10 



BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



The spike-tooth and disk harrows are extensively used on every 

 type of soil. In most areas the turning plow is used for bedding the 

 land. Quite often the middle buster, or lister, is employed for this 

 purpose. This implement is also used to some extent for plowing 

 land in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Fertilizer distributors (fig. 4) 

 are used in all areas where fertilizer is applied to cotton. This imple- 

 ment is often employed instead of a shovel plow for opening up the 



rows. 



PLANTING. 



The time of planting cotton is governed largely by the type of soil 

 and the climatic conditions. Clay soils do not warm up as rapidly in 



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Fig. 5.— Chopping cotton. The seed is sown in drills, and at the first or second cultivation the plants are 

 chopped to a stand with a hoe, leaving one stalk every 12 to 15 inches in the drill. 



the spring as light sandy soils; therefore, cotton is planted later on 

 the heavy clay soils, other conditions being equal. 



It is customary to plant cotton on a shghtly raised bed. There 

 are two reasons for this: (1) It is much easier to thin the cotton to a 

 stand when it is planted on a bed than when it is planted level, cotton 

 being thinned by hand with a hoe and much labor being involved 

 (fig. 5). (2) Another reason for plantmg cotton on a bed is that when 

 land is bedded up, more surface is exposed to the air and sunshine, 

 and consequently the land warms up more quickly, thereby giving the 

 cotton an earlier start. Bedding up also affords better dramage con- 

 ditions, which must be considered in many parts of the cotton belt. 

 In only a few areas, where dry weather prevails during the growing 

 season, is cotton ever listed. 



