The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-04-01
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON GROWING.
Some of the Requisites For a Good
Crop and Some of the Rules
to BE Observed.

gerous the soft, sandy, fat, piney
woods and low sandy creek, bottom
soil-the more density the timber sur
roundings the more so. The second
requisite is hat the Ian shall be
thoroughly broken and conditioned
for planting in the winter time. The
next and special requirement is that
the land must be naturally fertile
enough to make a bale of cotton to the
acre under nOn-WeeVll conditions Or
must be made so by the application Of
sufficient full standard commercial
cotton fertilizer which on our common
run Of cropped out cotton soils means
about 200 pounds to the acre and con-
tanning at least 3 per cent. potash and
10 per cent. phosphoric acid, and on
very thin and poor soils an additional
amount of cotton seed meal of about
500 to $50 pounds to the acre must be
added to the above to bring the soil
to the requisite fertility. In place OF
the meal well rotted cotton seed in
sufficient quantity will answer. The
mex requirement of great Importance
is TIE kind of seed to use. Experience
here shows that Kings improved and
Russell's big boil prolific in the order
named answer satisfactorily. Plant as
early as possible, bearing in mind hat
cotton is a hot weather plant. Usually
around April 1 is early enough. After
cotton is up same must be cultivated
continuously till it opens.
Shallow cultivation with sweeps set
fat as possible is best. If on account
Of rainy weather it becomes necessary
to resort to turning plows to turn I'M
der weeds and grass, as soon as dead
pull Down sides Of rows with side har-
rows and resume fiat cultivation as be-
fore. When cotton is abOut ready to
chop out, those favOring poison should
now give it the first application of
Paris green and repeat every eight
days till about middle of July, by
which time, if you nave followed the
suggestions herein, you should have a
reasonable crop of hollis secure. If you
are against the poison, after you have
chopped out your cotton, you should
hand-Dick the weevils out of the buds
Of your bottom plants every few days,
until the squares begin to fall. which
you should then pick and burn all fall
en- and flared squares by hand every
few days until their fall becomes SO
great it will be a matter of further i'm
possibility. Thereafter rely en- thor
ough and continuous cultivation. This
may sound like too much work, but it
is really only about half what those
fellows who have jumped from their
little farms to the sawmil1s have to I'M
dergO. If o. think l put too much
stress on the matter. ask those fellows
and find out. You will find the weevils
in the buds of the young plant by the
time 1t begins forming leaves and they
Ive in those buds by seeding there I'M
til the square forms, when they also
then viciOusly attack the blooms and
young bolls as they appear. They,
however, feed in the buds of the cot
ton the season through, which anyone
may verify by watching closely and it
is reasonable then the fewer buds on
the plants the more weevils can be
killed by the application Of dry poison.
Hence while the cotton is young is
the best time to apply the poison for
the greatest results. Another thing the
alternating weevil comes into the cot
ton fields continuously over a period
OF about two months, and therefore
only a few, comparatively, can be
caught by one hand picking, or by one
application Of poison and the necessity
Of repeating same again and again.
Again, the weather conditions do not
at times permit of applications OF
poison. but the weevil is coming all
the time and the work of destruction
must go on, hence the necessity OF
combining the methods and giving the
weevils a hot time continuously till
you secure a reasonable crop of bolls.
In planting the crop it must be we'll
distanced apart. both as to row and
drill. The plant must have the benefit
Of all sunshine and all possible care.
The rule to observe is this: Know
ing the size cotton weed your land
grows, put our rows such a distance
apart and your. plants such a distance
apart in the drill that when grown the
sunshine will reach to the ground. Bear
in mind it is not what we would like
to do so much as it is the results can
be had under present conditions. On
these considerations we have to part
with a good many of the approved
practices of our daddies. The conclu-
sion OF the whole matter is this: It
takes the proper kind of well-drained
soils, fertilization and the practice of
the best cultural methods known to
ROW cotton, that cotton with US must
under these conditions, be grown as a
surplus crop until a much wider spread
of the boil weevil forever puts it out
of the power of the south to grow in
any one season a crop greater than the
worlds requirements, and hat time is
probably some years off yet: that Tex
as contains outside the districts OF
heavy rainfall immense areas of land
which for peculiar reasons will al
ways enable her to hold the monopoly
Of the cotton growing business in spite