CULTIVATION . 27 



Manuring. Success in cotton cultivation is greatly 

 enhanced by judicious manuring. Cotton is not a very 

 exhaustive crop, since the stems, roots, leaves, and 

 husks of the bolis are usually returned to the soil, the 

 cotton fibre and seed only being actually removed from 

 the land. If the cotton-seed meal is used as a feeding 

 stuff for live-stock on the farm and returned as 

 manure to the land, the demands on the soil are very 

 small, since in this case the only food constituents 

 permanently withdrawn from the soil are those con- 

 tained in the cotton fibre. The only elements in 

 which a cotton soil is likely to be deficient are nitrogen, 

 phosphorus, and potassium. In addition to these 

 constituents, however, it is necessary that the manure 

 should be such as to increase the amount of humus 

 or organic matter and improve the mechanical con- 

 dition of the land, and therefore stable manure must 

 form the basis of the applications. This manure 

 should be liberally spread over the land before plough- 

 ing for the last time previous to sowing. 



The application of soluble nitrogenous manure to 

 the soil is found to be very advantageous to the 

 growth of the young plant, which is unable to obtain 

 the necessary nitrogen rapidly enough from the stable 

 manure, even though the latter may contain quite as 

 much as is theoretically required. If, however, the 

 cotton crop has been preceded by a leguminous crop, 

 such as clover or cowpeas, the addition of soluble 

 nitrogenous manure will probably be unnecessary, 

 since such plants, through the agency of certain 

 bacterial organisms, have the power of assimilating 

 atmospheric nitrogen and enriching the soil in this 

 constituent. In any case, care must be taken that 

 soluble nitrogenous manures are not applied too freely 

 as they tend to produce luxuriant growth, and con- 

 sequently cause retarded ripening and deficient yield. 

 Nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia are the 

 artificial nitrogenous manures best suited to cotton, 

 about 100 Ib. of the former or 80 Ib. of the latter beine; 

 the quantity usually applied per acre. 



Phosphorus appears to be the chief element required 

 by most cotton soils, and is generally added in the 



