447 
cial fertilizers to the condition of their crops, with especial reference to 
any difference observable in the size and growth of the cotton-plant in 
the same field, manured, cultivated, and in all respects treated alike, or 
on land which, to superficial observation, appears to be the same in dif- 
ferent fields. It is desirable to know why the same amount of fertiliz- 
ing produces a much better effect on one field than on another, both 
seeming, to casual observation, to be the same in quality. Giving his 
own experience in the matter, the writer says: 
I rented to a freedman an old field which has not been cultivated in fifteen years. 
It was utterly exhausted before it was turned out, and was as poor as it could be. It 
grew broomsedge until the pinessprang up, and then the grass and pines grew together. 
My cattle ran on it. The freedman cut down the pines, plowed the land twice with 
a scooter, and with a small plow made what he called beds, and in shallow furrows, 
made with a scoater, scattered about 150 pounds fertilizer to the acre, and upon it 
dropped his cotton-seed, and covered with a board. On an adjacent field of the same 
quality of land originally, but which had been kept in cultivation, and more or less 
manured every year, I planted cotton, plowing deep with a two-horse Dodge plow, 
and applied 200 pounds of ammoniated phosphate, with ten bushels rotten cotton-seed 
to the acre, and cultivated well. The freedman’s cotton is better than mine. Why? 
Because his ground had vegetable matter derived from the broomsedge and fine straw, 
of which my field had been deprived by continued cultivation. I conclude, therefore, 
that fertilizers put on land, no matter how liberally, without a due supply of humus, 
that is, vegetable matter, is thrown away. And the complaints we often hear of the 
worthlessness of the fertilizer is due to this cause. 
As further illustrating the opinions obtaining in the South on this sub- 
ject, the result of experiments made under the direction of the Han- 
cock, Georgia, Agricultural Club may be referred to. The object was 
to contrast the effects of commercial and home manures. Two home 
composts were used, one in which 500 pounds of concentrated soluble 
phosphate was composted with 1,300 pounds of stable manure, and 200 
pounds of ashes added just before using ; a second, 1,400 pounds stable 
manure, 300 pounds superphosphate, 200 pound green cotton seed, 60 
pounds sulphate of ammonia, and 40 pounds nitrate of soda. The com- 
mercial fertilizers employed in the experiments were five in number, of 
those more commonly used in the South. The following results were 
reported from experiments made with cotton: 
Pounds |Cost per Yield peracre 
Name. Liga prantas of seed-cot- 
ton. 
Pounds. 
ihoran| (home) commercials ses sscee sas ~ = 22 sede eeee 230} $1.38 675 
Home commercial ..... eee ee eS 2... ee eee £200 2.00 720 
TCG Cal 2 Pe ber ee ete caer sc er S| 200 0. 00 490 
Ag OOM O Tet ee ae AR OP a Oe ee On re eee 0 7.00 600 
Wbers superphosphabe-ss- so see sets s<)- = - 6 ~<a eae 200 6. 00 675 
j EUS GH UE a) 0h ape a Se EE A ee? 200 6. 60 705 
ESN Wi Be AA a Set oe | PEERY tA 20 1, rr fs oA SL 200 Bays 645 
Alanine Phospuatesissaseesereme coe 4 ~~ eres 200 5.30 645 
BLVerCOMIMETCl al) Mice teas Moe eee beh Ac 200 6. 35 735 
The experiments during two years obviously pointed to the fact that manures having 
carbonaceous matter in the form of humus act better upon the soils destitute of vege- 
table matter, such as area large proportion of southern soils, reduced by repeated 
cropping in corn and cotton, both of which tend to humus destruction. The commer- 
cial manure acts chemically upon the soil which has little but mineral elements left, 
and the result is often, especially in dry seasons, disastrous to crops. But home com- 
posts act both chemically and mechanically. The conductors of the experiments draw 
a lesson from them, that they plainly show the necessity of either a rational rotation 
of crops, including small grains and rest, or a resort to turning under green crops, such 
as peas and clover. 
