CHAPTER XI 



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^J^SSENTIAL variation from northern and west- 

 •IK ern custom over probably four-fifths of the 

 *^f 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 



