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SOIL, SUlrVEY OF LUBBOCK C(OUNTY, TEXAS. 13
ing or bedding to flat breaking, and practically all the planting,
except in the case of wheat and other small grains, is done with
the lister planter. Seed-bed preparation very early in the fall is
believed to be advantageous, but is generally impracticable, on
account of the late maturing of crops.
Most of the sod land or virgin soil is broken with the "rod
breaker," a plow having iron rods substituted for the moldboard,
and so constructed that it cuts and practically inverts a slice of sod
about 3 inches thick. (P1. II.) Thorough preparation of the seed
bed and efficient cultivation the first year are therefore very difficult.
On such land planting is usually done with the two-row planter, which
makes only a very shallow, narrow trench for the seed. When a
tractor or the ordinary moldboard or disk plow is used in breaking
the sod, and the plowing is followed by thorough harrowing, a
good seed bed can be worked up the first year.
Irrigation is carried on only to a very small extent. Most farmers
irrigate gardens and occasionally orchards, the water being obtained
from wells equipped with windmills and stored in small earth
reservoirs or galvanized-iron tanks. Extensive irrigation of field
crops is practiced only on two farms, the water being pumped from
deep wells by means of oil engines.
In harvesting milo, the crop is generally headed in the field by
hand and hauled to the barn or feed lot for storage. It is subsequently
either fed in the head or thrashed, the grain being crushed
for feed as desired. Kafir is generally cut with a corn binder and
shocked in the field in the same way as corn. It is later stacked in
the open in the feed lots and fed in the bundle. When it is desired
to thrash the grain it is usually headed in the bundle. Sorghum is
handled in much the same way as kafir. Sudan grass is cut with
a mower when grown for hay and with a grain binder when grown
for seed. Usually a considerable part of the cotton crop is gathered
in the boll and run through hull gins.
The small farms are usually equipped with one or two plows, a
harrow, a lister planter, a mower, a corn binder, and four to six
horses or mules. There are a number of tractors in use on the larger
farms. The barns are small, as few of the crops grown require indoor
storage. Silos have been constructed on most of the ranches
and on those farms where dairying or cattle feeding is engaged in.
An ordinary grade of work animal is used on the farm. The cattle
consist of good grade stock, Hereford blood predominating in
the beef cattle and Holstein and Jersey in the dairy herds. There
are several breeders of registered stock in the county. Good grades
of hogs are kept, the Duroc-Jersey predominating.