FERTILIZERS FOR RICE 



363 



worked out. Usually the "svater has an abundance of potash, a 

 Dartial supply of nitrogen for the crop requirement, and scarcely 

 any phosphoric acid. The Louisiana Station suggests the pos- 

 sibility of applying nitrogen and phosphoms in high grade 

 commercial fertilizers in small quantities continuously to the 

 water at the flood gates. Stable manure can be used judiciously 

 upon places where surface soil has been removed in leveling 



Plat showing method of irrigating rice plantation in South Atlantic States. Heavy black 

 lines represent levees about six feet high, thirty-five feet wide at bottom and twelve feet 

 wide at top. Main canal reaches from river to creek between two levees. Double lines 

 around each tract represent marginal canals or face ditches about three feet wide and 

 deep, and single lines represent field ditches about fifty feet apart. Water enters and 

 leaves each tract through the same flume by means of a box, called a trunk, so arranged 

 that it can be set to allow the water to enter at high tide or can be set to allow water to 

 leave at low tide. (After Keeney.) 



the land ; but hea\y applications are to be avoided upon good 

 soil, lest it cause the rice to lodge. If the straw and hulls are 

 returned to the land the fertilizing ingredients removed are com- 

 paratively small. Here, as elsewhere, the economy of fertilizers 

 is a local question, and no specific rules can be given. (117) 



510. Laying Out the Plantation. — In preparing a plantation 

 for rice culture, the area must be laid off into fields and a levQQ 



