110 COTTON CULTURE. 



lands, we may say : Make a compost heap by hauling 

 muck to the barn-yard, and allowing hogs to root it over 

 and' wallow upon it. The droppings of barn-yard fowls 

 should be added as being particularly rich in the phos- 

 phates. Some lime and ashes may profitably be sprinkled 

 from time to time upon the pile. When this compost ma- 

 nure is rich in all these elements, it should be applied 

 liberally, and in connection with it, the mode of plowing 

 and ditching above described should be employed so as to 

 retain upon the soil all the fertilizing salts. If twenty-five 

 acres of land, which is naturally good cotton land, is 

 dressed with, say, a cord to the acre of compost manure 

 such as is described, there is no reason in the nature of 

 things why it should not, for ten years at least, and prob- 

 ably for twenty, continue to produce a bale to the acre. 



Of the condensed fertilizers it is probable that guano, 

 the most powerful of all the manures, being the ordure of 

 sea birds and containing a large amount of bone earth, 

 and being also particularly rich in the phosphates, is the 

 best. Next to guano may be mentioned crushed bones, 

 or bone ashes ; and it may be well in this connection to 

 give Liebig's rule for the preparation of bone manure. 



"Pour over the crushed bones or bone ashes half their 

 weight of sulphuric acid, diluted with four parts of water. 

 Add one hundred parts of water, after the former mixture 

 has been digested for twenty-four hours. Sprinkle this 

 mixture over the field immediately before plowing. By 

 this action, in a few seconds, the free acids unite with the 

 bases contained in the earth. A neutral salt is formed in 

 a very fine state of division, that is very uniformly and 

 evenly dispersed through the soil." 



By this manner of applying manure, it is rendered so 

 fine and so thoroughly mixed with the soil that the roots 

 of the plants find it in every direction. 



The practice of manuring in the drill, or in the hill, 

 which is successful with corn, does not answer at all with 



