26 
BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
three furrows for each row. Some farmers use a sweep next to the 
cotton and break out the middle with a 1-horse shovel plow. After 
this every other middle is cultivated with the sweep every week, 
making a complete cultivation every two weeks. (See fig. 14.) Six 
or seven cultivations are given 
during the season. The crop is 
gone over with the hoe again at 
the third or fourth cultivation, 
and any weeds or extra cotton 
stalks are chopped out. 
Few cover crops are grown. 
Organic matter is supplied by 
crop residues and by grass and 
weeds which are plowed under. 
Heavy applications of commer- 
cial f ertilizers are used by every farmer visited. The average quantity 
applied per acre for a cotton crop is 676 pounds. This is usually 
applied in the drill before planting time, but sometimes two applica- 
tions are made. When nitrate of soda is used it is applied later in the 
season. 
Fig. 13. 
-A weeder used in many areas for the first 
cultivation of cotton. 
Fig. 14.— A cotton field cultivated by the alternate-middle method. In Robeson County, N. C., cotton 
is grown by cultivating alternate middles each week, making a complete cultivation every two weeks. 
The principal varieties of cotton grown are Bates, Cook's Improved, 
and Simpkins' Improved. The most prevalent and troublesome weeds 
found in this county are crab-grass (see fig. 15), cocklebur, smart- 
weed, and pigweed. 
