6 BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Tile drainage is employed instead of open ditches where the rela- 
tive value of the land is sufficient to warrant the extra expense of 
the tile. 
TILLAGE BEFORE PLOWING. 
The rotations practiced throughout the cotton belt are such that 
cotton generally follows cotton or corn. Tillage before plowing is 
necessary to break up the stalks left from the previous crop except 
in a few areas where the stalks do not grow to a sufficient size to 
interfere with tillage operations. For this work a stalk cutter (fig. 
3) is most often employed. In areas where the stalks grow excep- 
Fig. 2.— A cotton field laid off in terraces. Where the land is rolling, with a clay type of soil, as shown in 
this field in Mecklenburg County, N. C, numerous terraces and surface ditches are required to carry 
off the surface water and prevent erosion. 
tionally large and weeds and grass are abundant, both the stalk cut- 
ter and disk harrow are at times used. Little thought is given to 
the benefits derived from pulverizing the surface soil before breaking. 
PLOWING. 
Whether land be plowed in the fall or spring is governed largely 
by the previous crop and the type of soil. Where cotton follows 
small grain or some sod-formiiig crop, the land is more frequently 
plowed in the fall than where cotton follows a cultivated crop. 
Heavy clay soils are more often plowed in the fall than light sandy 
soils. * (Table IV.) 
