COTTON CULTURE 13 



broken down as early as possible, so that they may have 

 time to decay in the soil. As the object is to get the soil 

 into such a condition that thorough plowing may be prac- 

 ticable, many rough-and-ready devices are used, but a well- 

 designed machine "stalk-chopper" is the most economical. 



The old-fashioned way of plowing, still too much in 

 vogue, is by the use of a one-horse plow, shod with a turn 

 shovel. This crude implement has largely given way to 

 factory-made two-horse plows and these are being sub- 

 stituted, to an increasing extent, by the modern disk- 

 plow requiring two or three heavy mules, or horses. Such 

 a plow will turn and disintegrate the soil to the depth of 

 eight to twelve inches, or more, as may be desired. It 

 is a very effective implement. 



Subsoiling is not now practiced to the same extent as 

 formerly and is of doubtful profit. If done it should be 

 confined to stiff clays and the work should be performed 

 in the fall or very early winter. 



With heavy clay soils, and on land not subject to severe 

 washing, plow early in winter; with lighter soils, or soils 

 so situated as to be subject to washing, plow only shortly 

 before planting. To turn over a light soil in winter means 

 a considerable loss of fertilizer by the drainage of winter 

 rains. The general depth of plowing is about four inches; 

 it should not be less than six, and on heavy clay soils 

 eight inches is better. To increase the depth of a soil, 

 the plow should be set deeper very gradually. A gain 

 of one-half inch per annum is probably all that may be 

 safely attempted. 



