APPENDIX. 261 



ECONOMY IN FERTILIZATION. 



Ever since the Department of Agriculture of Georgia 

 was organized, an effort has been made, through its pub- 

 lished reports, to impress upon the farmers of the State 

 the importance of adopting some cheap means of increas- 

 ing the yield of their crops and at the same time increase 

 the fertility of the soil. The value of pea vines as an 

 improver of the soil has been repeatedly urged upon the 

 attention of the farmers, while the superiority of compost 

 over high-priced commercial manure has been shown by 

 repeated experiments conducted under the auspices of 

 the Department during the last seven years. Formulse 

 and directions for composting home manures with super- 

 phosphate and kainit have been published in the reports 

 of the Department from time to time, and results of ex- 

 periments with the composts made according to these 

 formulae published annually since 1875. These results 

 show very conclusively the great economy in the use of 

 the compost, since at one half the cost per acre of the 

 commercial fertilizers, as good yields have been uniformly 

 obtained. 



It has generally been admitted that when an experi- 

 ment has been conducted for five years with uniformly 

 the same results, the question so determined may be 

 regarded as settled. 



Experiments have been conducted under the auspices 

 of this Department in every part of the State, under 

 various conditions for six years. In these experiments 

 the compost of superphosphate and kamit with cotton 

 seed and stable manure has been compared every year 

 with the best grades of commercial fertilizers, with re- 

 sults most favorable to the compost. 



While pea vines and lime furnish the cheapest and most 

 effective means of restoring fertility to worn soils, and of 

 maintaining it in those not yet exhausted, the compost 



