CULTIVATION OF COTTON 475 



to remove this difficulty by coating the seed with flour paste. 

 This makes it possible to blow out the light seed with the 

 fanning mill and to plant with the corn planter. It is 

 probable that the plan of planting in hills as corn is usually 

 planted will become much more general in the next few years. 

 The distance between the rows ranges from 2J/ to 5 feet, 

 according to the variety and the fertility of the soil. A 

 small, early variety of the King type on sandy soil may be 

 planted much closer than one of the big-boll type on loam or 

 clay soils. The seed is covered to a depth of from 1 to 3 

 inches, depending largely on the nature of the soil. The 

 crop is planted during April and the first two weeks of May. 



622. Cultivation. The ordinary method of cultivation 

 has been to wait till the plants reach a height of 2 or 3 inches 

 and then to break out the middles of the rows, which have 

 previously been unplowed. A little later, the field is " barred 

 off" by running a small plow or broad shovel close to the 

 row and throwing the earth away from it. About this time, 

 the plants are thinned with the hoe to the proper distance in 

 the rows, this process being known as " chopping out." 

 The distance between the plants varies with the width of 

 the rows and the fertility of the soil. Where the plants 

 make only a small growth, they should be much closer 

 together than where the growth is strong and rank. The 

 usual distance between the plants is from 1 to 2 feet. Later 

 cultivation is usually shallow, for deep plowing cuts off many 

 of the feeding roots. In some cases, however, particularly 

 in weedy fields, the " turning plow," a small moldboard plow, 

 is used for some of these later cultivations, often with dis- 

 astrous results to the crop. From three to five cultivations 

 and from one to three hoeings are ordinarily given. 



Better cultivation is now generally given to the cotton 

 crop than was the case a few years ago. Two-horse culti- 



