50 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



high-priced to be used as a fertilizer for wheat in competi- 

 tion with cotton-seed meal or nitrate of soda. 



Cotton-seed meal is a common ingredient of a fertilizer 

 mixture for wheat. It is usually less effective and eco- 

 nomical for wheat than an equal value of nitrate of soda. 

 When cotton-seed meal is used, it should be applied before 

 the wheat is sown, and the seed should not be permitted to 

 come in contact with it, since the meal, in its decay, has an 

 unfavorable effect on the germinating seed. Hence, to 

 avoid injuring the stand, no considerable amount of cotton- 

 seed meal should be applied while the seed are being drilled 

 in. The meal may be first drilled in, or sown broadcast 

 and harrowed in, and then the seed sown. The same cau- 

 tion may well be exercised when the fertilizer contains any 

 considerable amount of kainit, or muriate of potash, dried 

 blood, or tankage. 



Most fertilizer tests show smaller gains from the use of potash, 

 as a fertilizer for wheat than from the use of nitrogen or phos- 

 phoric acid. For soils not in the best condition for wheat the 

 following formula will often prove profitable : 



200 pounds acid phosphate per acre and 

 25 pounds of muriate of potash (when the seed are sown). 

 100 pounds nitrate of soda (early in March). 



In case the preceding crop is cowpeas, the nitrate of soda may 

 be reduced or omitted. 



The cowpea plants, which usually follow wheat, may utilize 

 some of the phosphate not used by the grain crop. 



CULTURAL METHODS 



51. Preparation of land. Wheat requires a carefully 

 prepared seed-bed, moderately compact in the lower layers 

 and loose and fine near the surface. In order to permit the 



