Rotation. Cotton, as already stated, removes from 

 the land less fertility than almost any other crop. Why is it, 

 then, that cotton farms are so often poor and ' run down ' ? 

 This is due to unwise and improper cultivation. The one-crop 

 system prevails largely throughout the cotton section. The same 

 land is put in cotton year after year. Being a clean crop, it destroys 



humus. Being gath- 

 ered late, it often 

 leaves the land bare 

 through the winter 

 to lose more by 

 leaching and wash- 

 ing than by its sum- 

 mer crop. 



Cotton should 

 take its place in a 

 regular rotation and 

 should stay there. 

 In this rotation there 

 should be a nitro- 

 gen-gathering, hu- 

 mus-producing crop. 

 Crimson clover 

 should be sowed in cotton, at the last working, or rye, after it is 

 gathered, to furnish a winter cover-crop. 



Sea Island and Upland Cotton. There are two kinds of cotton 

 raised in the United States, sea island and upland. The sea island 

 cotton flourishes on the islands and along the coast of South 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It needs a hot, humid climate. 



COTTON BOLLS 

 On the left is American upland ; on the right, sea island. 



