SOIL IMPROVEMENT 165 



Five hundred pounds of lint cotton removes 

 less than two pounds of nitrogen, about one 

 half pound of phosphoric acid, and two and 

 one half pounds of potash. The seed from a 

 bale of cotton, approximately half a ton, con- 

 tains thirty-one pounds of nitrogen, thirteen 

 pounds of phosphoric acid, and twelve pounds 

 of potash. At prevailing prices the seed from 

 each bale of cotton grown removes more than 

 $7 worth of plant food from the soil. When the 

 farmer sells his seed without returning their 

 equivalent in some other form of fertilizer 

 he robs his land. It has been claimed by many 

 of the best farmers, and with good reason, that 

 the rapid deterioration of soils in the cotton 

 States began with the construction of the oil 

 mill. Before the day of the oil mill cotton 

 seed were either fed to stock or used as fertil- 

 izer. Since the introduction of the oil mill 

 nearly all the seed are sold. The prices re- 

 ceived are frequently below the actual fertil- 

 izing value, and the money received is seldom 

 spent for plant food to be returned to the soil. 



Before the oil mills came, the cotton seed were 

 used as fertilizer for corn and it was a rare 

 thing to know of a good farmer who bought 



