208 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



The composition of these two will show what they require, 

 and if their requirements be not allowed, they will fail to 

 grow. 



From the above it will be seen that the wants as to mineral 

 matter of the cotton wool, or fibre, are chiefly potash and 

 lime. Potash is the chief desideratum in a soil to produce the 

 fibre. If the soil be deficient in this, then potash should be 

 the chief constituent in the manure ; this is a self-evident pro- 

 position. Next to this in quantity, we have lime ; if the soil 

 on which cotton is planted contains not this in sufficient quan- 

 tities, then the manure should supply the deficiency. This is 

 also a truism ; because we know that neither potash nor lime 

 is furnished to crops, except through the agency of the soil, 

 or manures. Soda is also a component of the cotton fibre to 

 a large extent ; but we need not make this a constituent of a 

 manure for this crop, because from the locality where it is 

 grown, (near to the ocean shore,) a large quantity of soda, in 

 the form of common salt, is supplied to all of the soils of these 

 Sea Islands, in the spray from the ocean. Here then is a 

 source of supply. The same is true of chlorine, which is here 

 always associated with soda. Phosphoric and sulphuric acids 

 likewise exist in the fibre. All of these are necessary to the 

 full development of the cotton fibre ; and without these it 

 cannot exist. Not the least fibre could be produced unless on 

 a soil containing not one, or several, but all of these constitu- 

 ents. So much for the cotton fibre as to its wanting of mineral 

 constituents ; furthermore, it requires a mechanical basis for 

 its growth ; there are seeds from which the fibre springs ; 

 without a healthy seed of strong vital power, the fibre will be 

 small in quantity and of inferior quality. We now, there- 

 fore, turn our attention to it, and seek its wants from its 

 analysis. 



The analysis of the seed shows it to be much richer ia 



