FIBER PLANTS 175 



In fact the cotton grower must be his own judge as 

 to the fertilizer requirements of his soil. If the plants 

 grow tall and rank, and do not fruit sufficiently, use 

 less nitrogen and more phosphoric acid ; if on the other 

 hand the stalk is short and feeble, though attempting 

 to fruit heavily, more nitrogen is needed ; if the leaves 

 spot and fall prematurely, use more potash. Potash 

 and nitrogen both tend to prolong the active growing 

 season, while phosphoric acid tends to shorten it and 

 to promote the early maturity of the crop. The char- 

 acter of the fertilizer required will depend, too, very 

 largely upon the kind of farming that is being done. 

 If cotton is grown after cotton, year after year, with 

 no change or rotation, it will soon become necessary 

 to add heavier and heavier doses of expensive nitro- 

 gen ; while if mixed farming is followed with a rota- 

 tion that includes cowpeas, as often as every other 

 year, it will be necessary to purchase little or no nitro- 

 gen, though phosphoric acid and potash may still be 

 needed in small quantities. 



Methods of Planting and Cultivating. — Cotton is 

 almost universally planted on raised beds or ridges. 

 On the lighter soils, where cotton follows cotton, no 

 fresh breaking is done in advance of planting. In 

 the early spring a furrow is run between the old 

 cotton rows with a single-shovel plow, fertilizer is 

 deposited in the bottom of this furrow, the workman 

 usually dropping it through a large tin horn, to pre- 

 vent the wind from scattering it; it is now covered 

 by throwing in a furrow from each side Avith a turn- 

 ing plow, thus forming the bed, or ridge, in the space 

 occupied by the water furrow the year before. In 



