COTTON CULTURE. 21 



for the seeds, and thus ensure a straight line of young 

 plants. Any person of ingenuity can think of some con- 

 trivance by which this may be effected, and certainly no 

 part of cotton planting will pay better than attention at 

 this point. Remember that for three months your plows, 

 scrapers, or cultivators, are to be kept running backwards 

 and forwards between these cotton rows, and, if the line of 

 plants is straight and even, the coulter or the outside tooth 

 of the cultivator can be carried so close to the plants as 

 almost to supersede the use of the hoe. Experience has 

 shown that a hand can tend an acre or two acres more, 

 where the planting was done with care and the line of 

 young plants is uniform and even, than where the planting 

 was careless. One great reason why little attention was 

 ever paid to the best and neatest modes of getting a crop 

 into the ground, was the universal feeling that the force of 

 laborers necessary to pick a crop could easily plant and 

 cultivate one. This may be true, but it affords no apology 

 for rude and careless work. If eight plow and hoe hands 

 can raise as much cotton as twelve can pick, it only shows 

 that a skillful planter can keep four hands at making im- 

 provements, raising vegetables, and looking after stock 

 during the months of April, May, June, and July, while 

 his less thoughtful neighbor has every hand in the cotton 

 field. Economy of labor always and everywhere pays. 



The following is the old established mode of planting, 

 practiced on millions of acres annually. In the warm days 

 of the latter part of March, the seed cotton was hauled to 

 the fields, and dropped in piles of three or four bushels, at 

 convenient distances. A harrow passed along on the top 

 of the bed, followed by a light plow, and behind came a 

 boy or a woman, generally the latter, with an apron full 

 of seed, which was refilled, as often as empty, from the 

 nearest heap. These were dashed by handfuls into the 

 furrow with a quick downward jerk or fling of the right 

 hand, the left meanwhile holding the apron. The seeds 



