FIELD EXPERIMENTS IN THE SOUTH 497 



The cost of fertilizer is given as estimated by Director Dodson. 

 No report is made of the yield of cowpeas. 



In 1889 the increases produced by the fertilizing were only 301 

 pounds of seed cotton, 4.7 bushels of corn, and 4.8 bushels of oats; 

 but in the second year the increases were 1227 pounds of seed cot- " 

 ton, 19.7 bushels of corn, and 25.3 bushels of oats, which are prac- 

 tically as great as the averages for the entire period. 



The 1514 pounds of seed cotton would yield about 1000 pounds 

 of cotton seed, or about 30 bushels, which would not be sufficient 

 to make the compost for one acre of cotton and one acre of corn, 

 counting the shrinkage in volume during the three or four weeks 

 allowed for fermentation; and, besides the whole seed used in the 

 compost, 200 pounds of cotton-seed meal are used for the oats. 

 On the other hand, the corn, oats, and cowpea crops produced on 

 the fertilized land would certainly make much more manure than 

 was used in these experiments, so that, with little modification, this 

 system could be made independent and permanent as well as more 

 profitable. 



The following significant statements are made by Professor 

 Dodson : 



"When we sell cotton lint, we sell cellulose, composed of hydrogen, oxygen, 

 and carbon (CgHujOs), which was derived from the air and water. When we 

 sell our seed, we sell the fertility of the land, as the Northern and Western farmer 

 does when he sells his grain. The oil, however, has no fertilizing value, being, 

 like the lint, composed of elements taken from the air and water, and cannot 

 be used again by the cotton plant ; so if we sell only the lint and the oil, return- 

 ing the hulls and the meal to the land, we have not reduced the fertility ap- 

 preciably." 



With liberal applications of ground limestone where needed, and 

 large use of the most suitable legume crops turned under, either 

 in farm manure or in green manures, including not only cowpeas, 

 but also red clover, alsike clover, crimson clover, Japan clover 

 (Lespedeza), vetch, velvet beans, and even alfalfa under proper 

 conditions, and with plenty of phosphorus, either as acid phosphate, 

 steamed bone meal, or fine-ground raw rock phosphate, it seems 

 very certain that the cotton and grain crops of the South could be 

 increased even much above the yields maintained for 20 years in 

 these valuable experiments by the Louisiana Station. 



