48 BULLETIN 511, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGKICULTTJRE. 
The farms are worked largely by the owners or by white tenants 
who supervise their own work. Many Indians live in this region, and 
a large part of the land is owned by them. 
The average-sized farm surveyed is 239 acres-, with 163 acres culti- 
vated. Cotton, corn, oats, kafir, and clover are the principal crops 
grown. A few farmers grow alfalfa on the bottom lands, and much 
prairie grass is cut for hay. Sweet potatoes, peanuts, watermelons, 
truck crops, and some fruits are grown for home use. A few cattle 
and hogs are raised for market, and from the prairie-land farms hay is 
sold. Cotton, however, is the principal money crop, and the most 
productive land is planted to this crop. 
In preparing a seed-bed for cotton the old cotton or corn stalks are 
cut up with a stalk cutter during the winter months and the land 
plowed in early spring. About half the farmers break the land level 
with a 2-horse or 3-horse plow and lay off the rows with a 1-horse 
24-inch sweep which slightly ridges the land. Cotton is usually 
planted on this low bed. A few farmers plant between the beds, and 
sometimes a sweep is attached to the planter, which tears down the 
bed and plants the cotton almost level with the surface. 
Another method which about half the farmers employ is to break 
the land with a 2-horse or 3-horse middle buster, or lister, which 
leaves it in beds the width apart the cotton rows are to be. These 
beds are harrowed with a spike-tooth harrow before planting, and the 
cotton is planted with a 2-horse lister planter, which tears down the 
bed and leaves the cotton planted almost level with the surface. 
After planting, 2-horse cultivators are employed. Just after the 
cotton comes up many farmers use a spike-tooth harrow. Where the 
cotton is planted between beds, a 2-horse 1-row lister cultivator, an 
implement especially designed for use in listed crops, is sometimes 
employed for the first cultivation; but most farmers use a 2-horse 
4-shovel cultivator equipped with small buzzard-wing sweeps instead 
of shovels. At first 6-inch or 8-inch sweeps are used, but as the cotton 
plants get larger the sweeps are increased in size to 12 or 14 inches. 
During the season five or six cultivations are given. After the first 
cultivation the cotton is chopped to a stand and at the third or fourth 
cultivation it is again gone over with a hoe, to take out any extra 
stalks or weeds. 
No cover crops are grown and no commercial fertilizer is used. 
The cultivated lands are fenced and cattle allowed to run at large, 
so little stable manure is produced. 
The principal varieties of cotton grown are Mebane and Rowden. 
The most prevalent and troublesome weeds in this county are crab- 
grass, cocklebur, lamb's-quarters, smartweed, careless weed, John- 
son grass, and morning-glory. 
