196 COTTON 



should be shallow. Thinning the cotton usually begins 

 when it is about three or four inches high. The degree of 

 thinning depends upon the variety, soil, and climatic con- 

 ditions. On the poorer uplands, it is a common practice 

 to leave ten to fourteen inches between the plants in the 

 drill. On the low, fertile bottom soils, wider spacing is 

 necessary and usually on such soils cotton is thinned to 

 allow twenty-four to thirty inches between plants. Shallow 

 cultivation is necessary, for the cotton plant puts out 

 numerous feeding roots near the surface of the ground. 

 Such cultivation should be continued until the plant is 

 fairly well fruited. Usually the latter part of July or the 

 first of August is the time for cultivation to cease. This, 

 however, depends upon seasonal conditions. 



There is nothing else that will increase the yield of cotton 

 so easily and so cheaply as the growing of leguminous crops 

 in a rotation. The following rotation is considered the 

 best for the cotton belt, where rainfall will permit of the 

 growing of these crops : 



FIRST YEAR. Corn, with cowpeas sown broadcast between 



rows. 

 SECOND YEAR. Oats, sown on the corn land, which was 



plowed in the fall. Cowpeas after the oat crop is harvested. 

 THIRD YEAR. Cotton. 



(This rotation cannot be practiced in the dry-farming section 

 of the Southwest.) 



Harvesting. Picking is the most expensive operation 

 connected with cotton production. The picking season 

 usually opens the latter part of August or the first of Sep- 

 tember and is practically over by the middle of December. 



A day's work for an average picker is about 175 pounds 

 of seed cotton. However, skillful pickers are able to obtain 



