54 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



available food, both organic and inorganic, but they 

 are also highly useful in making stiff lands mellow 

 and porous, and light soils retentive of moisture. 



118. Cornstalks laid in a furrow and the earth 

 bedded upon them, and even weeds when turned 

 under, produce a. fine mechanical effect on stiff lands 

 apart from their value as chemical manures. Whether 

 green or dry, these vegetable substances soon under- 

 go decomposition, and give up their constituents as 

 food to growing plants. 



119. Cotton-seed is one of the best and most ener- 

 getic of this class of fertilizers. It contains a great 

 deal of nitrogen, which has a wonderful effect in stim- 

 ulating vegetable growth. Leaves, and all sorts of 

 vegetable matter, can be profitably used, which, as a 

 top-dressing, produce warmth, and as they decay 

 furnish valuable plant-food. 



120. The large amount of cotton-seed produced 

 in the South has caused special attention to be called 

 of late years to its value and to the best method of 

 using it as a fertilizer. Like other seeds it is rich 

 in potash and phosphoric acid, two important con- 

 stituents of a fertile soil, which are generally in such 

 limited quantities that in the process of removal of 

 crops they are the first to become deficient. Cotton 

 lint contains only about i per cent, of ash or mineral 

 matter, while the seed contains about 9 per cent. In 

 a bale of cotton, the yield of say 1,700 pounds of seed- 

 cotton, we have only five pounds of mineral matter 

 in the lint, and one hundred and eight in the seed 



