188 POWER AND THE PLOW 



conditions determine the exact style used, just as in the case 

 of the single moldboard plow. Plowing in this section, as in 

 the entire South, may be done at almost any season of the year. 

 The climate, however, is one of abundant rainfall during the 

 winter months and of extreme heat during the late summer 

 and fall. The bulk of the plowing for small grains and cover 

 crops is done between August and November, and for cotton 

 and corn between January and April. 



Still further back from the Atlantic Coast, and parallel to 

 the Piedmont Plateau, lies the Appalachian region, which is 

 generally too rugged for agriculture. In the broad valleys, 

 however, farming of the most improved type is practicable 

 where the transportation facilities allow the marketing of 

 products. The hillsides are farmed only by a low class of 

 poor whites, and the plows and customs of this class are little 

 advanced over those in general use a century ago. 



In some sections of the South, particularly hi the Delta 

 regions of the Mississippi and the so-called black waxy land of 

 Louisiana and Texas, a sticky, rubbery soil makes necessary 

 the exercise of the greatest ingenuity in providing plows which 

 will turn-the smfa.ce. One type of plow has a short steep mold- 

 board, four mules beingjsQujred to a single plow. No attempt 

 is made to make these plows scour, the pitch of the moldboard 

 being sufficient to turn the earth across the surface with the 

 expenditure of a great amount of power. On the other hand, 

 a long curving moldboard, not unlike the prairie breaker, is 

 successfully used when the soil is in a favorable condition of 

 dryness. In developing the moldboard for this particular 

 soil type every device which the imagination could suggest was 

 tried out. A moldboard made^gi^lass failed, as did one com- 

 posed of rollers. PersisTenlTattempts were made to dry the 

 earth as^it- pussed over the moldboard with a small furnace 

 underneath the latter, or even to oil the moldboard, oil being 

 forced through perforations. The nearest approach to success 

 under all conditions was a wooden moldboard covered with 



