analysis or experiment which, if any, of the elements are deficient and 

 whether or not they exist in the soil and are not available. He should 

 then supply them, either in the form of a complete commercial fertilizer 

 made in the right proportions or such amendments as may be required. 

 If the proper course is pursued, cotton exhausts the soil of its 

 fertility less than any of the staple crops. A 190 pound crop of 

 lint cotton Cthis being the average per acre in the United States) con- 

 sumes 40 pounds of nitrogen, 15 pounds of phosphorus, and 24 pound ; 

 of potash. If the roots, stems, leaves and bolls are left in the ground 

 and the seed and lint taken away, all but thirteen pounds of nitrogen, 

 5| pounds of phosphorus and 5f pounds of potash are restored to the 

 soil. If the oil is taken from the seed and the meal returned to the soil, 

 the crop which made 190 pounds of lint cotton then takes away the 

 small amount of If poundsof nitrogen, phosphorusand potash combined. 

 It can be seen that if the planter is fair with his land, the fertility can 

 be maintained at an expense of less than 12 cents per acre. If the 

 planter will utilize some of the legumes, he can secure the nitrogen 

 from the atmosphere and use his meal for feed. Or, if he will feed 

 the cotton seed meal to live-stock and place the manure on the ground, 

 he will return to the soil eighty per cent of the nitrogen used in making 

 the crop. Many combinations of fertilizing elements are recommended, 

 and beyond question most of them are beneficial, but in order to secure 

 the best results at the least expense the planter should note the needs 

 of his soil in order that he will not apply some element which is not 

 required. 



W. R. Perkins of the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station 

 made some very extensive and complete experiments with the various 

 fertilizers. He applied on different plots, kainit, acid phosphate and 

 cotton seed meal alone. On other plots he made various combinations. 

 On still another plot he used barnyard manure alone. The best re- 

 sults by far were obtained from the field fertilized with barnyard 

 manure alone. The next best production was where manure and lime 

 were used and the next where manure and kainit were used. This 

 indicates that manure alone did best and that the amendments were 

 greatly improved by mixing with barnyard manures. 



Many planters find it profitable to make a compost using such 

 amounts of potash, phosphorus and nitrogen as they, from investiga- 

 tion, may deem advisable. The Louisiana Station recommends a 

 compost made of two tons of acid phosphate, one hundred bushels of 

 stable manure, one hundred bushels of green cotton seed, applying 

 thirty bushels of the compost to an acre. The planter can always 

 rest assured that barnyard manure not only contains a well-balanced 

 formula of the plant food elements, but that the organic portion of the 

 manure when placed in the ground makes available inorganic elements 



