COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR MAINTENANCE OF FERTILITY 113 



farmer is to continue to grow cotton continuously without rotation, but it 

 is not true for the farmer who feeds stock and grows forage to feed them 

 with from the cow pea and the corn plant. In fact, what a farmer should 

 use will depend on the nature of his soil, for, as we have already seen, there 

 is a considerable district in Eastern North Carolina where phosphoric acid 

 is not needed in the soil, and there are other districts where potash is needless, 

 while in all the cotton belt the nitrogen needed can be had in larger quantity 

 and more cheaply in the cow pea than in a commercial fertilizer. 

 While analysis may show that the cotton plant needs a complete fertilizer, 

 this does not show that we need buy all the constituents of such a fertilizer, 

 for all our soils and all conditions of culture. The editor well adds, 

 afterwards, that the nitrogen may be omitted where it is supplied through 

 animal manures, or what he in the language of the press calls green manuring. 

 And right here I would repeat what I have often said, that what is called 

 in Northern latitudes "green manuring," is not applicable to Southern con- 

 ditions. In the cooler climate of the North and the heavy clay of the 

 glacial drift, it may be practicable to plow under green crops; in the sandy 

 soil and warm climate of the cotton belt, such a practice would be simply 

 suicidal to the interests of the cotton farmer, for he would not only sour his 

 soil, but he would cut short the work the legumes are doing for him before 

 they had fairly completed it. Hence, for the South at least, we should drop 

 entirely the misleading phrase "green manuring," since no such practice is 

 applicable to Southern conditions. But while green manuring cannot be 

 practiced in the South as it is in the North, there is an even greater need for 

 the growing of the green manure crops, for the purpose of getting forage and 

 making manure, and for getting the nitrogen collecting work of the legumes 

 completely done. While soluble phosphates, like acid phosphate, are best 

 for their immediate effect on the cotton crop, there seems to be no doubt that 

 the insoluble floats may be profitably used after a while in the promotion 

 of the growth of the pea crop, and to accumulate there for the use of the 

 cotton crop, that should follow the peas. Kainit, muriate of potash and 

 sulphate of potash present the potash to the cotton plant as fertilizer in an 

 equal manner, and the only difference is in the cost. Kainit, while of special 

 value aside from its use as a fertilizer, in that it has a tendency to prevent 

 blight, is, in most places, the most costly form, since it has but 12 per cent, 

 of potash, and its use involves the freighting of a large amount of useless 

 material ; while the muriate has 50 per cent, of potash and a smaller quantity 

 need be freighted to get what potash we want. As a nitrogenous manure for 

 cotton, the cotton farmer can usually get all that he needs by exchanging 

 his cotton seed at the oil mill for meal and hulls, and while he may use, if 



