SOME STATION INVESTIGATIONS IN FERTILIZERS 297 



pared. The only statement given is that in one very dry season when the 

 fertilized plat made over ten bushels per acre the unfertilized plat did not 

 make even a nubbin. But we are not informed whether the ten bushels on 

 the fertilized plat paid the expenses. If it accorded with the experience of 

 the writer it did not. While there is certainly shown a gratifying increase 

 in the crops on the land, and the rotation is the same that this writer has 

 been advocating for the cotton growers of the South for many years, it would 

 be interesting to have such a course of fertilization for every crop grown 

 compared with the same rotation in which no fertilizer is used except a liberal 

 application of mineral fertilizers to the pea crop following the oats, and all 

 the home-made manures and cotton seed are applied broadcast to the corn 

 field. From our own experience and that of some others whom we have in- 

 duced to try the plan we feel sure that in the financial profit, if not in the ag- 

 gregate results, this last plan would make a far better showing than the fer- 

 tilization of every crop in the rotation. The bulletin does not give any infor- 

 mation in regard to the use made of the pea vines. If simply used as manure 

 direct, there was a serious loss as compared with the feeding and returning 

 to the soil of the resulting manure. What the Southern farmer needs to 

 learn more than the mere use of commercial fertilizers is that there is a profit 

 to him and a larger profit to his farm, through the feeding of all forage grown 

 on it. There will be a greater and more valuable accumulation of humus 

 in the soil through the feeding of the peas and corn stover than in any other 

 way in which they can be used, as the resulting manure from the straw, peas 

 and corn stover of two fields would be added to one of them to go into corn. 

 Another fault in the rotation is that there is nothing to come in between the 

 cotton and the corn, and our Southern soil especially needs a green winter 

 cover as a nitrogen trap; even rye will do better than nothing, and will at 

 least add more to the humus accumulation on the corn field. With this modi- 

 fication and the use of a larger application of phosphoric acid and potash to 

 the pea crop, and no further fertilization with purchased plant food, this 

 three year rotation will do more for the building up of the Southern soil 

 and the prosperity of the Southern farmer than any course we can devise. 



