FERTILIZERS, ROTATIONS FOR COTTON 85 



In so far as the plant-food constituents determine the 

 fertilizing value of these two materials, cotton-seed meal 

 is worth a little more than twice as much as cotton seed. 

 Duggar 1 states that "the, average of a number of exper- 

 iments on many soils in Alabama showed that, as a fer- 

 tilizer for cotton, one pound of high-grade cotton-seed 

 meal was equal the first year to 2 T V pounds of crushed 

 cotton seed. Later experiments in Alabama and Georgia 

 make a still more favorable showing for the meal." The 

 nitrogen in cotton seed becomes available more slowly 

 than that in cotton-seed meal, owing to the high oil con- 

 tent of the seed, which retards decomposition. For this 

 reason, cotton seed usually exerts a greater influence the 

 second year after its application than does the meal. 



While the above consideration gives the preference to 

 cotton-seed meal as a fertilizer, it must be remembered 

 that it costs the farmer something to sell his seed and buy 

 meal or to exchange his seed for meal. If, as we have seen, 

 1000 pounds of cotton-seed meal is of equal fertilizing 

 value to 2000 pounds of seed, in order to make an even 

 exchange of seed for meal, the farmer must get enough 

 meal in addition to the 1000 pounds to pay the expense 

 of making the exchange. 



When cotton seed are used as a fertilizer for cotton, a 

 common practice is to apply them in the drill in mid- 

 winter. This prevents the seed from growing. If applied 

 late they should first be crushed or their vitality destroyed 

 by composting or by wetting and subsequently allowing 

 them to heat. 



94. Need of cotton soils for nitrogen. The sandy 

 and sandy loam soils of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal 

 Plain comprise a large percentage of the area devoted to 

 1 Duggar, J. F., " Southern Field Crops," p. 326. 



