114 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



he chooses, a little nitrate of soda as a starter for the cotton, the organic 

 nitrogen will usually be the best form for the sustenance of the crop during 

 the season. Therefore, it is more than ever apparent that the organic nitro- 

 gen from the pea roots is the best form of nitrogen we can get. Much work 

 has been done by the Stations in the Cotton States in the study of the propor- 

 tions in which the various constituents of a complete fertilizer should be 

 used. In Georgia they claim that the proportion should be nitrogen 1, 

 potash 1, phosphoric acid 3%. In South Carolina, nitrogen 1, potash %, 

 phosphoric acid 2%; while in North Carolina, where in a large part of the 

 cotton belt phosphoric acid is not needed, the law requires that a complete 

 fertilizer allowed to be sold must not contain less than 8 per cent, of phos- 

 phoric acid. This law is about to be changed now, however. Quoting 

 further from the Office of Experiment Stations we find it stated that the 

 amount of concentrated fertilizer which may be profitably used per acre on 

 the cotton crop, varies widely with the nature and condition of the soil, the 

 seasons and other circumstances. For an average soil in fairly good con- 

 dition, perhaps the maximum amounts indicated in Georgia nitrogen, 20 

 pounds, potash, 20 pounds, phosphoric acid, 70 pounds, or South Carolina 

 nitrogen, 20 pounds, potash, 15 pounds, phosphoric acid, 50 pounds, or 

 an approximate mean between the two, would be the maximum limit of the 

 profitable application. This would mean the application of over 800 pounds 

 per acre of an average cotton fertilizer, an amount which, if applied to the 

 worn uplands of the cotton country, would do more harm than good, but 

 which can be used only on soils of a moist nature and well supplied with 

 humus. While 700 to 800 pounds of a complete fertilizer may be used on 

 such lands, the larger part of the old lands of the upland country, in the 

 Cotton States, could not safely apply more than half that quantity, until 

 through good farming and the accumulation of organic matter in the soil 

 they have prepared the land to receive such a liberal dressing. Quoting from 

 the same source we find it stated that the concentrated fertilizer should be 

 applied in the drill and not broadcast, at a depth of not more than three 

 inches, and well mixed with the soil. To the first part of this statement 

 we have a serious objection, and there is every reason why the fertilizer 

 should be applied not alone in the drill but broadcast. Cotton spreads its 

 roots far and wide, and as the feeding roots' hairs are out near the tips of 

 the roots they soon get away from the little that is directly under them and 

 are foraging in a poor soil, so that at the most critical time of the crop, the 

 fruiting time, the plants have less food at their command than at any other 

 time. Then, too, if as large an application as 700 to 800 pounds per acre 

 of a complete fertilizer is used, the application in the drill alone of that 



