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AGRICULTURE
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practices are very varied. It is believed that the rotation must differ with every variety of soil, with the result that each planter has his own habit in this respect, and little can be said in general. A more careful study of the physical as well as the chemical properties of a soil must precede intelligent experimentation in rotation. This knowledge is still lacking with regard to most of the cotton soils. The only uniform practice is to let the fields “rest” when they have become exhausted. Nature then restores them very rapidly. The exhaustion of the soil under cotton culture is chiefly due to the loss of humus, and nature soon puts this back in the excellent climate of the cotton-growing country. Fields considered utterly used up and allowed to “rest” for years, when cultivated again, have produced better than those which had been under a more or less thoughtful rotation. In spite of the clean culture, good crops of cotton have been grown on some soils in the south for more than forty successive years. The fibre takes almost nothing from the land, and where the seeds are restored to the soil in some form, even without other fertilizers, the exhaustion of the soil is very slow. If the burning-up of humus and the leaching of the soil could be prevented, there is no reason why a cotton soil should not produce good crops continuously for an indefinite time. Bedding up land previous to planting is almost universal. The bed forms a warm seed-bed in the cool weather of early spring and holds the manure, which is drilled in usually, to better advantage. The plants are generally left 2 or 3 inches above the middle of the row, which in 4-foot rows gives a slope of 1 inch to the foot, causing the plough to lean from the plants in cultivating, and thus to cut fewer roots. The plants are usually cut out with a hoe from 8 to 14 inches apart. It seems to make little difference exactly what distance they are, so they are not wider! apart on average land than 1 foot. On rich bottom-land they should be thinner. The seed is dropped from a planter, five or six seeds in a single line, at regular
intervals, 10 to 12 inches apart. A narrow, deep furrow is usually run immediately in advance of the planter, to break up the soil under the seed. The only time the hoe is used is to thin out the cotton in the row; all the rest of the cultivation is by various forms of ploughs and so-called cultivators. The question of deep and shallow culture has been much discussed among planters without any conclusion applicable to all soils being reached. All grass and weeds must be kept down, and the crust must be broken after every rain, but these seem to be the only principles upon which all agree. The most effective tool against the weeds is a broad, sharp “ sweep,” as it is called, which takes everything it meets, while going shallower than most ploughs. Harrows and cultivators are used where there are few weeds, and the mulching process is the one desired. The date of cotton-planting runs from 1st March to 1st June, according to situation. Planting commences early in March in Southern Texas, and the first blooms will appear there about 15th May. Planting may be done as late as 15th April in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and continue as late as the end of May. The first blooms will appear in this region about 15th July. Picking may commence on 10th July in Southern Texas, and continue late into the winter or until the rare frost kills the plants. It may not begin until the 10th of September in Piedmont, North Carolina. It is a peculiarity of the cotton-plant to lose a great many of its blooms and bolls. When the weather is not favourable at the fruiting stage the otherwise hardy cotton-plant displays its great weakness in this way. It sheds its forms, as the buds are called, its blooms, and even its half-grown bolls in great numbers. It has frequently been noted that even well-fertilized plants upon good soil will mature only 15 or 20 per cent, of the bolls put on. No means is known so far for preventing this great waste. Even experts are at an entire loss to form a correct idea of the cause or to apply any effective remedy. Table XVI.—Acreage, Production, and Value, Prices, and Exports of Cotton in the United States, 1875-1898.1 New York Closing Prices per Pound on Middling Upland. Average Domestic Average Farm Exports, Yield Year. Acreage. Value. May of Follow- Fiscal Years per Production. Price December. per ing Year. beginning Acre. Pound. 1st July. Low. High Low. High. Bales of 500 Acres. Bales. Bales. Cents. Dollars. Cents. Cents. Cents. Cents. pounds. 1875 10,803,030 •43 4,632,313 11T 233,109,945 2,982,810 134 ISA Hit 1876 11,677,250 38 4,474,069 9-9 211,655,041 12 A 124 ion Ilf 2,890,738 1877 12,600,000 38 4,773,865 10-5 235,721,194 m Hi iof I* 3,215,067 1878 12,266,800 41 5,074,155 8-2 193,467,706 8ft 94 ii! 13| 3,256,745 1879 12,595,500 5,761,252 10-2 242,140,987 12§ 13^nr iiH ii! 3,644,122 46 1880 15,475,300 43 6,605,750 9'8 280,266,242 ii! 12 10* io! 4,381,857 1881 16,710,730 33 5,456,048 10-0 294,135,447 ii! 12| 12* 121 3,479,951 1882 16,791,557 41 6,949,756 9'9 309,696,500 ioi 10t4 104 iii 4,576,150 1883 16,777,993 34 5,713,200 9-0 250,594,750 io§ 10A Hi HI 3,725,145 1884 17,439,612 33 5,706,163 9-2 253,993,385 io/^ Htw io* ii 3,783,318 1885 18,300,865 36 269,989,812 6,575,691 8-5 9* 9* 9* 4,116,074 1886 18,454,603 35 6,505,087 8-1 309,381,938 4,338,914 9Ar 9A 10f Q1 5 11* 1887 18,641,067 38 7,046,833 8-5 337,973,453 10J 10| 10* 4,528,241 1888 19,058,591 36 6,938,290 8-5 354,454,340 9| 9! 11 11* 4,769,633 1889 20,171,896 36 7,311,322 8-3 402,951,814 10* 10* H* 12| 4.943,599 1890 20,809,053 42 8,652,597 8-6 369,568,858 Sts’ 9/(r 8! 8* 5,814,717 1891 20,714,937 44 9,035,379 7326,513,298 7s 8 rs- 7* 7* 5,870,439 1892 18,067,924 37 6,700,365 8262,252,286 9§ 10 74 7* 4,424,230 1893 19,525,000 39 7,549,817 7-0 274,479,637 713 71 5,366,564 74 ‘ts 8tV ni a 1894 23,687,950 42 9,901,251 4287,120,818 7| 7,034,866 S 9 1895 20,184,808 36 7,161,094 7-6 260,338,096 8* 8| 4,670,452 Sts' 713 1896 23,273,209 37 8,532,705 6-6 291,811,564 fyV 7-A 74 6,207,509 • TS 9
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1897 24,319,584 45 10,897,857 6-6 319,491,412 7,700,528 6* 1898 24,967,295 45 11,189,205 5305,467,041 5| 7,546,820 5! 74 1 From the Year-Book, U.S. Department of Agriculture, for 1899. Cotton-picking is at once the most difficult and most J at the rate of from 45 to 50 cents per cwt. of seed cotton, expensive operation in cotton production. It is paid for I This is light work, and is effectually performed by women
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