COTTON CULTURE. 17 



crop of the previous year. If the breadth was planted in 

 cotton, all that is necessary is to keep a hand or two in ad- 

 vance of the plow, with hoes or clubs, to break down the 

 old cotton stalks, or pull them up by the roots, and throw 

 them into piles for burning. If the growth is not very 

 rank they had better be plowed in, but in rich bottoms, 

 where it sometimes attains the height of six or eight feet, 

 the large branching stalks are unmanageable, and had 

 better be burned. Where cotton was the previous crop, 

 and no change in the width of the rows is desirable, run 

 a small furrow between the ridges, then let the large plow 

 pass on the middle of the slope of each row or ridge, and 

 throw furrows from each side that will lap, so that what 

 was a " middle " last year shall be a row this year, and 

 vice versa. Where the previous crop was corn, and it be- 

 comes necessary to change the width of the rows, and 

 where the land has been lying out, and is covered with 

 tall weeds and sedge grass, a different course is to be pur- 

 sued. The rows or beds are laid off by running shallow 

 furrows at the proper distances apart. These distances are 

 to be determined by the nature of the soil, say five and a 

 half or six feet, and sometimes seven on very strong bot- 

 tom lands, and four or four and a half on light lands. A 

 good plan on stubble, corn, or fallow land, is to lay off the 

 rows with a scooter, (a small plow without mould-boards, 

 making a shallow furrow,) enlarge the furrow with a 

 shovel-plow, then drag all the weeds, stubble and trash 

 into these furrows, and cover in by throwing two furrows 

 together upon this trench with a two horse plow. Many 

 careless cultivators simply lap two furrows together, leav- 

 ing six or eight inches of unbroken soil beneath. If good 

 crops are thus raised, and it quite often happens that they 

 are, it is due to the exuberance of a virgin soil, which can 

 make amends for almost any neglect in cultivation. All 

 the writers, and all planters, who have given the results 

 of their experience, agree in saying that cotton requires a 



