19 



Although variations in fertility of the field undoubtedly 

 affected the yields on certain plots, some of the comparisons 

 originally intended are practicable. With acid phosphate, in 

 combination with other commercial fertilizers, the yields were 

 larger than with Florida soft phosphate in a similar combina- 

 tion. 



With a mixture of these two kinds of phosphates the 

 yields were larger than with an equal weight of P'lorida soft 

 phosphate, but smaller than with an equal weight of acid 

 phosphate. 



Experiment with Fertilizers. 



The field used for this experiment was in corn in 1895, in 

 wheat in 1896. A few months after wheat harvest buckwheat 

 was sown. This crop failed almost completely, and was fol- 

 lowed by rye in the fall of 1896, which was pastured in March, 

 1897. A thick stubble was turned under a few days before 

 cotton was planted. This field had received liberal applica- 

 tions of fertilizers, chiefly acid phosphate and cottonseed meal, 

 with all crops of recent years. The soil of this field is a red 

 loam, containing more clay than most soils in this immediate 

 vicinity. The surface is nearly covered with flint stones. 



After the land was turned rows 3^- feet apart were laid 

 off with a shovel plow. In these furrows the fertilizers were 

 drilled, after which beds were thrown up over the lines of fer- 

 tilizer. These beds were then flattened with a harrow and 

 Peerless cotton was planted April 19. 



At the final thinning 560 plants were left on each fifteenth- 

 acre plot, which is at the rate of 8,400 plants per acre. 



June 29 plants on all plots were in bloom, but the blooms 

 were few on the unfertilized plots. There was promise of a 

 large crop, estimated at a bale per acre, on the best plots, until 

 the 1st of August. From August 1 to August 15 shedding of 

 bolls went on rapidly as the result of a dry season, which, 

 broken only by light showers, had extended^over more than a 

 month. 



It was doubtless during the last week of this drought that 

 a leaf disease became widely spread over this field. During a 



