FARM PRACTICE IN THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 37 



age size of the farms surveyed is 221 acres, with 136 acres cultivated. 

 The farms are owned by white men, who Uve on them, but most of the 

 work is done by tenants under the supervision of the landlord. Most 

 farmers have comfortable houses and good outbuildings and appear to 

 be prospering. This is especially true of the bottom-land farmers. 



The principal crops grown are corn, oats, wheat, hay, bluegrass 

 for pasture, and cotton. No definite rotations are practiced, but 

 the crops are changed from field to field without following any fixed 

 order. Very little cotton is grown in the northern part of the county, 

 but it is produced more extensively south 

 of Pulaski. Corn is planted on the more 

 productive bottom lands and cotton on 

 the uplands. Many of the hillsides are 

 in bluegrass pasture or clover. Oats 

 are grown only for feed, and very little 

 wheat is produced. Most of the corn is 

 fed on the farm. Some hay is baled ^i«- ^^-^ ^-^°'^^ ^-snovei cultivator 



. . . ^ used for the tillage of cotton in Giles 



and sold. Cotton is the prmcipal crop county, Tenn., and other sections of 



sold. Many sheep and goats and a ^^^ ^°"°° ^''"- sometimes smaii 



, p t 11 • ^ p sweeps are attached instead of shovels. 



few beei cattle and hogs are raised lor 



market. Extra brood mares are kept on the farms, and nearly every 

 farmer raises mule colts for market. The farm income is derived 

 principally from the sale of live stock and cotton. 



In preparing a seed bed for cotton, if the previous crop was cot- 

 ton or corn the old stalks are sometimes broken up with a stalk 

 cutter or disk harrow. Early in the spring the land is broken level 

 with a 2-horse plow. The land is harrowed with a disk or spike- 

 tooth harrow, the rows laid off with a 1 -horse shovel plow, and a bed 

 made on this row with a turning plow or with a 1 -horse sweep. 

 Sometimes the bed is made without laying off the row. These beds 

 are often harrowed with a spike-tooth harrow, which smooths off 

 the tops and leaves them almost level with the surface. Cotton is 

 planted on this bed with a 1 -horse planter at -the rate of 5 pecks of 

 seed per acre. The rows average 3 feet apart. After chopping, 

 the stalks are left from 12 to 15 inches in the drill. 



For cultivating after planting, 1 -horse implements are princi- 

 pally used. Just after the cotton is up, the first cultivation is given 

 with a 1 -horse harrow-tooth cultivator, and generally this implement 

 is used for the second cultivation also. Then the cotton is chopped 

 to a stand. After this, most of the cultivating is done with a 1-horse 

 2-shovel cultivator known as a "double shovel" (fig. 18). This cul- 

 tivator is equipped with broad shovels or sweeps. Two furrows are 

 required for each row with this tool. A few farmers use a 2-horse 

 4-shovel cultivator, while a few use a 1-horse sweep. A total of five 

 or six cultivations is given during the season. At the third or fourth 



