1493, 4'.»4, 495, 496] manuring with cottonseed. 243 



brought about these lamentable consequences, and to cause its abandonment ? 



493. So long as cotton is our staple (and " Cotton is King"), we cannot ailbrd 

 to lose a bushel of the seed. Nay more, we cannot properly alford lo apply it 

 as a manure, on the large scale, to anything but our cotton crop. If applied to 

 our corn, the interest realized will ultimately fall far short of that whicu would 

 have been received, had it been applied, in a proper manner, to the cotton-held. 



494 Manner of App ? ying Cottonseed. — It is commonly stated, that cottonseed 

 is a better manure tor corn than for cotton. It is unl'kely in the last degree, 

 that cotton should form an exception to a rule so well established for other 

 crops ; but it is not at all unlikely that the present manner of applying the cotton, 

 Med manure, may be suuli as to produce the above result. The young cotton 

 plant is much less hardy than corn, and the contact with its roots of hot, fer- 

 menting cottonseed, seems to act similarly to an overdose of stable manure in 

 other cases. On the other hand, it is well known that if the fermentation or 

 decay of cottonseed is allowed to progress very far, or to terminate before the 

 seed is used as a manure, the energy of its action is very sensibly lessened. 



495. Probably the best means of avoiding both inconveniences, would be to 

 allow the decay of the cottonseed to take place in the soil itself, on the spot 

 where it is intended to exercise its action ; introducing it some weeks or even 

 months previous to the planting of the cotton, so as to allow the violence of the 

 fermentation to subside, while the volatile products of the decomposition (which 

 are to a great extent lost when the seed ferments in the pile), are completely 

 retained by the soil. Let the seed be scattered in a furrow drawn in the mid- 

 dle of the future bed, and then covered over deep enough to prevent its ever 

 coming in immediate contact with the rootstock of the young plant. The tap 

 root and its fibres will then reach and assimilate the nourishment contained in 

 the seed, at the period when the plant is not only able to bear without injur/ 

 the powerful stimulus, but is m<>st particularly in need of it ; while no injury 

 can result to the young seedlings from having "too much of a good thing" thrust 

 upon them, before they are able to be^rit. Planters who have made use of the 

 cottonseed in this, or a similar manner, have borne high testimony to its pecu- 

 liarly tavorable effect on its parent stock, especially wlien the same policy is 

 regularly continued on the same field. 



496. How does Cottonseed Act ? — If we examine or sift the soil of a field 

 where cottonseed has been applied as a manure, perhaps 6 or 8 months before, 

 we shall find the majority of the seeds entire, protected by the hull, with a 

 black, shrunk kernel inside, which still retains the greater portion of the nutri ■ 

 tive mineral ingredients of the seed. The conclusion is inevitable, that the 

 action ol cottonseed on any crop, during the first year, is due chiefly to the 

 stimulant action of the carbonic acid and ammonia generated in its fermentation, 

 and not to the direct supply of the requisite mineral ingredients. Now, since 

 the ammonia and carbonic acid evolved from decaying cottonseed do not in any 

 manner differ from the same substances as derived from other sources, there is 

 no reason why in this case, the cottonseed manure should act more favorably 

 on its parent crop, than on any other. Being essentially, during the first year, 

 a mere stimuhu.t, it will of course act most favorably on such crops as are 

 particularly in need of stimulants — of which corn is one, since it will grow on 

 a dunghill, which cotton will not. But in the second, and succeeding years, 

 when ti.e mineral ingredients of the seed have returned (o the soil in an available 

 condition, the principle that every plant is its own best manure, will undoubted- 

 ly be found justified in all cases. 



It has been with respect to the cottonseed manure question, as with all 

 others in practical agriculture ; the unsystematic experiments of one, or of a 

 few years, cannot decide them with any degree of certainty. It is to the results 

 of a settled policy continued for many years, that we must look for the final 

 settlement of questions like these ; and unless, in such experiments, we are 

 guided by the principles of scientific research, and bring to bear on the subject. 



