48 BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPARTMEISTT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The farms are worked largely by the owners or by white tenants 

 who supervise their own work. Many Indians hve in this region, and 

 a large pai't of the land is owned by them. 



The average-sized farm surveyed is 239 acres, with 163 acres culti- 

 vated. Cotton, corn, oats, kafir, and clover are the principal crops 

 grown. A few farmers grow alfalfa on the bottom lands, and much 

 prairie grass is cut for hay. Sweet potatoes, peanuts, watermelons, 

 truck crops, and some fruits are grown for home use. A few cattle 

 and hogs are raised for market, and from the prairie-land farms hay is 

 sold. Cotton, however, is the principal money crop, and the most 

 productive land is planted to this crop. 



In preparing a seed-bed for cotton the old cotton or corn stalks are 

 cut up with a stalk cutter during the winter months and the land 

 plowed in early spring. About half the farmers break the land level 

 with a 2-horse or 3-horse plow and lay off the rows with a 1-horse 

 24-inch sweep which shghtly ridges the land. Cotton is usually 

 planted on this low bed. A few farmers plant between the beds, and 

 sometimes a sweep is attached to the planter, which tears down the 

 bed and plants the cotton almost level with the surface. 



Another method which about half the farmers employ is to break 

 the land with a 2-horse or 3-horse middle buster, or hster, which 

 leaves it in beds the width apart the cotton rows are to be. These 

 beds are harrowed with a spike-tooth harrow before planting, and the 

 cotton is planted with a 2-horse hster planter, which tears down the 

 bed and leaves the cotton planted almost level with the surface. 



After planting, 2-horse cultivators are employed. Just after the 

 cotton comes up many farmers use a spike-tooth harrow. Where the 

 cotton is planted between beds, a 2-horse 1-row hster cultivator, an 

 implement especially designed for use in listed crops, is sometimes 

 employed for the first cultivation; but most farmers use a 2-horse 

 4-shovel cultivator equipped with small buzzard-wing sweeps instead 

 of shovels. At first 6-inch or 8-inch sweeps are used, but as the cotton 

 plants get larger the sweeps are increased in size to 12 or 14 inches. 

 During the season five or six cultivations are given. After the first 

 cultivation the cotton is chopped to a stand and at the third or fourth 

 cultivation it is again gone over with a hoe, to take out any extra 

 stalks or weeds. 



No cover crops are grown and no commercial fertiUzer is used. 

 The cultivated lands are fenced and cattle allowed to run at large, 

 so httle stable manure is produced. 



The principal varieties of cotton grown are Mebane and Rowden. 



The most prevalent and troublesome weeds in this county are crab- 

 grass, cocklebur, lamb's-quarters, smartweed, careless weed, John- 

 son grass, and morning-glory. 



