160 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. [446] 



THE COTTON PLANT AND ITS PRODUCTS. 



'The fact nas been thoroughly and practically demonstrated that 

 by a careful husbanding of home manures, three-fourths of the 

 money usually expended in the purchase of commercial fertilizers 

 may be retained in the pockets of the farmers without any dimi- 

 nution of the crops produced. 



Yet, while spending their hard-earned money for commercial 

 fertilizers, they are guilty of the most extravagant waste of these 

 home materials. There is no country in the world more fruitful 

 in the production of home manures than one in which cotton is 

 the staple product ; nor is there any in which so little plant-food 

 is sold from the farm. On a farm on which cotton is the staple 

 product, only 2f pounds of plant food are sold from the average 

 Georgia acre, while 97 are returned to the soil in the plant and 

 the seed, as shown by the following analysis of the cotton plant 

 by H. C. White, Professor of Chemistry in the University of 

 Georgia : 



Under the head of 



"THE CHEMISTRY OF THE COTTON PLANT," 



Prof. White says: "The cotton plant, as it stands in the field 

 ripened and ready for picking, may be divided into six parts : the 

 lint, seed, bolls, leaves, stem and roots. An average plant, air 

 dried, may be assumed to weigh 3.5 ounces.* Of this: 



The lint will weigh 0.3 ounces. 



The seed will weigh 0.6 ounces. 



The bolls will weigh ; 0.5 ounces. 



The leaves will weigh 0-5 ounces. 



The stem will weigh 1.3 ounces. 



The roots will weigh 0.3 ounces. 



"!D producing an average crop of 150 pounds of lint cotton per 

 acre, there will have been grown on the acre 150 pounds lint, 300 

 pounds seed, 250 pounds bolls, 250 pounds leaves, 600 pounds stem, 

 and 150 pounds roots. 



Organic matter. Mineral matter or ash. 



The lint consists of, (in 100 parts) .... 98.25 1.75 



The seed consists of (in 100 paits). . .96.59 3.41 



The bolls consists of, (in 100 parts) . .85.24 12.96 



The leaves consists of, (in 100 parts). 82. 74 15.22 



The stem consists of, (in 100 parts). . .95.02 3.98 



The roots consists of, (in 100 parts) . . 92.76 5.08 



"The organic matter consists, in all cases, of oxygen, hydrogen, 





*An average obtained by actually weighing a number of plants carefully air dried ; 

 such as would probably produce the assumed average crop of 150 pounds per acre. 



