COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR MAINTENANCE or FERTILITY 115 



amount would probably be disastrous to the getting of a stand of cotton, for 

 it would burn the roots up. Then, further, it is stated that all things con- 

 sidered, it is best to make the application all at one time, that where the land 

 is in superior condition and a large application is used it is probably profit- 

 able to apply half at planting and half at the second plowing. Then this 

 second half would certainly not be in the drill, but would be just where we 

 would have put it in the beginning, in the middles of the rows. 



We have quoted thus largely from a review of the work of the Experi- 

 ment Stations in the Cotton States, to show that the experimenters themselves 

 have not been able to get away from the" old traditions of the cotton field. 

 They have done a great deal of work in determining the food requirements of 

 the cotton crop, but are as badly in the ruts in regard to the culture of the 

 crop as the planters themselves. All the old practice of fertilizing in the 

 furrow and making a bed of soil above it, plowing first, second or third times, 

 are all relics of the old ruts from which it is time cotton growers were get- 

 ting out. Fertilizing in the furrow is not the way to bring up the pro- 

 ductiveness of the land for any crop. Deep preparation of the 

 soil, planting on the flat surface, and then shallow and perfectly 

 flat culture* should be the rule. There is no more need for a plow 

 in the cotton field after the crop is planted than there is in a corn field, and 

 the methods that are best for the one are of equal advantage for the other. 

 Cotton was grown here the past season on well prepared land perfectly flat. 

 It was cultivated with a -smoothing harrow and a weeder till over six inches 

 high and then with a small tooth cultivator the rest of the season, and never 

 hilled in the slightest degree; and that cotton went through a season of un- 

 precedented drought and heat better than any plowed and hilled cotton 

 around it. Then, too, the everlasting directions that have been given the 

 farmers about the particular amount and kind of fertilizer that should be 

 used have confused them to such an extent that they think that all they need 

 is a formula for the preparation of a fertilizer. There is much need of ener- 

 getic work on the part of the Stations in the Cotton States to show the 

 farmers the best methods of improving their soil for the production of the 

 cotton crop, and the means through which they may be relieved from the 

 necessity of buying a complete fertilizer for every crop they plant. Good 

 farming is needed more in the Cotton States than any more knowledge re- 

 garding fertilizers, for those who get to doing good farming will naturally 

 use what fertilizers they need in a more liberal manner. Then again, the 

 experiments in fertilizers with any crop on the soil of the Experiment Station, 

 at one point in a State as large as Georgia or North Carolina, can hardly 

 be of much use to a large part of the farmers in those States, who are growing 



