In March the corn fields were commonly planted, not so much because this forehandedness was better for the crop as for the sake of freeing the choicer month of April for the more important planting of cotton.  In this operation a narrow plow lightly opened the crests of the beds; cotton seed were drilled somewhat thickly therein; and a shallow covering of earth was given by means of a concave board on a plow stock, or by a harrow, a roller or a small shallow plow.

Within two or three weeks, as soon as the young plants had put forth three or four leaves, thinning and cultivation was begun.  Hoe hands, under orders to chop carefully, stirred the crust along the rows and reduced the seedlings to a “double stand,” leaving only two plants to grow at each interval of twelve or eighteen inches.  The plows then followed, stirring the soil somewhat deeply near the rows.  In another fortnight the hoes gave another chopping, cutting down the weaker of each pair of plants, thus reducing the crop to a “single stand”; and where plants were missing they planted fresh seed to fill the gaps.  The plows followed again, with broad wings to their shares, to break the crust and kill the grass throughout the middles.  Similar alternations of chipping and plowing then ensued until near the end of July, each cultivation shallower than the last in order that the roots of the cotton should not be cut.[4]

[Footnote 4:  Cotton Culture is described by M.W.  Philips in the American Agriculturist, II (New York, 1843), 51, 81, 117, 149; by various writers in J.A.  Turner, ed., The Cotton Planter’s Manual (New York, 1856), chap.  I; Harry Hammond, The Cotton Plant (U.S.  Department of Agriculture, Experiment Station, Bulletin 33, 1896); and in the U.S.  Census, 1880, vols.  V and VI.]

When the blossoms were giving place to bolls in midsummer, “lay-by time” was at hand.  Cultivation was ended, and the labor was diverted to other tasks until in late August or early September the harvest began.  The corn, which had been worked at spare times previously, now had its blades stripped and bundled for fodder; the roads were mended, the gin house and press put in order, the premises in general cleaned up, and perhaps a few spare days given to recreation.

The cotton bolls ripened and opened in series, those near the center of the plant first, then the outer ones on the lower branches, and finally the top crop.  If subjected unduly to wind and rain the cotton, drooping in the bolls, would be blown to the ground or tangled with dead leaves or stained with mildew.  It was expedient accordingly to send the pickers through the fields as early and as often as there was crop enough open to reward the labor.