SUGAR-CANE CLIMATE, TILLAGE 415 



Most soils in the cane-belt are in less need of potash ferti- 

 lizers than of nitrogenous or phosphatic materials. 



515. Fertilizers for cane in Louisiana. Experiments 

 at the Louisiana Sugar Station have indicated that as 

 much as 48 pounds of nitrogen and 36 pounds of phos- 

 phoric acid to the acre can be applied with profit in com- 

 mercial fertilizers. To supply the 48 pounds of nitrogen 

 would require either 240 pounds of sulfate of ammonia, 

 340 pounds of nitrate of soda, 343 pounds of dried blood 

 containing 14 per cent nitrogen or 685 pounds of cotton- 

 seed meal. The 36 pounds of phosphoric acid would re- 

 quire 225 pounds of acid phosphate containing 16 per 

 cent phosphoric acid. A very popular fertilizer in the cane- 

 belt of Louisiana is slaughter-house tankage which con- 

 tains from 6 to 10 per cent of nitrogen and good quantities 

 of phosphoric acid. It is applied in quantities ranging 

 from 400 to 1,000 pounds to the acre. It is sometimes 

 supplemented with 100 to 300 pounds of acid phosphate 

 to the acre. Very little advantage has been secured from 

 the application of potash fertilizers to cane in Louisiana. 



516. Fertilizers for cane in the pine-belt. Experi- 

 ments conducted at the McNeill Station in southern Mis- 

 sissippi indicate that 1,000 to 1,500 pounds to the acre 

 of a fertilizer composed of equal parts of acid phosphate 

 and cotton-seed meal may be used profitably for sugar- 

 cane. Where the cane follows a leguminous crop it is 

 recommended that the amount of nitrogen in the fertilizer 

 be reduced for the first year. "On the stubble cane of 

 the year following the supply of nitrogen should be in- 

 creased by using equal parts of meal and phosphate and 

 in case a second year's stubble is grown it would be well 

 to use a mixture of two parts cotton-seed meal and one 

 part of acid phosphate." The bulk of the fertilizer should 



