DEMONSTRATION WORK IN INCIDENT, STORY AND SONG 



"My dear Uncle/' I replied. ^Your are worth your weight in 

 gold and if you would change some of your old methods of raising 

 cotton you would soon make enough money to buy yourself and retire 

 from business.' In view of this unpromising crop I want to tell 

 you several things that will be helpful. The world knows a lot more 

 about plant life than it did twenty-five years ago. Your first mistake 

 was that you did not thoroughly prepare the land for planting. It 

 should have been worked until the soil was like an ash heap, 3 or 4 

 inches deep. You did not drain the rows so that there would be 

 no wet spots, even with a heavy rain. Look at the long spaces where 

 there are no plants. If the soil is properly prepared there is little 

 danger that there will not be moisture enough for the seeds to 

 germinate, but in most climates and soils there is always danger of 

 too much water in the soil. Standing water is death to cotton and 

 corn.' 



" 'Your next mistake was in getting gin-run seed and planting too 

 many per acre. If you wanted a clean, vigorous and thrifty family, 

 you would not go and get a lot of gin-run boys and girls.' 'What do 

 you mean by gin-run boys and girls V rather sharply interposed Uncle 

 John. 'I mean,' I replied, 'Boys and girls picked up in the homes 

 of the orphans, without any knowledge of their parentage, and you 

 would not get five times as many as you intended to raise, judging 

 that enough of them would die of natural weakness or consumption, 

 or from other causes to leave the proper family. Yet, that is what 

 you did with your cotton; but we will talk more of this another 

 time.' 



" Tou planted too deep and there was hardly strength enough in 

 the little plant to reach the air and it died before it could draw 

 support from the soil. The plants were in the main too crowded. 

 They lacked food and air. That crust on the soil should have been 

 broken. It shuts out the air essential to germination and growth 

 and aids evaporation. Delay planting till the weather is warm. 

 Cotton is a tropical plant. Prepare a fine seed bed; plant shallow — 

 not over one inch deep, if that depth reaches moisture — and the 

 plants will be up in a few days. Run the smoothing harrow two or 

 three time diagonally across the rows as soon as the seed is planted 

 and again and again when the plants are 2 or 3 inches tall. This 

 should be repeated, removing a tooth from the harrow and going 



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