762 Transactions of the Ahericak Institute. 



April 5, 1870. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the chair; Mr. Joirx W. Chambers, Secretary. 

 Manures for Cotton. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis stated that a friend of Lis Mr. Thomas L, James, 

 recently purchaeed a farm at Aiken, S. C, the soil of which is suita- 

 ble for cotton, wliich staple he is anxious to cultivate, but as there is 

 dearth of home manure he must look elsewhere, and would like the 

 Club's notion as to what he had better buy. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller answered, guano or bone dust. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble alluded to a discussion he listened to last 

 summer, wlien some Georgia planters were assembled. A variety of 

 opinions were expressed, some thinking that guano soon runs out, 

 and otliers that bone-dust is not reliable, because so apt to be adul- 

 terated. In conclusion. Dr. Triml)le remarked that the southern 

 cultivators should pay more attentien to the economizing of what 

 home manure they have, and also to take measures to increase the 

 amount by better practice. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — Cotton needs two sorts of fertilizers, one to 

 push the growth, and another element to ripen the seed and give 

 long and silken staple. We cannot expect many cotton bolls on a 

 small plant, nor choice cotton from small, withered seed. The stuff 

 that will push the young plant is not that which will do most for the 

 seed and staple. For instance dry Sea Island guano, for which ho 

 will give ninety dollars a ton, will push the 3'oung plants, but it 

 burns and wears out the soil. Coarse bone is slow. Fine bone is as 

 good a separate manure as he can buy. A fragment of bone as big 

 as a grain of wheat will do the first crop no good. A piece as big 

 as a grain of corn will be two or three years unchanged in the soil. 

 Let him make a mixture of a bushel ol plaster, a bushel of bone- 

 flour, and a bushel of guano. This will fertilize, yet not exhaust. 

 But no bought manure Mill give advancing fertility to a cotton field. 

 lie cannot afford to buy enougli. Muck, yard manure, rotted turf 

 and leaves, should be his dependence. He can call in the commer- 

 cials as allies. But you cannot enrich a place by bagfuls. 



How TO Keep Catawba Grapes. 

 Mr. E. M. Conklin, Westfield, Ohio.— I write to inform the Club 

 that I have kept my Catawba grapes all winter, and have some left 



