FAKM PEACTICE IN" THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 45 



in planting a 2-horse 1-row planter is used. This planter is equipped 

 with sweeps or a broad shovel, which tears down this ridge and makes 

 a furrow where the ridge stood, in which the corn is planted several 

 inches below the surface level. Practically all the corn is planted 

 in drills 3^ feet apart with one stalk every 20 inches. Some farmers 

 break the land level with 4-horse gangs, harrow with a spike-tooth 

 harrow, and then lay off the rows with a lister and plant the corn 

 in the bottom of this furrow about 4 inches below the surface level. 

 In some of the bottoms where drainage is poor corn is planted on 

 beds. On some of the higher lands which are inclined to be dry the 

 land is bedded and corn planted in the water furrow between the 

 beds. 



After the corn is up, a few farmers use a spike-tooth harrow for the 

 first cultivation, and after this practically all the cultivating is done 

 with a 2-horse 4-shovel cultivator, using either 4-inch shovels or 

 sweeps. For the first workings the shovels are mostly used, espe- 

 cially next to the corn, but sweeps may be used for the middle. At the 

 last cultivation sweeps are mostly used and are set so that the land is 

 leveled b} T the last cultivation. 



The yellow dent varieties of corn are principally grown. Little 

 commercial fertilizer is used and stable manure is not considered very 

 valuable ; it is often burned. 



The most prevalent weeds are Johnson grass, Bermuda grass, pig- 

 weed, cocklebur, and nut-grass. 



SURVEYS IN SCOTLAND COUNTY, N. C. 



Scotland County, N. C., is a t}^pical cotton region, being very level, 

 with a sandy-loam soil and a clay subsoil. Only on the heavy bot- 

 tom lands is tiling necessary, nor is much surface ditching required. 

 Some open ditches are found surrounding the fields. 



Most of the main roads have been improved, principally with sand 

 and clay. Fairly good schools are maintained. The landowners have 

 exceptionally good houses and the region appears very prosperous. 



Practically all the land is owned by white men and worked under 

 the supervision of the owners by negro tenants on a share basis, in 

 which the tenant furnishes the labor and gets one-third the crop. In 

 some cases the tenant furnishes the labor, half the fertilizer, half the 

 seed, and gets half the crop. A negro man and his family, with one 

 horse, usually work about 19 acres of cotton and 6 acres of corn. 



No genera] rotation is practiced in this section. Corn is usually 

 planted on the bottom lands which are too heavy for cotton and on the 

 I'-- fertile uplands. The principal crops grown are cotton, corn,. oats, 

 and cantaloupes. By far the most, important crop is cotton, and the 

 acreage in cotton is limited only by the labor available for picking. 



