FARM PRACTICE IK THE CULTIVATION OP COTTON. 
21 
SURVEY IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA. 
The tillage records for the Mississippi Delta (Table XII) were taken 
in Yazoo County, near Yazoo City, Miss., in Washington County, near 
Greenville, Miss., and in Sharkey County, near Kolling Fork, Miss. 
The Mississippi Delta extends approximately from Vicksburg to 
the northern boundary of the State, and conditions throughout the 
region are fairly uniform. The topography is exceptionally level and 
drainage is by open ditches which surround the fields. Practically 
none of the land is tile drained. The soil is a dark-brown silt loam 
and very fertile. No commercial fertilizer is used and little stable 
manure is produced. 
The farms are large and only about 60 per cent of the land is cul- 
tivated. All the farming is done by negro tenants under the super- 
vision of the owner or 
a hired manager. 
Cotton is the princi- 
pal crop grown and is 
the only source of in- 
come on most farms. 
Nearly every farmer 
grows a few oats, which 
are fed on the farm. 
No set rotations are 
practiced, and on 
many of the farms cot- 
ton has been grown 
on the same land con- 
tinuously for 75 years, 
but still produces a 
profitable yield. On 
some farms a 3-Vear Fig.11. — A2-h.orse2-sh.ovel cultivator equipped with, long sweeps in- 
. stead of shovels, used for the tillage of cotton in Pemiscot County, 
rotation IS partly Mo., and other sections of the cotton belt. 
maintained, in which 
cotton is grown two years followed by corn one year. Cowpeas are 
sown in the corn at the last cultivation and the vines are plowed 
under after the corn is harvested. 
Not enough cattle and hogs are kept to supply home demands 
and none are raised for market. Very little fruit or truck is grown. 
In preparing the land for cotton 2-horse teams are used. After 
the cotton is picked the old stalks are cut up with a stalk cutter 
(fig. 3) and the land is plowed in the early spring, most of it being 
bedded as broken. Either a 2-horse turning plow or a lister is 
used. If the land is not bedded as broken it is bedded before the 
cotton is planted. If a lister is used for breaking, the beds are 
plowed up a little higher by running one furrow with a 2-horse 
