1898.] 



PUBLIC DOCUMENT— No. 33. 



123 



moisture and of a fair average temperature, caused their 

 selection. Both are quite frequently looked upon with favor 

 as suitable materials to furnish plant food for various farm 

 crops. Cotton-seed meal in particular is to-day used exten- 

 sively by tobacco growers in the Connecticut River valley 

 as the main source of nitrogen for that crop. 



The increasing importance of cotton-seed meal as a fertil- 

 izer has been followed by the writer with a frequent ex- 

 amination of the articles sold in our markets to protect the 

 interests of our farmers. Importers of cotton-seed meal, 

 claiming that they sold their articles as a feed stuff and not 

 as a fertilizer, declined as a rule until quite recently to take 

 out a fertilizer license which would oblige them to sell with 

 a stated g-uarantee of at least the nitroo^en. 



The results of sixty-live analyses carried on under my 

 direction are as follows : — 



Allowing 12 cents for every pound of nitrogen, 5 cents 

 per pound for each of phosphoric acid and potassium oxide, 

 these three ingredients represent per ton a market value of — 



$19.39 in case of our average sample of cotton-seed meal. 



24.82 in case of our highest sample of cotton-seed meal. 



6.20 in case of our lowest sample of cotton-seed meal. 



The above-stated difference in the composition of cotton- 

 seed meal is mainly due to the presence of more or less 

 ground skins and husks of the cotton seed. Cotton-seed 

 meal designed for fodder ought to be free from skins and 

 husks, to deserve a recommendation for that purpose ; cot- 

 ton-seed meal to be used for fertilizer may contain more or 



