60 
BULLETIN 320, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Fig. 37. — A 1-horse 1-shovel plow with 
cotton sweep attached, used to cultivate 
corn in the Southern States. At the top 
is a broad shovel or solid sweep ; below, 
a narrow shovel, used in making furrows 
for planting. 
planted between the corn rows at the last cultivation. These are 
either harvested or pastured by cattle and hogs after the corn is 
gathered. By this means a few cattle and hogs are grown. A good 
part of the land is pasture, but the native grasses afford poor grazing. 
Little fruit or truck is grown, and the farm income is principally 
from cotton. 
Under the tenant system here each tenant is usually given one 
mule and as much land as this 
mule can cultivate, so that prac- 
tically all the cultivation is with 
1-horse implements. In break- 
ing the land for corn, sometimes 
an extra mule is furnished and 
the land is broken with a 2-horse 
plow, but the general practice is 
to break the land with a 1-horse 
plow, and instead of flat break- 
ing it is thrown into ridges or 
beds the width apart the corn 
rows are to be. Sometimes a narrow strip of land is left between 
these ridges. This strip is plowed out with a 1-shovel plow (fig. 37) 
running very deep, and the corn is then planted in the furrow. 
A few farmers break the land level and then lay off the rows with 
a double inoldboard plow known as a lister, or middle buster, which 
throws the dirt to each side and leaves a broad, deep furrow. The 
corn is planted in the bottom of this furrow. After plowing, the 
land is usually given no further 
preparation before planting. 
The corn is planted in drills 
from 5 to 6 feet apart, with one 
or two stalks every 2 feet in the 
drill, and either between beds or 
in the bottom of a furrow. After 
the corn is up, a 1-horse spike- 
tooth cultivator (fig. 38) is often 
used for the first cultivation, but 
more often a 1-horse turning plow 
or a 1-horse 1-shovel plow, known as a bull tongue, is used. One 
furrow is run on either side of the row, throwing the dirt toward the 
middle of the row and away from the corn, leaving the corn on a 
narrow ridge. Later, the middle is plowed out with the turning 
plow, throwing the dirt toward the corn. This cultivation tears down 
the ridge and leaves the land almost level. After this, the cultivating 
is done with broad sweeps covering all the middle with three or four 
Fig. 38. — A 1-horse spike-tooth cultivator, 
or side harrow, used in the rolling areas 
of Alabama and Mississippi. 
