In the Field

In the Field. . The Benton S.D. Williams family farmed the land at Oak View from the 1830s to the 1880s, when the property was sold to Job P. Wyatt. The Wyatt family owned the farm through 1940. Like most farmers in Wake County, the Williams and Wyatt families grew cotton as their major cash crop. Between the 1870s and the 1920s, Wake County rated consistently as one of the top cotton producing counties in North Carolina. The infestation of the boll weevil in the early 1900s slowed cotton production and forced many to switch to a different cash crop, such as tobacco. Here the family diversified with vegetables as well as pecans. , Before you is a field of Upland Cotton. The farming equipment displayed inside the cotton gin house would have been used to prepare and cultivate this field. , Spring , – Use a discharrow to break up the soil to ready it for planting , – Plant seeds and fertilize soil , – Plow in between rows to kill weeds , – Remove weeds and weak plants with a hoe (called chopping), so only the strong plants remain. , Summer , – Continue to plow and chop , – Look for first blooms by 4th of July , Fall , – Begin harvesting , – Take cotton to gin, then to market , – Remove old cotton plants with the stalk cutters so new ones can be planted in the spring , – Plant winter cover crop or allow fields to lay dormant , Winter , – Gin the last of the cotton crop , – Repair and maintain gin , – Repair and maintain the field equipment