CHAPTER XI 



Cduttu]:^ ®utBili? tifs (Snnt IStli 



^/^SSENTIAL variation from northern and west- 

 ^P" ern custom over probably four-fifths of the 

 ^^ corn planting area of the south is twofold : In 

 mode of planting and in method of harvesting; 

 The one naturally follows more or less upon the heels 

 of the other, although events have recently proved that 

 the practice of harvesting may be made, to a great 

 extent, independent of both the system pursued in 

 planting and of intercultural methods. 



SOUTHERN METHODS AND PRACTICES 



In plan is noted the first important divergence: 

 wide rows and a reduction of stand, generally to one 

 stalk per hill. This method obtains largely in all up- 

 land planting from the Virginia and Tennessee lines 

 southward, and a departure therefrom is a distinct 

 exception. Even in these states there are portions 

 where the southern method is exclusively followed, 

 particularly in the Freestone districts ; and, per contra, 

 farther south there are regions, especially in western 

 North Carolina, northwest Georgia and north Ala- 

 bama, where the northern system has always been 

 practiced. 



Spacing, both as to row and hill, greatly varies. 

 The thinner and poorer the soil the wider the rows are 

 stretched, until a maximum of six feet (rarely six and 

 one-half or seven) is attained in the sandy pine barrens 

 or on the red-galled uplands of the middle south. 

 Three feet apart in the row is generally the distance 



