FIELD EXPERIMENTS IN THE SOUTH 495 



Alabama field experiments. The Alabama Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station has reported the results of fertilizer experiments 

 with cotton on the common soils in several different counties. In 

 Table 104 are given three-year or four-year averages from seven 

 different counties. In computing the value of the increase, Direc- 

 tor Duggar allows $14 a ton for cotton seed and 10 cents a pound 

 for lint, the average price for the five years, 1904-1908. He also 

 assumes that the seed cotton is one third lint, and thus counts the 

 cotton seed at 3.8 cents a pound, or at 3.2 cents a pound for the 

 increase, after allowing .6 cent a pound for picking and ginning. 



These results especially emphasize two facts : first, that the soils 

 are very poor, and second, that the cotton crop is so valuable that 

 even small increases in yield justify large expenditures for fertil- 

 izers. As an average of the 48 different tests, the yield of the un- 

 fertilized land is less than 150 pounds of cotton lint per acre. 



With few exceptions, every kind of fertilizer has more than paid 

 its cost, and as a rule every addition has increased the profit per 

 acre, the largest profit being secured from the most heavily fer- 

 tilized land. It should be kept in mind, however, that as an average 

 a pound of Alabama seed cotton is worth five times as much as a 

 pound of Illinois corn. Very probably the 200 pounds of kainit 

 have been more effective than 50 pounds of potassium chlorid 

 would have been, because these soils are as a rule very deficient 

 in active organic matter, and under such conditions the larger 

 quantity of soluble salt is likely to become more effective. 



The average annual rainfall of Alabama is given as 51 inches. 

 The monthly rainfall from May to September averages more than 

 4 inches. Of the 20 records for these months during the four years, 

 1905-1908, the lowest was 2.42 inches, and only three others were 

 below 3.44 inches. The highest was 8.50 inches, with only two 

 others above 5.51 inches. 



Louisiana field experiments. The Louisiana Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station has conducted a series of field experiments since 

 1889, on the experiment farm at Calhoun, in the northern part of 

 the state, on hill land originally covered with pine trees. The soil 

 had become much exhausted from 70 or 80 years of previous cotton 

 culture. 



The field consists essentially of six one-acre plots arranged in 



