38 COTTON. 



by cultivation that it had been abandoned for many years, such as are 

 not frequent in the hill regions of the State. 'Allen' cotton was 

 used, and the fertilizers were all applied broadcast and harrowed in 

 before planting. Taking 250 lbs., the average of the five unfertilized 

 check plots, as the standard, the greatest increase in yield came from 

 the plots receiving 200 lbs. of kainit per acre, which made an average 

 yield of 495 lbs. per acre. . . . The cost of the 268 lbs. of increase 

 front the plots receiving 250 lbs. of kainit was 70 cents per hundred, 

 which is less than that for any other plot. 



"Field No. 3 was on a high ground with a very uniform yellow loam 

 soil, which had been in cultivation many years and had become very 

 much exhausted. It w;as planted with cow peas in 1890, but produced 

 Dnly a small crop, which was plowed under in January. The previous 

 work of the Station had pointed so strongly to the necessity for using 

 an abundance of vegetable matter and potash on such soils, which are 

 rich in lime, that this field was used for a comparison of the regular 

 *'Furman" compost. One thousand pounds per acre of the compost 

 was used. The unfertilized check plots made an average yield of 69*4 

 pounds of seed cotton per acre; those receiving the regular "Furman" 

 compost, 862 pounds; while those receiving the more liberal supply 

 of potash, with no phosphoric acid except that contained in the manure 

 and seed, made an average yield of 11 26 pounds of seed cotton per 

 acre. This increase was secured at a cost of $3.25 for the fertilizer 

 used, or 75 cents per hundred pounds of seed cotton. Where the 

 regular *'Furman" compost was used the increase was only 1 78 pounds, 

 or 26 per cent., and this increase was secured at a cost of $1.83 per 

 hundred pounds of seed cotton. . . . Five hundred pounds of 

 kainit without the compost increased the yield 222 pounds. 



"All of the soil used for this work at the home station has been rich 

 in lime and very poor in humus. From the work which has been done 

 here during the last five years the results have been quite uniform, 

 and indicate very plainly that for such soils the first work in restora- 

 tion must be the providing of a liberal supply of humus, which may 

 come from either stable manure, cotton seed, or the plowing under of 

 green leguminous crops, and that any additional fertilizers used should 

 be rich in potash, though they need contain but little phosphoric acid." 

 Holly Springs Branch Station. 



"A number of the fertilizer tests which have been made at the 

 Station were duplicated at the Holly Springs Branch Station in 1890. 



