FARM PRACTICE 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 by 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 typical 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 general rotation is practiced in this section. Corn is usually 
planted on the bottom lands which are too heavy for cotton and on the 
less 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. 
