FARM PEACTICE IN" THE CULTIVATIOlSr OF COTTON. 35 



run at large. Each farmer has a special brand by which his live 

 stock is marked, so that they may be identified. Enough cattle and 

 hogs are kept for home use, but few are sold. 



The principal crops grown are cotton, corn, and oats. Some 

 watermelons, cantaloupes, and cucumbers are produced for market, 

 while sufficient sweet potatoes, sugar cane, peanuts, and truck crops 

 are grown for home use. Very little fruit is produced. Cowpeas 

 and peanuts are often grown between the corn rows and pastured by 

 hogs and cattle. Cowpeas are sometimes sown on oat stubble and 

 the vines cut for hay. 



In preparing the land for cotton the old cotton or corn stalks are 

 cut up with a stalk cutter during the winter or early spring. The land 

 is broken level with a 2-horse turning plow and prepared for plant- 

 ing by harrowing with a disk or spike-tooth harrow. The rows are 

 laid off with a 1 -horse shovel plow at an average distance of 4 feet 

 apart. Fertilizer is applied in these furrows with a distributor and 

 a bed made on the fertihzer with a 1 -horse 4-shovel cultivator 

 equipped with turning shovels. Cotton is then planted on this bed 

 with a 1-horse planter. 



From 2 to 3 pecks of seed are planted per acre. The superfluous 

 plants are subsequently chopped out, leaving the cotton stalks from 

 15 to 20 inches apart in the drill. 



After planting, the first cultivation is given with a spike-tooth har- 

 row or with a 1-horse spring- tooth cultivator. This cultivation is 

 just after the cotton comes up. All later cultivations are given with 

 l-horse scrapes or sweeps. At first, a 14-inch heel scrape and scooter 

 is used and the entire middle plowed out, which requires three fur- 

 rows. The cotton is then chopped to a stand. At the next culti- 

 vation a 16-inch or an 18-inch scrape is used and only two furrows 

 are given each row. The entire middle is plowed out at every other 

 cultivation. This is usually done with a sweep or scrape, but some 

 farmers use a 1-horse shovel plow instead. Later 22-inch and 24- 

 inch scrapes are used, and two furrows are given each row. During 

 the season five or six cultivations are given and the crop is gone over 

 twice with a hoe. Negro women and children do most of the hoe work. 



No cover crops are grown, and since the cattle run at large little 

 stable manure is saved. What manure is saved is applied to water- 

 melons and cantaloupes. Commercial fertilizer is used by every 

 farmer. The average application per acre for cotton is 342 pounds. 

 This is apphed in the drill before planting. 



The principal varieties of cotton grown are Summerhour, Half- 

 and-Half, Cook's Improved, and Toole. 



The most prevalent and troublesome weeds are crab-grass, Ber- 

 muda grass, cocklebur, and coffee weed. 



