26 



BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



three furrows for each row. Some farmers use a sweep next to the 

 cotton and break out the middle with a 1 -horse shovel plow. After 

 this every other middle is cultivated with the sweep every week, 

 making a complete cultivation every two weeks. (See fig. 14.) Six 



or seven cultivations are given 

 during the season. The crop is 

 gone over with the hoe again at 

 the thu'd or fourth cultivation, 

 and any weeds or extra cotton 

 stalks are chopped out. 



Few cover crops are grown. 

 Organic matter is supplied by 

 crop residues and by grass and 

 weeds which are plowed under. 

 Heavy apphcations of commer- 

 cial f ertihzers are used by every farmer visited. The average quantity 

 applied per acre for a cotton crop is 676 pounds. This is usually 

 applied in the drill before planting time, but sometimes two apphca- 

 tions are made. When nitrate of soda is used it is applied later in the 

 season. 



Fig. 13. — A weeder used in many areas for the first 

 cultivation of cotton. 



Fig. 14.— a cotton field cultivated by the alternate-middle method. In Robeson County, N. C, cotton 

 is grovm by cultivating alternate middles each week, making a complete cultivation every two weeks. 



The principal varieties of cotton grown are Bates, Cook's Improved, 

 and Simpkins' Improved. The most prevalent and troublesome weeds 

 found in this county are crab-grass (see fig. 15), cocklebiir, smart- 

 weed, and pigweed. 



