COTTON CULTURE. 27 



opinion, as well as much room for improvement. The 

 ordinary light wooden plow, with a moulding board of 

 oak faced with iron, of easy draught, and making a furrow 

 two or three inches deep, answers all the purposes of the 

 cotton grower quite well. Planters differ, also, as to the 

 propriety of ever plowing deep, except the first time when 

 the beds are made. Certain it is that very fine crops are 

 habitually made by the use of small, shallow running 

 plows. 



After the middles are broken out, it is clear tat some 

 form of implement which shall scrape or break up a, con- 

 siderable surface, may "be used with advantage. A favorite 

 plow, if such it may be called, among the planters in the 

 Gulf States, is the sweep or Eagle. It is made by fitting 

 flanks or wings to the side of the common scooter or bull 



Fig. 2. COTTON SWEEP. 



tongue plow, in such a way as to carry a cutting edge 

 about an inch beneath the surface. It displaces the earth 

 very little, but is an excellent weed-killer, and tends to 

 throw the earth from the middles up to the rows. These 

 wings are made to extend so that in ordinary four-foot 

 rows, once passing over the soil will be sufficient. The 

 cotton sweep represented in Fig. 2, is one of those offered 



