The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-05-24
ATLANTA COnStitution.)

must call attention to one of the
rast 0mmon and inexcusabie faults
+, the cultivation Of cotton. / will
rrrmise the remark, however. that
according to my experience there is
.tt,ntiOn to a good thing, or of warn
I'M. AGAINST a faulty practice. The in
.,iry department shows that a large
n~rrrantage of its readers pay very lit
tIa attention to an answer to an IN
c,iry. or to information from any
r,i,rCn. unless the subject matter is
one that interests them at the time.
Very few subscribers take the smali
t-oub!e Of fling away his Or any 9th
or page, or of clipping out an article
T., which they may wish to refer later
ON venture to say that a particular
article containing useful information
rirht be republished once a week for
q year and find new readers every
week to the very last, without inciud-
irg the thousands Of new subscribers
that viii have been added to the
mail lists during that time, This is
said in no spirit of complaint, but
merely as a passing-nouce Of n COM
mon American habit OF hurried and
careless reading.
OF course the caption Of this ar
tlcle gave me away IN advance as
to what l am about to discuss.
Every farmer appreciates h i'm
Dortauce of securing 4 good stand at
+h. lltSpf uhathpr he Makes he
proper effort to do so or not But very
many seem to conclude that they have
done their duty when the land has
been properly prepared and planted
with sound seed. and do not appear
t. appreciate the equal Importance Of
having a stand after once securing it.
AT least, il looks so to one who may
walk across a field of young cotton
plants when the operations Of blowing,
and hoeing (chopping u and thin
ning) are going on. l have seen a
plowman. and so have YOU, farmer
reader, many a time cover up the
young plants for three feet or more,
and if he notices it at all he shows
It only by a passing effort to kick off
the earth covering The man with
the hoe is often no better and may
be worse as a destroyer of a stand
Of cotton Cor very small cOrn.) In
deed Ii IS proOaDie tNdl the noe maj
is tha guiltier of the two.
Now it ought to go without saying
that a full crop of cotton. nor a ruli
yield Of corn, can be secured at har-
vest unless an approximately fui
stand Of plants be first secured and
then maintained throughout h sea
son. If an acre of land will make a
maximum yield when the plants stand
one in a place every 4 inche 1t Is
CeFtaIn-abS0lutely certain-that the
same acre can not produce such maxi
hills Or plants. Does anybody isput
that proposition? OF course 1t IS pal
pabie that the greater the o.
such skips the smaller the final crof
yield viii be. | want to say-and
have observed closely and counted
much for more than so years-that
have never seen a perfect stand ol
CottOn-nOt a missing hiH-on sc
much as one acre. If there is a maj
who has ever seen such d phenomenon
and is willing to swear Cor aff1rm) 1
let him now speak
An absolutely perfect stand Of cot
ton, i inches apart in 4-fOot rows
void mean 1850 plants on one acre
Has anyone ever seen such y stand L
Will not do to count double where t"'
stalks have been left in Il hill In tn
effort TO make up the count and shoV
that the acre contains 1850 plants
Even if the two stalks adjacent to
plsslng place could make up for tn
kissing plant in the final yield tWhlc'