BUYING PLANT FOOD FOR THE SOIL 



233 



a feeding stuff or as a fertilizer. The amount of cotton- 

 seed meal used for fertilizing purposes is very large in the 

 South. It is not economy, however ; for a vegetable prod- 

 uct so rich in protein as cotton-seed meal to be buried in 

 the ground is poor economy and a waste of wealth. Cot- 

 ton-seed meal ought first to be fed to live stock and the 

 resulting manure returned to the land. When properly 

 utilized in this way, both humus and available plant food 

 will be secured, or a double profit ; a profit from the 

 meal as food, and a profit from it as a fertilizer. 



Sources of phosphorus. Phosphorus cannot be used 

 as a fertilizer in a free state, for the reason it readily 



WHERE ACID PHOSPHATE PAYS 

 Every man who uses chemical manures ought to test his land 



takes fire. Consequently, when used for commercial pur- 

 poses it always is found in combination with lime, iron, or 

 some similar substance present in the soil. 



A combination of this sort gives rise to what is known 

 as phosphate. Phosphate of lime, for instance, constitutes 

 the main portion of bone and the various phosphate rocks 

 mined in North and South Carolina, in Tennessee, in 



