106 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. [392] 



mixed with lime, and allowed to remain until convenient 

 to haul out ; but if it has to be hauled more than a few hun- 

 dred yards, the cost will amount to prohibition. Pea vines 

 and lime furnish not only the cheapest, but the best means, 

 at the command of Georgia farmers as a basis for the res- 

 toration of their worn lands. 



Cotton seed, a waste product peculiar to Southern agricul- 

 ture, afford a most valuable vegetable fertilizer. Georgia 

 produces annually 262,500 tons, and the cotton States 2,- 

 362,500 tons of these seed. 



Commercial fertilizers , so extensively used, of late, in Geor- 

 gia, supply the immediate demand for plant fertilizers 

 but furnishing, as they do, principally mineral plant-food 

 in concentrated form, apart from their immediate influence 

 on plant nutrition, they act only chemically upon the soil, 

 which is unable to respond profitably to their application 

 if denuded of vegetable matter. 



The improvement in the preparation and quality of the 

 compounds offered to the farmers of Georgia, within the 

 last five years, has been very marked, while their cost has 

 been considerably reduced. 



Under the operation of the present inspection laws, as 

 administered, none but reliable compounds can be offered 

 on the Georgia market, and farmers are enabled by the 

 published analyses, largely distributed, to inform them- 

 selves as to the chemical composition of every brand ad- 

 mitted to sale in the State. 



The principal elements of plant-food in the commercial 

 fertilizers on our market are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash. The manufacturers of commercial fertilizers have 

 practically adopted the conclusions of scientific experi- 

 menters, that these three elements are generally the only 

 ones necessary in artificial fertilizers. 



Many, however, misled by the results of experiments 

 conducted on soils in Georgia derived from granite, have 

 omitted potash in the preparation of their compounds, 



