58 The Bulletin. 



it has not been the Southern cotton farmers' live stock but those of a few near-by 

 neighbors and a preat many far-off ones. Old Enjiland and the Continent, New 

 England and the live stock States of the Middle West have obtained larfje amounts 

 of plant food from our cotton soils, and much of the time at prices which would 

 not return to the soil the amount of plant food material contained in other 

 fertilizers and fertilizer materials purchased for use on the land. Conditions 

 have now changed. Blood, bone and tankage are now coming back to us from 

 the live stock centers at less prices for the plant food they contain than those 

 commanded by like amounts of plant food in cotton seed and cotton seed meal, 

 and the cotton farmer has his opportunity. If he will sell his cotton seed and 

 buy its value in the right kind of fertilizer constituents for his cotton crop and 

 his soil, protect the soil from washing, and leave the roots, stems, bolls and 

 leaves on the soil, it will not be many years before it will be producing one and 

 one-half (l^^) to two (2) bales of cotton per acre, if exhaustive crops are not 

 grown in rotation with it. If a crop of peas or other soil-improver is grown 

 every third or fourth year and left on the land this high state of productiveness 

 will be reached much sooner. Corn, which draws much more heavily on the land 

 than cotton, has been grown between the crops of cotton in the work, the results 

 of which have been made the basis of this discussion, and but for this it is likely 

 that a moie favorable showing would have been made. 



Vegetable matter is of great importance in growing cotton, but little credit is 

 and has been given to the vegetable material which comes from the cotton crop. 

 The roots, stems, bolls and leaves corresponding to 500 pounds of lint cotton 

 are around 3,145 pounds, or more than l^b tons, containing — 



67.7 pounds of nitrogen, 



26.5 pounds of phosphoric acid, 



50.3 pounds of potash, 



59.3 pounds of lime, 



or the equivalent of five tons of good manure. These alone add largely to the 

 humus supply of the soil, and' if the 900 pounds of seed, corresponding to 500 

 pounds of liiit, and which are the equivalent of two or three tons more of good 

 manure, from the standpoint of the fertilizer constituents which they contain, 

 are returned to the land themselves, there is added to the soil each year over 

 two tons of vegetable matter per acre, yielding one bale of cotton to the acre. 

 If these seed are used as they should be in purchasing 100 per cent more than 

 their worth in other fertilizer constituents, we have emphasized in the most 

 emphatic way the cotton farmers' opportunity for producing larger and more 

 profitable yields of cotton each year, and at the same time adding not only to 

 the productiveness of the soil, but to its permanent store of plant food. 



HOME-MIXED FERTILIZERS. 



T. FRANK PARKER. 



Before taking up the discussion of fertilizers proper, perhaps it will be well to 

 sav something as to why we use them. I dare to say that many farmers are not 

 sufficiently acquainted with the elements of plant food in fertilizers to know what 

 they are getting when they buy it. It is well for us to remember that less than 

 ten per cent of the weight of our crops comes from the soil proper, the rest 

 coming from the air and water. This may be shown if a log which requires a 

 heavy team to haul is burned, we can easily carry away the ashes in a basket 

 without elfort, and the ashes contain the elements of plant food that come from 

 the soil proper. Therefore, we find that in the case of trees only a small per cent 

 is mineral or ash matter. Likewise the mineral plant food that comes from the 

 soil in producing ten tons or two hundred crates of cabbage, \Vould be only about 

 two hundred pounds. So we find that soil plant food does little more than to 

 act as the skeleton, or enough to hold the plant upright. 



