UNION AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY REPORT. 51 



The Committee might, with propriety, rest their labors 

 here, from the fact, that to say anything of the subsequent 

 management of the crop is almost an act of supererogation. 

 They, therefore, only propose to throw out a suggestion or so 

 for consideration. A greater proportion of labor is bestowed 

 on the cotton crop than any other, particularly on large planta- 

 tions, where it is usual to plough four times, and close hoe at 

 least three, and in some years oftener. It has occurred to the 

 Committee that a good portion of this labor might be saved, 

 by dispensing with close hoeing partially, or altogether, ac- 

 cording to the field or year. The mode of proceeding is 

 this : the hoe is made to follow the plough at the requisite 

 distance, to ascertain what grass is killed by it passing over 

 all that portion of the row where the plough has done its 

 work properly and using the hoe only on the large bunches 

 of grass, or such as may impede the growth of the cotton 

 thus relying on the plough to kill all the smaller grass. 

 Some of the Committee have tried this plan of cultivation, 

 and so far it has worked well. 



It is a problem not properly solved, whether it is advisable 

 to plough cotton approaching to maturation, or after it has 

 attained to good size, with a fall crop of forms on it. Your 

 Committee think that to plough it, as in the case of corn after 

 tasselling and silking, though it might not, with good seasons, 

 and under favorable circumstances injure, but possibly im- 

 prove it, yet it would be risking too much. On the whole, 

 they are opposed to late ploughing under the scorching sun 

 of August. 



A variety of ploughs have been invented, with a view to 

 their adaptation to the culture of cotton, but they have been 

 pretty generally discarded. The scraper, or Eagle-plough, as 

 it is sometimes called, is the best answering some years and 

 on some lands an excellent purpose but its general utility 



