COTTON CULTIVATION 343 



Early plowing may cause clay land to become too com- 

 pact before the time for planting. In this case it is de- 

 sirable, shortly before planting, either to replow the land 

 or to loosen the surface with a disk-harrow. Too early 

 plowing of sandy land increases the loss due to the leach- 

 ing out of plant-food in the water that drains through the 

 soil. Hence, sandy land, as a rule, is not plowed in the 

 fall. However, it is good practice to plow any soils ex- 

 cept the sandiest in the fall, provided some winter-growing 

 crop, such as the small grains, or clovers, or vetches, are 

 sown. The roots of the growing plants largely prevent 

 leaching by appropriating the plant-food that becomes 

 available as the vegetable matter decays. These green 

 crops can be plowed under in the late winter or early 

 spring, or grazed, or otherwise utilized.^ Plowed soil 

 should be kept covered during winter with growing plants. 

 Fields covered with cowpeas or other dead leguminous 

 plants should not be plowed very early, since early fall 

 plowing would induce rotting and leaching before the cot- 

 ton plants would be ready to utilize the nitrogen made 

 available by the decay of the legumes. 



A small proportion of the area in cotton is plowed only 

 a few days before planting. This incurs the danger that 

 some of the seed may fail to come up in the loose soil, 

 which quickly dries. 



315. Depth of plowing. — A large proportion of the 

 cotton fields are plowed only 3 to 4 inches deep. It is 

 generally advisable to plow deeper than this, so- as to afford 

 a larger amount of available soil-moisture for the benefit 

 of the plants in periods of dry weather, and to increase 

 the feeding area for the roots. However, extreme depth. 



