154 
COTTON 
heaping the top soil to the center, which leaves 
the row two to three inches higher than the soil 
on either side of and between the rows. 
In bedding up many people who grow cotton 
wisely include simple tillage operations as well. It 
is not enough to make the bed only; the entire 
surface of the soil must be plowed and then 
harrowed and re-harrowed until the ideal seed bed 
is obtained. Only when this is done are you 
ready for bedding up the land. A week, perhaps 
a longer time, now passes before seeds are planted. 
But what of weeds and grass? Now don't 
deceive yourself, for they are the ever present 
enemy of cotton, and unless you wage war early 
and fiercely, your cotton crop will be sorely 
troubled, if not permanently injured. Your best 
weapon for some time on will be a light, fine-tooth 
harrow or weeder. This will not only destroy 
millions of weeds and grass seed that are germi- 
nating and fast gaining foothold at the surface of 
the soil, but will prove the very tool needed for 
conserving the moisture in the land. Team labor 
expended at this time of the year is hand labor 
saved later on in the season. 
DISTANCE BETWEEN ROWS AND PLANTS 
You already know that rich lands require less 
seed and a fewer number of plants than do thin 
and infertile soils. Why? Because fertile soils 
naturally produce heavier and larger cotton stalks, 
which naturally call for fewer plants to the acre, 
and greater distance between them in the row. 
Four feet is the usually accepted distance 
between rows, although on the lighter kinds of 
