TRUCK FARMING. 597 



Southern agriculturist, be lie cotton-planter, grain-grower, or truck 

 farmer, nor should even the crushed seed unless the oil has been ex- 

 tracted. It would not only be a shameful waste, but the valuable oil, 

 so far from being of the least benefit as vegetable food, actually re- 

 tards decomposition of the albuminoids supplying nitrogen, and tem- 

 porarily deteriorates the agricultural condition of the soil. 



From September 1, 1884, to July 31, 1885, there were exported to for- 

 eign ports 90,151 tons of cotton-seed meal and cake, estimating the bag at 

 200 pounds, and coastwise 5,797 tons, most of which also went to foreign 

 ])orts via Kew York, and were lost to the South. Allowing one-fourth 

 to have remained in the United States we have, together, 91,502 tons of 

 cotton seed meal exported from New Orleans alone, involving a loss to 

 the fertility of the South of 12,285,200 j)Ounds of nitrogen, without 

 probably any considerable compensation to the soil for the improving 

 process. 



The planter who uses his seed without prior extraction of the oil as 

 manure buries with each bushel from 15 cents to 20 cents of cash. Is 

 cotton planting an industry so prosperous as to afford such enormous 

 waste ? 



The planter's remedy will be either to feed his seed and use the ma- 

 nure, to exchange his seed at the mills for meal, or, better still, to es- 

 tablish neighborhood mills, even if the oil be not so perfectly extracted, 

 and secure both ])rofits. 



GKEEN MANTJUma. 



Many of the crops of the truck farmer will not prosper on poor soil, 

 however it may be locally fertilized in the hill or drill, the long roots 

 soon passing beyond the manurial effect of the application. This ap- 

 plies notably to Irish potatoes and cabbages. As truck farmers at a 

 distance from cities arc prevented by a limited supply from broadcast- 

 ing their manure, the readiest, cheapest, quickest, and most efficacious 

 mode of imparting this general fertility is green manuring. It could, 

 however, be profitably practiced irrespective of the supply of any kind 

 of manure. By using green manure in conjunction with cotton seed, 

 acid phosphate of lime and potash, truck farmers, without a supply of 

 stable manure, enjoy better chances of success than by any other system 

 they could adopt. 



Although organic matter in the soil is not considered indispensably 

 necessary to supply carbonic acid to crops, its decay, when present, fur- 

 nishes it to vegetation more quickly than it could be commanded other- 

 wise. The benefits to the soil from the presence of humus is not, how- 

 ever, confined to the mere conveyance of its inherent elements of fertil- 

 ity, for its physical influences are probably even of more importance. 



Decomposition commences in all organic substances as soon as life is 

 extinct, and the richer these substances are in the albuminoids con- 

 taining nitrogen, the more rapid will be the process, and the more valu- 

 able the products for the growth of vegetation. All green, succulent 

 ])lants ferment readily and rapidly, hence the advantage of plowing 

 under vegetation in its green state, if the land is wanted for a crop soon 

 afterwards. Dry vegetable matter, containing hard, woody fiber, de- 

 cays more slowly. 



The leguminous plants are not only richer in albuminoids, and there- 

 fore best adapted for green manuring, but also in the other two chief 

 fertilizing ingredients, phosphoric acid and potash, than any other 

 family of plants. At the Nortli and in all cool countries clover has 

 always had the preference for this purpose, but at the South the cow- 



