<a 
RECENT FARM EXPERIMENTS. 463 
of seed cotton. Later practice has led him to prefer the use of plank 
troughs for under-drains, somewhat in the fashion of an inverted V. 
Fertilizers in drill, and drilled and broadcast.—Mr. Thomas B. West, of 
Thompson, Georgia, reports an experiment with fertilizers applied in 
drills, and partly in drills and partly broadcast, on a field which had 
been in pasture thirty-five to forty years. He broke the land with.a 
two-horse turn-plow, running ten inches deep, and laid off six one-quarter 
acre plots, five of which he dressed with fertilizers, and planted cotton 
May 12. The fertilizers applied were Dickson’s Compound; Peruvian 
guano, dissolved bones, and plaster, in equal parts; and bone flour. The 
following table shows the manner and cost of application, and the 
results obtained per acre: 
2S ae g oi | 8 
2 = e 25 | Be 
~ a a Sa — 
Plot. . Fertilizers. ‘Ein as hae seek es ao 
eS a © on Set 43 3 ab 
On ) SS Ag+ 
S - a on Caan! 
% 3 £ a) a= 
° ° 2 3 BOR 
iS) ) H - oy 
/ Le ia i es eS ee cine ocm'se0 Soc 
2 | Dickson’s Compound....-..-.-. 48) 00) 2222 eee $8 00 | $9 24 |Gain, 154 
3 | Dickson’s Compound......-...- 16:\00: ie bere 16 00 | 14 00 |Loss, 123 
4 | Peruvian guano, dissolved bones, 
DRT IeetOr’-. 8... -5- ~~ --- 8 00 | $800 | 1600} 39 76 | Gain, 1483 
5 | Peruvian guano, dissolved bones, 800} 1600; 2400) 42 28|)Gain, 76 
RUGUMIAReDs. 25-75 ---..-- 25 
SPEMMIB ENT <8 oo vp <a es'e g= oy'r's'8 a 800 | 1600! 24 00| 16 80 |Loss, 30 
In regard to applications of these fertilizers in the drill, Mr. West | 
concludes that an amount costing $8 to $12 is sufficient, and that any ° 
excess over this quantity would be more beneficially applied broadcast. 
These conclusions have been sustained by the results of his general 
cotton crop. . 
Fertilizing old red land.— Mr. J. D. Willis, of Union Church, Missis- 
sippi, reports that in 1868 he planted a piece of old red land in cotton, and 
with common culture and no manure made 300 pounds of seed cotton 
per acre. In February, 1869, he laid off rows four feet apart, by run- 
ning a turning plow twice in the same furrow, throwing the dirt each 
way, following with a long scooter at the bottom of the furrow. In the 
same furrow he then strewed forty bushels of fresh cotton seed, and 100 
pounds of salt per acre, afterward adding a large amount of compost 
prepared by rotting fresh cotton seed with six times its bulk of muck 
and scrapings of the wood-yard, put in alternate layers, one inch in 
thickness of cotton seed being covered with a layer of muck and scrap- 
ings six inches thick. The fertilizers were then covered by a turning 
plow run on each side of the furrow, followed by a scooter. The mid- 
dles were broken out in May, the cotton being planted May 17. As 
soon as the cotton was ready for scraping, he barred off with the turn- 
ing plow, and afterward worked over the cotton every ten or twelve 
days, cultivating to the depth of half an inch. The first bloom was on 
July 15, and the crop yielded 1,170 pounds of lint per acre. 
Cotton on Bermuda grass land.—In 1869, Mr. R. W. Bonner, of Clinton, 
Georgia, employing small, short scooters, thoroughly broke up about 
nine acres of land which had been in Bermuda grass twenty-four years 
