GHAPTER XVI. 



BUYING FERTILITY FOR THE SOIL 



The small yield of cotton per acre over the greater 

 part of the Cotton Belt is due to poor management 

 in maintaining fertility, small quantities of home- 

 made manures, sale of cotton seed from the f arm,poor 

 tillage, the limited growing of leguminous crops, an 

 ill-planned tenant system, and the lack of systematic 

 crop rotation in the management of cotton farms. 



All these factors have contributed to the small re- 

 turns in yield and to the constantly increasing de- 

 mands for commercial fertilizers. 



Where attention is given to all these details cotton 

 growing becomes at once the most profitable of all 

 kinds of farming in the whole world. 



The small farm, as well as the large plantation, 

 is ever confronted with new phases of management; 

 the owner is successful in proportion to his ability 

 to meet these new phases and so adjust them to his 

 work that they will conduce to his profit and 

 advantage. 



The use of commercial fertilizers has assumed 

 gigantic proportions in cotton production and calls 

 for constant discussion. 



We have mentioned elsewhere that of the four- 

 teen chemical elements demanded by the cotton 

 plant, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the 

 only ones likely to be deficient in old soils, and, 



(126) 



