COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR MAINTENANCE OF FERTILITY 107 



truck and forage patches around the residence and barn. For the outlying 

 fields, more or less remote from the house, reliance should be placed on the 

 system of rotation already outlined, in which small grain and cow peas are 

 leading features, aided by a judicious use of concentratetd fertilizers. As the 

 system develops, and after it has been in operation a few years, the necessity 

 for these concentrated fertilizers will be less urgent, a smaller quantity will 

 be required, and increasing profits will accrue." 



In the main there can be no great objection to the plan of the Georgia 

 Station. What we do object to, however, is the statement that on small 

 farms there will be proportionately less manure made than on a large one. If 

 Ihe rotation advised is followed, there will be a considerable amount of forage 

 produced in the shape of oats straw, corn fodder and pea vine hay, and, 

 whether the farm be large or small, this should be fed on the place, to cattle, 

 and the result will be that there will be as much manure in proportion to the 

 area under cultivation on the small farm as on a larger one under the three 

 year rotation. A long experience in the culture of Southern lands has 

 shown us that the great advantage of the three year rotation lies 

 in the more frequent bringing on the soil of a leguminous feed 

 crop, and the practicability of finally making manure enough to broadcast 

 one-third of the area annually. Dribbling a little manure around on the 

 better lots about the barn will take a long time to restore the fertility of the 

 farm, the produce of which is being used only on a limited area. The small 

 farm is the place for the manure spreader with all of its manure-spreading 

 economy. 



In practicing a good three year rotation with cotton, and feeding all the 

 forage grown, as well as the corn and oats, the cotton farmer can make live 

 stock an important part of his profits while increasing his manure accumu- 

 lation. Another point of importance in the Georgia rotation is the fact 

 that every crop grown is supplied with commercial fertilizers in large or 

 small quantity. At the usual market price for corn we have never been able 

 to get back the cost of a complete fertilizer applied to this crop. The corn 

 field is the place for the manurial accumulation of the farm, and a well 

 arranged three year rotation will, in a few years, enable the farmer to make 

 manure enough for his corn. Growing through the long heated season, when 

 the nitrification is most active in the organic matter, corn can make a better 

 use of the manure than any other crop, while at the same time there will be a 

 residue well incorporated with the soil that will carry the oats through without 

 the further addition of commercial fertilizers. Then with a more liberal appli- 

 cation of acid phosphate and potash to the oat stubble the great nitrogen- 

 collecting crop of the rotation, the cow pea, will make a great crop of forage, 



