FARM v PRACTICE IN THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 61 
furrows. Three to six cultivations are usually given, depending 
on the amount of rainfall and the weed growth. The white dent 
varieties of corn are almost exclusively grown. 
Commercial fertilizer is extensively used for all crops, but little 
stable manure is produced. Practically no cover crops are grown, 
but winter weeds, principally life everlasting (cudweed), often make 
considerable growth during the fall and winter months, which make 
winter cover crops not so necessary. 
The most prevalent weeds are life everlasting, Johnson grass, 
purslane, cocklebur, and crab-grass. 
SURVEYS IN HOLMES COUNTY, MISS. 
The tillage records for Mississippi (Table XXIX) were taken in 
Holmes County, mostly around Lexington. The upland soils are 
of a silt-loam type, dark yellow in color, and from 6 to 10 inches 
deep. The subsoil is of a heavier silt loam, containing more clay and 
darker in color. Along the streams the bottom lands are much 
heavier and more level land is found, but the uplands are very roll- 
ing and erode easily. Practically none of the land is tile drained 
and very few surface ditches are found. Only about one-half the 
land is cultivated, and after a field has been depleted of its fertility 
by continuous cropping and erosion it is abandoned and other land 
cleared. 
Only a few of the roads have been macadamized, and hauling is 
very difficult during bad weather. The land is mostly owned in large 
tracts or plantations and is worked by negro tenants under the 
supervision of the owner. The landowners have good houses and 
appear prosperous, but the tenant houses and the lack of good out- 
buildings detract from the prosperous appearance of the country. 
The principal crops grown are corn and cotton, with some oats for 
hay. In the southwestern part of the county sugar cane is exten- 
sively grown. Truck crops, especially strawberries and cabbage, are 
much grown in the eastern part of the county and shipped to the 
Chicago market. Near Lexington very little truck or fruit is grown. 
Considerable land is in native grass, which furnishes pasture for a 
good part of the year, and a few cattle and hogs are kept. It is a 
common practice to sow cowpeas broadcast between the corn rows 
at the last cultivation and after the corn is gathered pasture them 
off with cattle and hogs. The principal money crop is cotton, but 
since the boll weevil has reached this section more corn and less cot- 
ton are grown. No rotations are practiced, and the land is usually 
kept in corn or cotton until the crop yields become so low that its 
cultivation is not profitable. 
