FARM PRACTICE IN THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 



21 



SURVEY IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA. 



The tillage records for the Mississippi Delta (Table Xll) were taken 

 in Yazoo County, near Yazoo City, Miss., in Washington County, near 

 Greenville, Miss., and in Sharkey County, near RoUing Fork, Miss. 



The Mississippi Delta extends approximately from Vicksburg to 

 the northern boundary of the State, and conditions throughout the 

 region are fairly uniform. The topography is exceptionally level and 

 drainage is by open ditches which surround the fields. Practically 

 none of the land is tile drained. The soil is a dark-brown silt loam 

 and very fertile. No commercial fertihzer is used and little stable 

 manure is produced. 



The farms are large and only about 60 per cent of the land is cul- 

 tivated. All the farming is done by negro tenants under the super- 

 vision of the owner or 

 a hired manager. 



Cotton is the princi- 

 pal crop grown and is 

 the only source of in- 

 come on most farms. 

 Nearly every farmer 

 grows af ew oats,which 

 are fed on the farm. 

 No set rotations are 

 practiced, and on 

 many of the farms cot- 

 ton has been grown 

 on the same land con- 

 tinuously for 75 years, 

 but still produces a 

 profitable yield. On 



some farms a 3-Vear Fig.ii. — a 2-horse2-shovel cultivator equipped with long sweeps in- 

 . stead of shovels, used for the tillage of cotton in Pemiscot County, 



rotation is partly Mo., and other sections of the cotton belt. 



maintained, in which 



cotton is grown two years followed by corn one year. Cowpeas are 

 sown in the cOrn at the last cultivation and the vines are plowed 

 under after the corn is harvested. 



Not enough cattle and hogs are kept to supply home demands 

 and none are raised for market. Very little fruit or truck is grown. 



In preparing the land for cotton 2-horse teams are used. After 

 the cotton is picked the old stalks are cut up with a stalk cutter 

 (fig. 3) and the land is plowed in the early spring, most of it being 

 bedded as broken. Either a 2-horse turning plow or a fister is 

 used. If the land is not bedded as broken it is bedded before the 

 cotton is planted. If a lister is used for breaking, the beds are 

 plowed up a httle higher by running one furrow with a 2-horse 







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